Offset Printing

Westland Printers, Inc. Sees Immediate Gains from Speedmaster XL 105 from Heidelberg

Monday 11. February 2008 - Westland Printers experienced immediate production and sales gains when it installed a new 6-color Speedmaster XL 105 press from Heidelberg last September. "We are doing more with one machine now than we were doing with two machines before," said President Matt Flippen.

“We ran 25 percent more impressions in November than in any month prior.” Westland Printers, A Consolidated Graphics’ commercial print shop based in Burtonsville, Md., and operating since 1929, has grown to 60 employees and $12 million in annual business. “We definitely saw much stronger November and December sales than we have historically experienced,” Flippen said. “We were able to target some longer-run work that we wouldn’t have been able to produce in the past.” Westland has traditionally been a Heidelberg shop, and Flippen said the high 18,000 impressions-per-hour real production speed and technology advances of the XL 105 were key factors in his decision to stick with Heidelberg. The new press operates alongside three additional Heidelberg Speedmaster presses and feeds into a bindery that includes a POLAR cutter and Heidelberg die-cutting equipment. “In terms of getting the work through the shop, we’re not the choke point any more,” said pressroom manager Mike Brynes. “The Speedmaster XL 105 has changed the demands of my time. I’m able to focus on efficiencies and finding production advantages instead of troubleshooting and problem solving. Thanks to this press, my stress level has drastically decreased.”