West Drayton, UK – 11 October, 2011 – Presstek, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRST), a leading supplier of digital offset printing solutions to the printing and communications industries, today announced that Moreton Hall Press is yet another UK printer to take advantage of the business enhancing benefits of a Presstek DI digital offset press.
 
Part of the £5m turnover Colchester Print Group, the Bury St Edmonds operation chose a Presstek 34DI® digital offset press to improve its ability to deliver a highly flexible, complete print solution with fast turnaround times and affordable prices.
 
Lorraine Berwick, production director, explains: “We were running a couple of two-colour litho presses and two digital engines. We found that customers had pigeon-holed us for 5,000 run work and above or less than 1,000 based on these capabilities. As a result, we were losing out on the short- to medium-run work, which is one of the fastest growing volume bands in the business. It was also time to review our digital capabilities. When we first invested in digital, we anticipated we would be doing a lot of personalization, but in reality that didn’t happen. Instead, we have seen an increase in short-run full colour work for those presses, and their cost effectiveness tapped out in quantities way below what we could produce on our 2-color litho presses, leaving us with an awkward production gap.”
 
When considering the best investment strategy, Moreton evaluated the addition of a larger litho press but found that the bigger footprint and the expense associated with the press, including prepress and platemaking, made that approach cost prohibitive. “We would have had to undergo a huge upheaval to make that transition. The Presstek DI fit in to our existing workflow smoothly and easily,” adds Berwick.
 
The Presstek 34DI, which produces sellable sheets in about 10 minutes and runs at a speed of 7,000 sheets per hour, also matched the day-to-day business demands of the operation: “Litho quality print is our bread and butter, what we know best, and that is what meets the requirements of our customers. Also, with the Presstek DI there are no click charges. This gave us a much wider range of work we could produce.”
 
This improved scope had an impact from day one, especially with larger clients. “We have been winning back the short- to medium-run work,” states Berwick. “The Presstek 34DI has proven to be the missing link that opened up a broader range of opportunities with both new and existing customers.”
 
For very long runs, Moreton Hall Press is supported by its sister-company, Breckland Print, with its 6- and 10-colour Komori presses, so guaranteeing colour consistency regardless of where the work was produced was crucial. Screen rulings of 300 lpi and FM screening are easily produced by the DI press, and the colour is consistent, both within the job and from job to job, making reprints more reliable. “To deliver high quality print of varying lengths, competitively, we had to ensure we could colour-match work produced on all of our presses. This was not a problem with the Presstek DI,” says Berwick.
 
Investment in the 34DI digital offset B3 press, ideally suited to meet the growing demand for fast turnaround, high quality color printing in runs from 500 to 20,000, has paid off, says Berwick: “We are finding that we now offer very competitive prices. We now have more complete conversations with customers. They might come to us for a run of 500, but when we also tell them what 1,000 or 1,500 would cost, they very often review their order. The press has not stopped running since we put it in.”
 
With the Presstek 34DI, chemistry-free plates are imaged on press, giving it a small environmental footprint with limited makeready waste. This was an important factor in the buying decision, states Berwick: “We try to be as environmentally conscientious as possible, and the press helps us meet that aim by enabling us to eliminate chemical use and reduce paper waste. Also, because the plates are imaged on press, we did not need a separate platemaker. This significantly reduced the overall physical footprint which is important when space is at a premium.”
 
Berwick concludes: “Although the marketplace for print has been difficult in recent times, we see it improving and growing. This is why we needed to be able to increase the range of services we could offer. Our new Presstek 34DI press will play a vital role in that transformation.”