Wiley specialises in research and education and the 200-year-old, $1.8bn (£1.4bn) turnover firm is one of America’s oldest publicly-traded companies.

The new partnership will bring print and distribution together at Wiley’s European Distribution Centre facility in Bognor Regis. 

CPI described it as “a total supply chain solution including demand planning, print and distribution, customer service, and credit collection”.

An as-yet-unspecified “state of the art” inkjet printing system will be installed at the site early next year as part of the venture.

CPI Group is Europe’s biggest book printer and has made a huge investment in HP’s T-Series inkjet web presses across its production sites as a key element of its ‘Quantum’ digital book printing product lines.

Alison Kaye, managing director of CPI’s STMA division, said the group was delighted about the fresh partnership and described it as “a true team effort”.

“We believe that our combined offering provides both the UK and European publishing industry with a unique proposition,” she said.

Edward Elgar Publishing will be the first UK publisher to use the new solution, and will move its distribution activities to Wiley’s Bognor Regis site next month.

Cary Hamill, vice president of global supply chain and strategic sourcing at Wiley, commented: “We believe our collective expertise will provide an innovative solution to publishers for their print, inventory management and distribution needs – while continuing to provide our customers and clients with an even better level of service.”

CPI has 15 factories across the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic.

In the UK, it has sales of around £130m and employs more than 1,000 staff across seven sites.

Separately, CPI is understood to have secured a significant amount of CLBILS funding via NatWest. Further details were unavailable at the time of writing.