LIA members were first to know that Blue Star is buying another new web press, replacing its manroland Polyman with a new manroland Rotoman, as they toured the company’s Silverwater facility.
Parent IVE already has a new manroland Lithoman on order for its new Franklin Web NSW site in Huntingwood, and is also buying a new manroland Rotoman, also for its Blue Star Web business in Silverwater.
IVE has just won the Pacific Magazines contract from PMP, with printing for the country’s second biggest magazine publisher slated to start in October.
The LIA members were on a tour of the Blue Star Silverwater plant, with some 60 printers and suppliers touring its web and sheetfed facilities with Blue Star allowing unprecedented access, and giving the visitors a shot in the arm as they viewed the investments and workflow.
Printers were shown around the web facilities by Mark Rolls, new business manager for Blue Star Web, while Hugh Chisholm, group general manager for Blue Star Print took the members around its sheetfed print facilities.
During the web tour Chisholm showed attendees the presses including its mighty Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106-10-P+LX-LEUV ten-colour which it installed last year. In the web area LIA guests were also shown the bindery with the latest equipment from major finishing developers including a Ferag Unidrum inserter a Muller Martini 10-station Primera Kolbus binder.
Chisholm showed the department’s newest CTP the Kodak Magnum, with Eddie Doyle prepress manager showing attendees how it works, and telling LIA members that the company worked its way through some 75,000sqm of plates a year.
The tour was also shown its digital print room which they dub a printer within a printer, driven by a pair of HP Indigos and Fuji Xerox printers.
The night ended at the Carnarvon Golf Club with Matt Aitken, COO at IVE speaking to attendees on IVE, its story, its subsidiaries Blue Star, Kalido, IVEO and Pareto Group. He discussed strengthening what the company has and how it will build from that.
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