The high-specification machine will be operational by January 2011 and comes on the back of a number of high-profile contract wins for the Bicester printer.

BGP’s line will comprise a raft of machinery, including a six-station UniDrum Rotary Gatherer Stitcher, a SNT-50 three-side 30-pocket trimming drum, a RollSert 30-pocket Inserting Drum and an Affeldt automatic foil-wrapping machine.

With Owner Sir John Madjeski’s financial backing, BGP has spent heavily on new machinery in the past couple of years in a bid to thrive in the cut-throat web-offset sector, which suffers from some of the worst over-capacity in print.

BGP chief executive David Holland told PrintWeek that as well as giving the company a capacity boost, the finishing kit would also allow it to handle a number of different run lengths.

He said: "It gives us an enormous amount of flexibility. We are handling a lot more long-run work these days with our various contract wins, but it has a fast makeready, too, so we will be set up to take runs of 20,000 a week just as easily as 1m a week."

The addition of the latest line will give BGP four high-speed finishing lines, two of which are less than two years old.

The investment provides the company with an enormous amount of firepower to handle contracts it has recently won with DC Thom-son and Bauer. But Holland added that it also allowed the firm room to pick up further contracts next year.

"It cost us an arm and a leg to get where we are now," he said. "But we aren’t just going to sit back and say we are done now. There will be other opportunities."

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BGP: FULL INVESTMENT
• Six-station UniDrum rotary gatherer stitcher, six A4-format feeders with up to three stitches per product
• Pre Tronic servo control, JetFeeder hoppers, JobFeed units, log tables
• SNT-50 three-side trimming drum with 30 pockets, RollSert inserting drum with 30 pockets
• Rollstream, TriServer, Segbert palletiser type ZPA 100, two Segbert compensating stackers
• Three Electro Static Blocking units, bundle conveyor system, Affeldt automatic foil-wrapping machine, Affeldt shrink tunnel
• Ferag SmartStrap strapping machine