Offset Printing

Sunset Press Poised for More Growth with Speedmaster SM 74 Press from Heidelberg

Tuesday 05. February 2008 - When Sunset Press in Austin, Texas, moved into its brand new, 24,000-sq.-foot facility in December, the company’s President David Bristow installed a new Heidelberg 6-color Speedmaster SM 74 press as an integral part of his retooled shop — and saw an immediate increase in productivity.

“Between the automatic Vario hickey-picking function and prepress interface technology, we have increased productivity by 25 percent — and it may be even more in the future,” Bristow said. “Our jobs simply run cleaner. And because they run cleaner, we are able to focus on job excellence and higher run speeds.” Thanks to productivity increases and Heidelberg’s reputation, Sunset Press has added several new clients over the past few weeks and now has more sales capacity than ever. “Because of the speed and accuracy of this machine, we now have the ability to meet the demands of our increasing workload.” Bristow said. Sunset was started in a garage in 1989; now the company employees 16 individuals and has experienced a 28 percent annual growth rate over the last few years. The relocation and retooling of the company are all part of Sunset’s ambitious growth plan to service a burgeoning base of local, regional and national clients. “Our Heidelberg advisor, Glen McClaugherty, actually assisted with our business plan,” Bristow said. “He partnered with us to study our needs and gave sound advice to help us achieve our growth goals.” In addition to the Speedmaster SM 74 press, which includes a perfecter and a coater, Sunset also runs a 2-color Printmaster QM 46 — and plans to add a 5-color Speedmaster SM 52 before the year is out. According to Bristow, the company looked at several machines before choosing the new Heidelberg SM 74 press. “We knew it was a great machine and our test comparisons proved it, but the staff at Heidelberg and their service model made it an easy decision.”