Heidelberg UK is pushing hard to establish at least two UK beta sites for the NexPress 2100 digital press.
"The beta programme will begin in late summer, and we are pushing for more than one installation," said marketing manager Sascha Fischer. He added: "The UK is probably the most advanced market in Europe for digital printing."
Keldia Printing in London's Walthamstow is one possible contender, and managing director Tony Foo is already involved in Heidelberg's worldwide concept customer forum. "Multi-colour perfecting

and computer-to-plate are now the norm for us, so we're looking at what's next," said Foo.
"We've come close to buying a Xeikon-engined machine, but our research pinpointed downtime as a major issue. If NexPress can produce a very reliable machine with as much uptime as 80-90% it will be the digital press."
Leeds-based Commu-
nisisOne, which installed a Xerox DocuColor 2060 and 130 at the end of last year, has also expressed an interest in the NexPress.
Managing
director Paul Simpson said: "It's also on our shopping list, and it will be interesting to see how - and if - it develops with IBM."
Communisis has a strategic alliance with IBM for customer relationship management solutions and the computing giant also OEMs the Heidelberg Digimaster.
Controlled sales of the NexPress are scheduled for late summer/autumn, and the firm is planning to make a "big bang" with the product at Ipex 2002.
Story by Jo Francis