The Hastings, East Sussex-based business completed a deal for the seven-staff company on 15 July. All staff will transfer to Berforts as part of the move.

The acquisition of Good News Digital Books, which has a turnover of around £1m, took place for an undisclosed fee.

Gerald White, managing director of Berforts, said the purchase of Good News Digital Books would fit in "very well" with the group's digital print operation in Stevenage.

He said: "The addition of Good News will considerably enhance Berforts web capabilities.

"The combined operation will provide a fantastic offering for both companies’ customers with web and sheet printing and case and limp binding under one roof together with Berforts recently launched online ordering system Book Select."

Along with seven staff, Berforts has taken on a Delphax CR2200 Mono web with inline section folding and burst binding, a Horizon BQ470 four clamp perfect binding machine and a Canon colour digital press through the deal.

Earlier this year Berforts responded to a growing demand for short-run, casebound books after investing more than £500,000 in a Kolbus case-binding system.

The investment and the acquisition come on the back of its launch of a web-to-print offering, Book Select, which was launched at the London Book Fair.

According to the company, Book Select is being pitched towards publishers that require books from a single copy up to 10,000 copies.