How fantastic for our very own Sterling Press to have the first top-speed perfecting version of Heidelberg's new Speedmaster XL 105 in the world.

That's quite a coup for the Kettering crew, I think. Not so long ago new kit like this would always be installed at companies not too far away from the factory that made it.

The brothers Pizzey were present at the briefing in Germany at which this news was announced. Having asked them whether this monster new press would mean some of their older capacity would be retired, I was wide-eyed at the answer. It being "no". The new XL 105 will be additional firepower for this successful and expanding company, which has obviously formulated a business model that works. That's a lot of sheets on the floor. Or, rather, a lot of sheets into a fully automatic non-stop delivery.

The other interesting comment made by Steve Pizzey was about how the all-B1 firm (when it comes to offset) can compete against everything from web offset to B2 and even right down to B3 by ganging jobs up.

This made me think. Rather like in society at large, where we see a sort of two-tier society emerging of the haves and the have nots, so it is in print. Some companies have gained an 'x' factor through hard graft and smart thinking, and Sterling is one of them.