Central Florida Press Installs First manroland DirectDrive Press in U.S.

ORLANDO—07/17/08—Central Florida Press (CFP), a division of The MATLET Group - the largest minority owned commercial printing company in the U.S. - is installing the first ROLAND 700 DirectDrive. A leader in new and innovative approaches, CFP was the first company in the region with half web and full web presses.

“We are extremely pleased to be the first printing operation to install manroland’s DirectDrive press,” said John Glick, CFP Vice President of Sales. “We saw the DirectDrive prototype at drupa four years ago. We returned to Germany about a year ago to see the press and were impressed by what we saw. It is a make-ready monster with much less paper waste compared to current technologies. We did our ROI analysis and made our decision rather soon thereafter. This press will reduce costs to the customer and get work completed much quicker.”

DirectDrive Represents Breakthrough Technology

The manroland DirectDrive system is ideal for short-run, high performance printers, or those who use long perfectors with 8,10, or 12 units and do a high volume of perfecting work. It uses computer controlled servo-motors to power plate cylinders in the printing units. By isolating the print cylinder, it reduces the time to perform make-ready tasks. Since plate changing and wash-up occur simultaneously – therefore, zero plate-changing time – printers can save a substantial amount of time and money. No other 40-inch press offers such value-added options.

Central Florida Press owns two ROLAND 706 presses that have accumulated one-half billion impressions between the two since being put into operation in 1999. The company employs 200 people and does the majority of its work handling commercial printing for some of the largest tourism attractions in Florida. They also print a variety of work for the casual dining industry to support a 24/7 operation.

“We looked at Komori and Heidelberg from a perfecting standpoint. Nobody had any options that compared to manroland’s DirectDrive,” said CFP President Greg Orlando. “We expect to have the press ready for operation in mid-to-late September, just in time for the important fourth quarter.”

The MATLET Group is a full service commercial printing and fulfilment company headquartered in Pawtucket, RI. A certified Minority Business Enterprise, they are a Corporate Plus® member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council and own four facilities in the Northeast and Midwest, in addition to CFP.