Premier invests in Agfa pre-press suite

The Bow, east London-based business has taken delivery of the Avalon CtP system, which is imaging Azura TZ chemistry-free plates.

In addition, the £3.5m turnover magazine and journal printer has invested in Agfa’s Apogee workflow.

According to Gary Goodson, director of Premier Print & Direct Mail Group, it opted for Apogee as it was "by far" the easiest to use.

He added: "We trust Agfa to support us and I like the Azura TS plate. Kodak’s system is neat and smaller but we did not like the fact that its chemistry-free plate still needed some processing on the press."

Established in 1984, the company started as a business selling mail order books but now specialises in magazines, producing 180 titles last year alone.

Its new Avalon CtP images Azura plates for its Komori Lithrone and Heidelberg Speedmaster presses.

Premier is currently producing around 2,500 chemistry-free plates a month and the company has been impressed with the output so far. "Agfa support training has been superb," added Goodson.

The increased business meant it was clear they needed to upgrade their old :Palladio platesetter so they used the opportunity to adopt chemistry-free plates at the same time.








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