BCQ has ordered a five-colour RMGT 925 sheetfed press, replacing two Speedmaster XL75s, for delivery later this year. The order for the Japanese supplier ends a 45-year run for the German press provider.
The order is no criticism of the quality of the Heidelbergs and successive presses brought the Buckingham company to its current position. “But,” says managing director Chris Knowles, “having studied all of the critical areas surrounding the purchase of a new press, the RMGT 920 series won in a great many of the categories, and ticked some of the most critical boxes, including the overall cost of ownership.
“And, let’s face it, these days, all presses are now capable of printing fantastically well, and the market price for litho sheets continues to fall, so this has become an imperative. The move to an A1 format will allow us to handle a number of jobs that we have been sending to external suppliers – another box that we hadn’t initially considered that could be ticked.”
Knowles took the opportunity to visit the RMGT plant on a trip to Japan to view Horizon’s facilities. That leg of the trip has yet to result in further orders for finishing equipment, but did convince him that RMGT had something to offer. This was confirmed though conversations with UK customers.
He explains: “The RMGT plant itself was extremely impressive, and the format of the RMGT 920 series really started me thinking very positively – an A1 press in the body, and therefore floorspace, of a B2 machine.
“Back in the UK I was able to speak to a number of RMGT users, and their feedback fully supported the claims of the UK distributor regarding print quality, reliability and the inherent savings afforded by the format, as well as the environmental bonus from power savings when compared to our existing presses.”
Many of these users are running with LED UV inks, but BCQ’s machine will run with conventional inks. “That would have been a consideration had we not had a Speedmaster XL75 LE-UV. That is a phenomenal piece of kit that does the job brilliantly and we still need conventional capacity,” he says.
The investment, put at around £1 million, is backed by a full two-year parts and labour guarantee.
“We have to move with the times,” says Knowles. “This fits the mould better for what we want to do in future.”
The RMGT press is being supplied by UK distributor MPL where joint managing director Mark Stribley says: “Being able to see the RMGT plant in operation certainly gave Chris a very positive impression of the company. He was able to see first-hand the exacting standards that are in place throughout the manufacturing process, and the critical focus that RMGT has on producing printing presses that will simply keep on producing.”
The new machine will be running on a 24/5 shift pattern to ensure that BCQ can print more than double the number of pages compared to the presses being replaced. One of these, a four-colour press, has already been sold.
