Another huge manroland heatset web press, this time for PMP

Australia’s heatset web press market hots up with a new LITHOMAN 96-page press taking pride of place in PMP’s Perth site by the end of next year.

This follows the announcement of a similar buy by IPMG, the region’s 2nd largest printer, at its greenfield Warwick Farm on the eastern seaboard.
According to CEO, Richard Allely, (pictured) the new side-by-side configured press should be operational in the 2012 calendar. “The equipment in Perth was aging, and rather than going for second hand we decided to invest in new equipment that could service us in this space for a long time.

“We are committed to the WA market, yet the economics are challenging to put a brand new piece of kit of such a size into Perth. But what’s important is that we can provide our clients with state of origin printing. Rather than printing it on the east coast and sending it over, we can provide a product produced locally.

“The quality of the LITHOMAN press is very high, and our clients get to enjoy rapid access to market with equipment that is best of breed,” he says.

In duplex side-by-side formation, as opposed to IPMG’s stacked version, PMP’s new press will be able to run as two single 48-page presses or one combined printer.

Steve Dunwell, managing director of manroland Australasia, says it is a significant press for the Perth market as there are no presses like it in the area.

“It’s fantastic that the two biggest printers in Australia have selected manroland again. The LITHOMAN configurations are very flexible and powerful. It means we are going to have a very busy year next year,” he says.

By end-2012 Australia will have two of these big heatset web presses, once Hannanprint installs its own modified model into the new Warwick Farm site.