KBA Long Perfector Ousts Heidelberg From Acorn

Acorn Press in Swindon (UK) may be amongst the very small percentage of British printers installing a top specification long perfecting press next Spring.

Acorn Press in Swindon (UK) may be amongst the very small percentage of British printers installing a top specification long perfecting press next Spring as the focal point of a GBP2 million company investment.

Acorn Press's sales director, Mark Clarke, said: "Our credentials are the work we produce.

We endeavour to do everything to the highest standard and when faced with tight deadlines or complex jobs, the customer is likely to call us in, knowing we will find a solution." The new press a KBA Rapida 105 10-unit 5/5 perfector complete with Densitronic S colour management systems, which is due to arrive at the end of February next year and be operational by April.

The company operates B1 eight and five colour Heidelberg Speedmasters plus a GTO and Konica digital printing equipment.

It also has many years of CTP experience with its Screen Trueflow and Platerite installations.

The choice of the new press and the decision to move away from Heidelberg to KBA was carefully debated over many months.

Every major manufacturer was considered and visits to KBA's plant at Radebeul near Dresden (Germany) and to UK users of KBA long perfector technology were undertaken.

Acorn Press co-founder and managing director, Patrick Crouch, commented: "We decided on a 10-colour press due to the increased range of work that we will be able to produce.

KBA came out on top because of its advanced technology, substrate flexibility, production quality and environmental benefits, which will help our planned green accreditation." Mark Nixon, executive sales director at KBA UK, added: "Acorn is a very established and well run business and as such it gave me great pleasure to gain this order from our competition.

Patrick and his team laid a very tough test for KBA and I am happy that we managed to meet his criteria." Patrick Crouch, who saw the inauguration of Acorn Press in 1979, in a Swindon garage, has seen the company grow to today's GBP6 million turnover enterprise employing over 60 long serving staff and attracting customers from the IT, finance, education and publishing sectors.

The firm has been at its current 22,000 square foot site since 1989.

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