We went to Heidelberg's Brentford showroom at the beginning of the year to buy a Suprasetter A 75. While we were there we were shown the Ricoh press and we were blown away by its quality," says Karl Nicholson, joint owner-director. "That was convincing when coupled with its cost, including running expenses, which is much more attractive than other digital technology that we have looked at."

Currently the company runs two B2 litho presses, a Speedmaster XL 75-5 and a Speedmaster SM 74-6. Its average run is 10,000 but with the new Ricoh on board Spectrum is confident that it can regain some shorter run work by extending the services it offers existing clients and opening up new business. "Our reps are very excited about the opportunities this press opens up," says Karl Nicholson.

As the Suprasetter is installed work will begin on upgrading the company's Prinect prepress and pressroom workflows to the latest Prepress Manager and Pressroom Manager standard. The company has already had its press rollers updated and a full print colour management exercise undertaken. The new Suprasetter will be calibrated to comply with Spectrum's high quality standards. The company will run two automated Suprasetters, including cassette loading which allows users to output plates without manual intervention. It uses Chem-free plates through the CtP device.

At present the company runs the Heidelberg Prinance MIS system but it will replace this with the new Prinect Business Manager system mid-year, following its commercial launch at drupa. Digital workflow and the seamless linking of business and production software through one central server are seen as the route to maximum efficiency. As an early adopter of Speedmaster XL 75 technology, being one of the first with Business Manager holds no fears for Spectrum.