Nottingham Printer Seeks Differentiation with MAN Roland Machine - Progressive to Make Progress with New Press

Progressive Printers, Nottingham, has placed an order for a five-colour ROLAND 500 press with coater. The purchase will represent a move up from SRA2 format to B2, and will provide the company with several other key points of difference in the busy Nottingham print market.

“Having been a Komori house for some 20 years this purchase really is breaking new ground for Progressive,” said managing director Paul Shotton. “The new press will provide us with a wide range of features that are simply not available on our existing machines – it will handle substrates up to 1mm thick, for example, compared to only 0.4mm on our current presses. The make-ready on the new machine is also incredibly fast, and the ColorPilot system means that the press can automatically monitor colour quality on the run. Our aim now, with the new MAN Roland press, is to be seen as Nottingham’s number one B2 format printing business.”

The MAN Roland machine will arrive in Nottingham in February 2006 and will replace a Komori 526 five-colour with coater. The company will continue to run its other Komori 626, which is a six-colour SRA2 machine.

Paul and the Progressive Printers team visited the MAN Roland Graphics Centre in Offenbach to see the ROLAND 500 machine in action. “As soon as the demonstration began I could see that it was essential for our business to invest in new equipment without delay,” said Paul Shotton. “We are used to making-ready in about 30 or 40 minutes – this machine was all plated-up and running inside 15 minutes. The whole demonstration was very impressive indeed.”

Following the visit to Germany, Paul Shotton also spoke with UK ROLAND 500 user John Bamborough of NW Printers, Gateshead, to seek confirmation of the capabilities of the press in a commercial environment. “John was so enthusiastic about the machine – I just couldn’t stop him talking!”

Nottingham has to be one of the busiest print markets in the UK, with over 60 print businesses located in or around the city. “We know of twenty print companies within a one mile radius of here,” said Paul. “With that amount of competition it is important to be able to offer something extra to your customers. The ROLAND 505 will certainly do that for us. This investment will put as at the forefront of Nottingham printers in terms of print quality and speed of production.”

Fifty-five year old Progressive Printers produces a wide range of work for local agencies, local government, and commercial customers, including a national grocery chain.

The ROLAND 500 has been designed with very high quality commercial and packaging printing in mind. The ability to handle a wide range of substrates, right through to micro-flute board, its compatibility with UV inks, and the possibility to configure the machine with single or double coater, mean that this highly flexible product can be designed to match printers’ requirements exactly.

For further information on Progressive Printers, Nottingham, call 0115 970 1485 or visit the www.progressiveprinters.co.uk web site.

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