Installation of the B1 12-colour Mitsubishi Diamond 3000 six-over-six perfector, which went in with a B2 Diamond 1000 six-colour with coater, marks a real culture change for the West Molesey firm's sheetfed division which had been a Heidelberg house for 42 years.

"We did machine trials with both Mitsubishi and Heidelberg, giving them effectively the same job, timing them and looking at the quality," said sheetfed operations director David Bland (pictured right). "In our opinion the Mitsubishis did a substantially better job."

The heavyweight engineering and the double-sized impression cylinders also impressed Bland. "The print quality of the presses is remarkable," he added.

Both Diamonds have full CIP4 compatibility and Mitsubishi's Colour Control. "All of that information going direct to press has proven to be a lot more successful than we could have believed," said Bland. He added that following the earlier installation of a seven-colour HP Indigo 3050 at Alderson Digital Print "we're looking at over 2m machine spend in the last six months".

The group, which currently has three production sites all within 300m of each other, recently bought a factory next-door to its sheetfed site. The plan is to replace the existing building with a new factory for its APB web division and offices. "It would effectively give us our web, sheet and print management operations all on one site," said Bland. The digital division will not move.

The firm already has outline planning permission for the project and full planning permission is being considered at the moment. A new web press installation is also being mooted.

"As soon as we get planning permission, the old building will be down," said Bland.

Story by Darryl Danielli