Heads will turn at news that Newnorth Print is switching from a Japanese supplier to Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) as the quality commercial printer makes its debut in B1 long perfecting.

The 40 year old Bedford company has traded out a five-colour press for a Speedmaster SM 102-10-P, giving it the capacity to increase its £7.6m turnover by a further £2m. Newnorth Print's production director Garry Hardy and operations manager David Hennessy reviewed a number of press options, inviting tenders for a ten-colour press which had to be delivered to a tight deadline.

"Since we last bought a press the market has changed and to remain competitive and safeguard margins we had to make the move into long perfecting. It's about getting completed sheets on the floor faster and shortening turnround times," says Mr Hardy.

By specifying ten units the company can seal all silk sheets, and other stocks too if required, so that jobs can be finished immediately, without waiting too long for the ink to dry.

"We have been a user of the Japanese machine for ten years and we did trails on both that machines and Heidelberg machines. The output from both machines was good but we had more confidence that there would be no marking from the perfector on the Speedmaster. Plus we felt Heidelberg was a stable and able partner," says Mr Hardy.

Newnorth Print is a general commercial printer servicing both public and commercial organisations and with particular strength in terms of work for institutes and professional bodies, charities and educational institutions. In the last two years it has secured awards for both its financial improvement and its customer service team and it also holds ISO 9001 quality and ISO14001 environmental accreditations.

Indeed it works a lot with vegetable inks and FSC paper stocks and will find an affinity with Heidelberg which issues an Annual Sustainability Report and works hard to help its customers reduce their environmental impact.

The operators who will run the SM 102-10-P were given off site training at the Tamworth showroom in readiness for the commissioning of the machine which will be completed this week. Going to a new make of machine and a latest generation model meant they had to have an in-depth look at today's touch screen automation.

"The SM 102 is right for our market and it gives us an additional £2 m sales potential; we don't need to go further at this stage," says Mr Hardy.

A sales push is already underway and Newnorth Print is confident that the Speedmaster will open new doors and create additional business from existing clients. The company safely hit its six month budget and found September busier than the summer months. "As the market improves we will be ready with the right technology to hit the ground running," says a confident Mr Hardy.