The press will replace its six-year-old five-colour SM102 and will be installed in June. The company said that currently 75% of its turnover is from internal work but expects this to drop to 50% with the installation of the new press.
"In the past 10 years we have been turning work away because of loading constraints. With the eight-colour we have more capacity and become more competitive with web operators," said Ian Allan Group chairman David Allan.
The Hersham-based firm produces magazines and books covering transport aviation, defence and sport.
"The six-colour has done good service but our market has changed and we need to produce full colour on both sides of the sheet in one pass," said Ian Allan managing director Tony Saunders.
Running alongside the Speedmaster will be a Stahl KTD78 combination folder.
The firm currently prints over 20 magazines and 140 books a year with an average magazine run of 20,000.
Ian Allan switches to 8-colour to lure new clients
Print and publishing company Ian Allan Group has invested 1.5m in an eight-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SM102-8P in a bid to increase its external work.
