Demand makes Eclipse double web muscle with Goss M-600

The £16.5m turnover Kettering-based company started life as a sheetfed printer and made its first move into web, also with an M-600, in the summer of 2004. It employs 104 staff and its press firepower includes two long-perfecting presses with reel sheeters.

Its new £4.5m investment is in a five-unit, latest-generation, 60,000iph M-600. The press will be fitted with Autoplate automatic plate changing, a combination folder, spine gluing, and rotary trimming.

Eclipse managing director Simon Moore said considerable analysis had gone into the decision, and hailed it as a "positive" move.

"We've got the demand, we've got some great customers that want to use us, and we've got the pipeline of work," he stated.

"Our existing web has been busy 24/7 for the past three years, and we’ve had an overflow of work that has gone on to the sheetfed presses.

"We’ll keep our sheetfed capacity, but 75% of what we produce is folded, and that will transfer onto the new press. We’ll be able to see sheetfed for what it really is once the new web is up and running."

The M-600 will be installed at the end of the year, and is scheduled to be up and running in Q1 2011.

John Chambers, Goss International sales director, UK and Ireland, said: "We’re obviously delighted to have retained Eclipse as a customer in what is a very challenging market for press sales. They are a brilliant success story."

Eclipse is also the first Goss customer in the UK to opt for a five-year 'total cost of ownership' package that includes the press spend, and all servicing and scheduled parts replacement.

"It involved lots of detail but it’s a good scheme – everyone knows where they are," Chambers added.

Eclipse will take on an additional 1,860sqm unit for its finishing operations as a result of the expansion.