KEP Buys XXL

Tamworth-based KEP Print Group has made its largest press purchase to date, a MAN Roland R905XXL size-8 machine, with an investment valued at over £2 million. The new machine will be ready for installation early in the New Year, and will join existing MAN Roland R205 and R705 models. The purchase package also included a Baumann size-8 pile turner. The XXL will replace an R802.

“Coming from a screen printing background, large format reproduction has always been a core element of our business. With screen printing and two Durst large format digital devices already available, the new press will complete a full range of devices for poster-sized work,” said managing director Mark Plowman.

“The Durst machines are highly productive, but we believe that with the latest high-tech make-ready facilities on the R900XXL press, including closed-loop colour control, that we will be able to switch jobs to litho when run-lengths hit 100 copies,” he added.

The KEP Print Group was started 26 years ago by Mark and his father. Originally dedicated to screen printing, the company moved into offset-litho in 1995 with a B0 format press for poster printing. The company then made a move into commercial litho in 1999 with two Roland Rekord machines. More recent enhancements have included the UK’s first R205E press, purchased at the last IPEX, and an R705 which was added in July 2003.

“We certainly looked at other products that were on the market in large format, but technical service has been the key factor that has kept us with MAN Roland over the years,” said Mark. “Of all of our suppliers MAN Roland’s service record has been second-to-none – they simply have great people who can do the job.”

KEP is currently upgrading its existing Agfa CtP system to cope with the larger format plate sizes. “Fortunately the Agfa machine was purchased with this possibility in mind, so we are able to just expand our current machine to allow us to produce the new size-8 plates.”

The company is operating a double-day shift for seven days a week at the moment. “We are particularly busy right now,” said Mark Plowman. “The new press will provide significant benefits with some of the longer run work that we are currently handling. We have to send some jobs out to local mini-web printers because of the run lengths. The XXL press will mean that we can handle the work in-house, producing 32-pages to view, and then utilizing the on-press sheet splitter to cut the final sheets down to 32-page sections for easier handling in the bindery.”

The company has already test marketed the XXL format with the trade printers that it currently associates with. “The reaction has been exciting,” said Mark. “There is certainly other work out there that we can add to our current workload once we have this press installed.”

To make room for the new machine KEP are currently transferring part of the company’s finishing operation and the screen printing section to another nearby factory unit.

Commenting on the sale, Gary Doman, director of sheet-fed sales at MAN Roland GB, said, “We are, of course, delighted that KEP has decided to further continue and further extend its working relationship with MAN Roland. Mark and his team have always been at the forefront of production technology. When we examined the flexibility that the R900XXL format could bring to KEP, they could see a whole range of benefits for the business and for their customers straight away. Machinery by itself, however, does not make a good printing company, and Mark has always invested heavily in his staff, and that is why KEP continues to go from strength to strength.”

The flexible five-unit configuration of the press will allow KEP to add either a coating or special colour to the work produced.

In addition to the press, the Baumann size-8 pile turner is an essential investment to work alongside such a large format machine. MAN Roland sales representative John Worsley comments, “It is virtually impossible to handle this size of sheet manually, and so the pile turner is an essential ingredient in any large format press purchase. Fortunately for MAN Roland – UK representatives for Baumann products – we believe that we have the only product on the market that is capable of handling such paper sizes.”

KEP Print Group can be contacted on 01827 280 880.

For information on MAN Roland’s full range of sheet-fed presses and networking solutions, contact MAN Roland Great Britain on the www.man-roland-gb.com web site, or call 020 8648 7090.