Major addition to the heatset web sector brings extra capacity in Sydney, even as PMP and IPMG look to reduce the number of their presses through their merger
Blue Star is stepping up to claim more market presence in the hotly contested magazine and catalogue business with its investment in the latest manroland web technology. It signals even more vigorous competition between the players and should clear the way for the ACC to wave the PMP takeover through.
The move is line with the strategy of IVE, the publicly listed owner of Blue Star, to invest in high technology to significantly increase automation, productivity and quality. Blue Star WEB is the one of leading players in the heatset web offset market producing many of the leading mastheads. It has core expertise in the production of special interest magazines, custom publications, travel brochures, product directories and corporate and financial products.
According to Darryl Meyer, general manager, the new press will enable the company to remain a nimble, highly automated and customer responsive business. “We produce product of the highest quality which has enabled us to continuously expand our market offer with new technology to stay at the top of our industry. We are extremely well positioned to provide our customers further benefits with higher quality and extremely flexible production timelines”.
The investment in the new Rotoman DirectDrive press comes in the same year Blue Star WEB was the first Australasian printer to install the latest technology ten-colour perfecting plus coating low energy UV Heidelberg sheetfed press to provide the widest offering of cover embellishments in the industry.
Steve Dunwell, Managing Director at manroland Australasia added, “We are delighted to be partnering Blue Star WEB on this project. Blue Star WEB is always one step ahead and the new Rotoman DirectDrive press with its groundbreaking technology from manroland contains the most advanced automation and operating systems of any 16pp press in Australia allowing them to do just that.
“The new Rotoman DirectDrive press was designed around Blue Star WEB’s specific requirements to meet the needs of a highly demanding and productive business. An array of automation features enable non-stop make-readies, low start up waste utilizing full Autoprint functionality and exceptional high output speed to deliver world class operational performance,” said Dunwell.
The new Rotoman has a combination of five printing units for options of coating and special colour printing, Dynachange for non-stop version changes and Inline Control Systems including ink density.