Offset Printing

ESP moves to make space for new press and expansion

Wednesday 19. May 2010 - Despite having bought two new Speedmaster XL 75-5+L in little over a year, ESP Colour has dropped in on the Heidelberg stand at Ipex today to confirm an order for a Speedmaster XL 105-10-P.

“This press is capable of generating £10m of sales in the 4,000 to 4,500 run arena compared to £5.5m generated by the SM 102 it is replacing which handles average run lengths of 8,000 per set of plates,” says Anthony Thirlby, managing director. “The addition of Inpress Control spectrophotometry and Autoplate XL plate changing means we will have just 250 waste sheets and five minute makereadies compared to 800 sheets and 14 minutes on the older press.
We analysed many different formats and configurations. However after stringent analysis of the first quarters work from our current SM102, the XL 105-10-P would have produced 1,400 hours of production in 865 hours. It will create the required capacity for the opportunities that are available and gives us a cash positive position from month one onwards, after taking into account capital repayments, our full service agreement, savings in overtime and also in overs during makeready (£10,000 a month in itself).”
The four and a half year old SM 102 has clocked up 200 million impressions and will be sold through the secondhand market once the new press has been delivered in September. Having new premises spurred it to opt for CleanStar which will reduce the spray powder dust and retain relatively clinical conditions, ideal for creating high quality print.

“Currently we are on for £12 – £12.5m in 2010, this investment facilitates our growth plans to be £16.5 million by 2012 by harnessing the latest, most efficient technology and providing customers with the cost, quality and service they demand. Our policy is to straight-line depreciate our presses over five years, which is realistic given the pace of technology change,” says Mr Thirlby.”But we never buy technology for its own sake. There has to be a reduction in costs, an increase in opportunities and a bottom line financial rerurn.” Again as with the XL75 investments this allows to increase Added Value per Head in the business without any significant increase to the overhead.