The commercial printer and finisher has invested £2m over the past 10 months, recruiting ten staff and installing a number of machines as part of its aim to increase turnover from £12.5m to £20m in the next two years.
Following a drop in finishing work requests, GPF developed a web offset branch, The Website, in 1996, to supply finishing, printing and fulfilment work.
GPF saw an opportunity in the sheetfed market when print company Pindar, which had multiple long perfector machines, shut down its Preston facility last year.
The Leeds-based company installed its first sheetfed machine, a secondhand Heidelberg SM 102 12-colour long perfector, last July and has recruited six staff to handle "better than expected" demand.
Managing director Graham Glynn said the company also had major potential in perfect binding since a large proportion of printers with such capability in the north of England have closed. GPF has taken on a Corona perfect binder from Muller Martini to "redress the balance" of supply and demand in this part of the country.
Glynn said: "It helps to be where we are, as there is no perfect binding capacity nearby. But that sort of work is very seasonal, so we have expanded other areas too – for example, adding the sheetfed area."
However, Glynn added that while turnover has already increased as a result of the recent investments, the demand was not matching supply.
"If it were not for the situation in Europe and the state of the economy, supply and demand would be balanced.
"For now, we are making sure we are becoming more efficient with machines that waste less material and speed to increase turnaround times and ultimately help us to compete in the market," he said.
GPF has installed automatic stitching lines, automated folders and two Wohlenberg 115 high-speed cutters, the latter two machines from Friedheim International, over the past ten months. It has also updated its extracting system and pallet capacity to ensure that the infrastructure meets the demand of the investment, which should be completed in the next four months.
