The Wakefield business said it has been able to pass on some of the cost to customers - but managing director and owner Mark Gray had worries for what rising prices meant for the rest of the industry.

Gray said he couldn’t understand how businesses were supposed to absorb these astronomical costs.

He told Printweek: “What’s happening in the UK at the moment is quite unique. Other countries are supporting businesses but not households, some countries are supporting both.

“But the UK has decided to just leave manufacturing on its own.”

Charlesworth, which has sales of around £6m, has been able to pass on around half of the increase in costs to its customers.

While Charlesworth, which employs 54 staff, will be able to weather the storm, other companies may not be so fortunate, Gray said.

“We’re not like a lot of printers who are commercially based, who have had a massive drop in turnover - and that turnover may not come back to where it was.

“They’ve got Covid loans on top of reduced turnover, and now mounting prices for paper and energy.”

Charlesworth’s energy troubles came with the end of its contract.

Where once the firm had a standing charge of £1.90 a day, for example, it has now signed on to a three-month contract where it pays £50.40 for the standing charge alone.

Gray added: “Electricity is never going to go back to where it was, because they’re changing the way they’re actually billing customers.

“There are other elements of the bill that may have been £12, that are now £1,000. And then you have unit charges - we were paying 10p and 12p. That’s now 26p and 33p.”

Charlesworth has had to speak frankly to its customers, Gray added: “We’ve been open and honest with our customers, and said 'look, this is something that is totally out of our hands'.”