Premier Print Group invests in second SRA1 RMGT press

Gary Goodson (L) with Darren Goodson: "These machines are incredibly reliable"
Gary Goodson (L) with Darren Goodson: "These machines are incredibly reliable"

East London-based magazine and publications printer Premier Print Group has installed its second RMGT in a year following the success of its first.

“We have been blown away by our first RMGT press,” said Premier Print director Gary Goodson of the machine, which was installed at the start of the year.

“The A1 format has allowed us to print eight A4 pages to view, meaning that we could print twice as much work than we could on our B2 format machines. We have produced over 20 million impressions in our first year on the RMGT 924 LED-UV – that would have meant we would have had to produce 40 million B2 impressions on our previous presses, which would have been very unlikely.”

The latest RMGT device, the five-colour 920 LED-UV model, was supplied and installed at Premier’s Beckton facility earlier this month by RMGT’s UK distributor MPL. It replaced the once all-Heidelberg B2 company’s remaining SX 74 after its other B2 Speedmaster was swapped out for the RMGT 924 at the start of the year.

The presses can run at speeds of up to 16,000sph on sheet sizes from 290x410mm to 640x920mm on a paper thickness of 0.04-0.6mm.

Goodson said that the press had been extremely reliable so far with no downtime at all due to machine failure.

He added: “These machines are incredibly reliable – and that means that we don’t let our customers down. The LED-UV drying system also means that we can compete on a level playing field with the turnaround times of digital.”

Brother and co-director Darren Goodson said that the bigger sheet size from a device with a B2 footprint was a real draw because of the limited space at its 929sqm premises. 

“We have enjoyed such amazing results from the first machine that adding a second RMGT 920 was a no-brainer,” he added. 

“The additional capacity that the first RMGT provided was very timely, however, we filled that additional production capability within a few months, meaning a second similar format machine was going to be needed sooner than planned.”

The new machine has brought about an additional 30% increase in capacity on top of a 30% boost in turnover since the first RMGT installation, taking the fast-growing company past its £3m target for 2019. The 36-year-old firm, which employs 21 members of staff, offers both printing and mailing services.