Competing against sites with 16-page heatset webs with a gapless 24-page press has been so successful that Beijing Shengtong Printing Company in Northern China is coming back for more. A second Goss Sunday 2000 is scheduled for shipment in May 2010, and will be installed in a new facility currently under construction, to which the existing Sunday press is being relocated. The four-unit 24-page Sunday 2000 press with 1450 mm web width, pinless PCF-1.2 combination folder and Ecocool dryer will be almost identical to that installed last year. "China no longer has a monopoly on price," says president Jia Chun Lin (pictured). "People may still relate China with cheap labour and low cost but I believe this mindset has become outdated.” He says the first Sunday press was part of a long-term strategy to build a business with 100-year longevity by acquiring world-famous brand name technologies and first-class equipment. “Seeing the growth trend in the printing industry from Southern China moving towards the North, we decided to follow our market judgment that gapless technology would become widely recognised and utilised in the Northern market," he says. Against competition from a number of 16-page presses in the region, the first 24-page Sunday 2000 – which runs at up to 82,000 iph – has been winning jobs through its efficiency, quality, capacity and productivity, according to Chun Lin. Apart from the increased productivity, the wider format adds flexibility to accommodate a wider range of formats. Shengtong prints about 150 magazines and multiple newspapers as well as books, direct mail products and packaging, generating about ten per cent of its revenue from overseas customers overseas. Work goes to clients in the USA, Canada, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Sweden, Russia and Korea. Chun Lin says current trends are the same across all its active markets including Northern China: The growth in volume has slowed and cost controls are ever tighter. "Many developing countries now offer low-cost manufacturing and we have to compete on quality. Shengtong pays the highest attention to its reputation – when we win a customer's order, we also want to win their trust." Beijing Shengtong Printing Company was founded in 1999 and with more than 1000 employees, is now one of the largest privately owned printing enterprises in China. It moved to its present 10,000m² facility in 2002, and will move again – this time to 53,000 m² of space – by next year.