MI-based The Foresight Group reports the installation of a Speedmaster SM 52 4-color press to handle its short-run color work, including the production of previously outsourced full-color envelopes.

According to Foresight president Bill Christofferson, the installation was part of a plant-wide upgrade undertaken in connection with consolidation of the company’s operations, previously housed in four separate buildings, into a single facility. “We had no loading docks and, for years, had been driving paper all the way around the block to our different buildings,” he says.

Foresight’s new, 30,000-sq.-ft. plant also made room for a new Polar 137 XT cutter with P-Net and Compucut, two lifts, jogger, and scale, along with several pieces of used equipment, including a Heidelberg Stitchmaster ST 270. The company also has a Printmaster QM 46 2-color press.

Christofferson expects the new installations to give the Foresight Group a competitive advantage on both the small-format side and in its cutting and stitching departments. Foresight’s pressroom also is home to a 40-inch sheetfed offset press, acquired when the company removed three half-size presses and installed the new Speedmaster SM 52. In the bindery, the folding area is home to a pair of Stahlfolders with knife- and gatefold attachments, recently rebuilt and updated by Heidelberg Systemservice technicians.

The Foresight Group is a general commercial printer with a growing digital print business, including wide-format display graphics and direct mail. Customers include insurance, companies, educational institutions, associations and hospitals within a 90-mile radius of its headquarters. The company employs a full-time staff of 34.