London - Butler Tanner & Dennis, the UK's premier colour book printer, can announce a significant investment in new machinery with the purchase of the first Very Large Format (VLF) press of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) in the UK.

The new Speedmaster XL 162-6+L is a six-colour press with coater that will be delivered to the Frome based printer in early January 2011. The Speedmaster XL press range has already established itself as a proven peak performance technology which has been extended into the very largest sheetfed formats. The XL 162 is Heidelberg's largest press. Two key tools on the Butler Tanner & Dennis press are the Fully Automatic two minute plate change and Prinect Inpress Control, a spectrophotometer which automatically sets the colour and register of the job, reducing set-up times and paper waste at the start of production. Prinect Inpress Control also measures and maintains colour throughout the job, ensuring the colour is absolutely consistent throughout a print run. The press complements an investment programme to revamp Butler Tanner & Dennis's printing and binding capability.

Kevin Sarney, MD of Butler Tanner & Dennis, explains: "This investment reinforces our strategy of meeting market demands, including the requirement for shorter run, high quality 'on demand' products. Supply chain cost is also becoming increasingly important. The XL 162s performance, particularly the make ready time, was a significant factor in our decision to invest. Its ability to coat will also provide advantages in our bindery. This investment is another step to improving efficiency going forward, a key focus for the company. We can once again push the boundary in large format printing".

Jim Todd, sales director of Heidelberg, says: "It is fantastic that a company that has put UK-produced colour books back on track should be the first customer for our VLF Speedmaster range in the UK. Butler Tanner & Dennis undertook extensive trials before committing to this press which confirmed that they will benefit from the extraordinary productivity of the XL 162 and that their customers will be impressed by the quality and speed of delivery it makes possible."