The three-day show at the latter's Hemel Hempstead showroom clocked up significant interest, said Apex managing director Bob Usher.

“There were decision-makers from a number of industry-leading operations. Consequently we are now working on a considerable number of good prospects going forward.

“We don't want to talk big numbers in terms of orders: each piece of kit is in the range of £750,000 and sales don't come in huge frequencies, but we are very happy.”

Apex showcased its Ryobi LED-UV system on a 755G B2 five-colour offset press, the Konica Minolta C1060 digital press and the latest CTP solutions from new supplier Cron.

Cron’s CTP development began in 2000 with its first conventional plate CTP device launched at the end of 2008. Systems available today include thermal CTP and UV-CTP.

Usher said: “The LED UV kit works very well with the Cron UV plate, offering 35 to 40% savings on other brand manufactures. It's a durable plate with a strong image.”

IFS highlighted A4 landscape stitched booklets with the 4,500bph Horizon SPF/FC200L, high-speed booklet production with the 6,000bph Horizon StitchLiner 6000.

The kit features landscape feeding VAC80S deep-pile collators and fully automated folding with the B2 Horizon AFC566FG.

IFS joint managing director Bryan Godwyn said: “We had a number of orders placed and we look forward to sharing details of these in the near future.”

Usher added: “This kind of event is fast becoming one of the most important in our calendar when it comes to engaging effectively with print operations.

“I see no reason why we shouldn't run the event next year. We ran Print Efficiently in the autumn and we were so buoyed by the enthusiasm shown.

“We both therefore decided to run a show in March but didn't want to disturb the existing brand so called it a different name: Real Print & Finish.

“It was met with similar enthusiasm even though it was just two exhibitors as opposed to the nine to 14 at the autumn show.”