Replacing a 10-year-old, 10-unit perfecting press counterpart, the new press will be delivered in the second week of January, with commissioning expected in early spring.
Michael Warner, marketing director for the Bourne, Lincolnshire firm, told Printweek that even with Warners’ strong history with Manroland – it has had its current sheetfeds for more than 10 years, and has used Manroland Lithoman web presses since 2006 – it was a tough choice picking the new sheetfed press.
He said: “The nice thing is, there’s so much choice. Honestly, it’s great to see all the technology that has been brought forward in the 10 years since we bought a sheetfed press.
“Looking at our needs, and what we thought was best for us, we settled on the Manroland. We’re already familiar with the usual things like user interface, and the company itself, and we found that out of all the cut-sheet [presses], it was the jigsaw piece that fit us best.”
The new press will be configured with a reel-fed cutter.
The R710P will largely be used for day-to-day jobs such as covers, supplements, and special paginations – anything that does not fit the firm’s Lithoman web presses.
Warner added: “What we’re most excited about – and I suppose the analogy I’d use would be that we’re like an F1 pit crew – is the efficiency of makereadies, getting into good copy as quickly as possible, because we do loads and loads of different jobs.
“We do quantities from as little as 2,000 copies, so it's all about the efficiencies, and that’s where the press will benefit us.”
Warners made the decision carefully, assigning a team for the 18-month search for the right press.
“We spoke to just about everyone – the team were spoilt for choice.”
The press will slide neatly into the space left to it after Warners sold the previous Manroland which it replaces.
“We’ve had about six months to prepare the room – it’s literally one press out, ont press in. We’re very comfortable, we have all the size that we need to work the reels and all of that. It lends itself very nicely to the space.”
The firm’s focus on the new press’ efficiency is part of a wider drive at the company: in 2023, Warner installed its third batch of solar panels, and has undertaken a comprehensive energy efficiency plan which has seen it save around a million Kilowatthours, or one Gigawatthour.
Warner said: “It’s been massive for us. We’re working very hard to reduce our carbon footprint, and sustainability is going to continue to be one of our biggest pushes for 2024.”
Warners employs 188, and is projected to turn over around £35m this financial year.
