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Summerhall Invests In First B2 Komori 10-Colour Perfector Press

24th January 2006 – Leeds, UK: Edinburgh-based print firm Summerhall has commissioned its first Komori 10-colour long perfector sheet-fed offset press. The £1.4m investment continues a period of sustained growth by the company that will help it achieve a turnover close to £5m this year.

The first JDF-enabled Komori press in Scotland, Summerhall’s B2 Komori Lithrone 1028 EH has already attracted considerable interest and several new contracts as a result. With a strong reputation for high-quality print, Summerhall’s customers are primarily based in Scotland and from the financial sector, including Standard Life, Scottish Widows, Scottish Equitable and Baillie Gifford.

The new Komori ten-colour perfector press gives Summerhall the flexibility to print 10 colours on one side or five colours on both sides of a B2 sheet in a single pass. “A great deal of work lends itself to five over five colour B2 perfecting,” says George Pryde, managing director of Summerhall. “Currently most of our work is B2 and the new Komori allows us to compete with B1 very well, particularly in the short run market for multi-section work such as brochures and annual reports,” he explains. “Plus, speedy make-ready, full JDF functionality and in-built colour quality control means we can produce high quality products very quickly and with the minimum of waste. Make-ready on this press is down to 40 minutes for a ten-colour job.” 

Much of the financial services work handled by the company features special colours. However, using stochastic screening, it has been able to move many spot special colours to a four-colour process. “This allows us to achieve the same results, but much faster and very competitively,” adds Mr Pryde.

The new 10-colour press was installed two weeks ahead of schedule and joins an existing Komori Lithrone 628 6-colour press and an 8-colour offset press. Summerhall has invested in automated plate changing to ensure fast turnaround and temperature controlled rollers to ensure colour consistency. Quality colour and metallic effects are a speciality and aided by UV inks and end-of-press and interdeck UV drying. A JDF-enabled Tharstern SQL Management Information System controls jobs from estimating, through production planning and onto the Komori presses.

Summerhall’s success is contributed to providing a full range of print solutions from e-business, sheet fed offset litho, digital printing to data handling, direct mail, fulfilment and distribution. The company has a high reputation for quality and attention to detail and, with the addition of the new Komori Lithrone 10-colour perfector, is capable of producing over 50 million multi-colour sheets a year.

"We believe passionately in quality of service and attention to detail, and this has stood us in good stead,” says Mr Pryde. “A solution for our clients is not just a more complex printing project. We focus on partnering with our clients to create solutions to their business problems - not just on selling print. It is a combination of agreed strategies, services, technology and output.”

The company is already planning the addition of another long perfecting press at the end of this year.

Summerhall: George Pryde, Managing Director. Tel: 0131 555 8260 Email: george.pryde@summerhall.biz