This press, featuring four colours plus coating, represents a major upgrade of the company’s efficiency and quality, and has formed part of an image overhaul that involves a concerted marketing campaign, brightly rebranded premises, and a large beach-themed party being held tonight in celebration.

The Komori is capable of printing at 15,000sph on sheet sizes up to 520x720mm. It will be used to continue to drive the company’s staple of brochures, letterheads, shippers, cartons, and point-of-sale material, with the company more than content to take up any work that can be deemed “commercial printing”.

According to Craig Foley, Artvue Printing general manager, the press not only fits perfectly into the gap left by its aging Akiyama press, but has “dramatically changed” the way the company does business.

“The Akiyama was very tired, as is expected at 25 years old. The man-hours were increasing while the productivity was decreasing. We recognised that to stay competitive you must get on the technology bandwagon”, says Foley.

“We were doing two shifts a day on the Akiyama, but now we are down to six days a week, 12 hours a day. Also, a lot of our work was going onto our 40-inch press that should have been going through the half size”.

Foley says that the company chose the press because “it seemed to be the better technology and more suited to our style of work”. In particular, he is impressed with the vast range of stocks that it can handle, as well as the large impression cylinders. The other advantage for Foley is that the ancillary machinery is all locally made, eliminating the potentially costly and time-consuming process of sourcing replacement parts and units from overseas.

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