The order was placed on the last day of Drupa, following managing director Alan Padbury's visit to rubberstamp an earlier deal on a SM102-12P with CutStar, the UK's first Suprasetter 105 CTP system and two ST300 stitchers.

"Impetuous, a little maybe, but it was all properly thought out," said Padbury of his surprise purchase.

The XL 105 will replace a two year-old CD102-5, which Padbury wasn't planning to update until Ipex 2006. "I must confess to a little bit of impulse buying with the XL, purely because it was such a phenomenal press."

Padbury added: "Its just a fantastic machine, it oozes state of the art technology and has everything you could want. It will be incredibly productive and I cannot see any work it couldn't easily handle."

Padbury had a meeting with Heidelberg on the Tuesday, and by 7am the next day works director Dean Pike was on his way to the show. "To make sure everything I was saying was true," said Padbury.

The XL is due for delivery spring 2005.

Story by Darryl Danielli