The Duplo saddle stitcher was bought in an off-the-cuff deal, as Vale managing director Tom Stowe was called over to the Duplo stand.

Stowe said: “They grabbed me and said come over and have a look at the system and we went for it. With all of this we are now positioned to go forward for the next three years.”

The system will be installed at the end of June, with the new Speedmaster following in December. The Speedmaster will replace an outgoing Speedmaster SX 74, which had reached the end of its life. It has one other SX 74.

Of the new Speedmaster, Stowe said: “We are in the B2 market, increasingly getting into packaging and that sort of thing and we had a lot of demand on so we need a press capable of producing on thicker boards.” 

The press handles up to 0.8mm thick stocks, which was one of the main factors in Stowe’s purchase. He anticipates it will give the business a 30% boost in productivity. It runs at a top speed of 15,000sph.

Stowe was also impressed by the Inpress Control function of the press, along with its Wallscreen 2 and Intellistart 2 software and five-colour configuration.

Stowe said he was also considering buying a further piece of glueing equipment from Moll at Drupa, after he visited Dusseldorf with his two brothers, Edward, Vale press sales director, and Oliver, operations director, but it was not possible to organise in the end. 

“Now we’re meeting up with Moll to discuss it in the next month to look at it in a bit more detail because they are such complex machines with so many different options so it was impossible to do a deal at the show,” added Stowe. 

Evesham, Worcestershire-based Vale has 10 industrial units, covering approximately 2,800sqm. It handles a mix of trade and direct work, including fine art and commercial contracts, with a turnover of £4.5m.