The water treatment system is a compact unit that controls the hardness and pH of water. It helps to ensure accurate ink-water balance and is a means of both controlling colour quality and minimising waste, even at speed.

Managing director Stuart Mason said: "Process control is critical. Everything is next day delivery so seconds shaved off here and there make a big cumulative difference."

The installation of the Komori Lithrone 429 press was part of a 12-month, £1.2m investment initiative which saw the company install a number of machines to boost its litho, digital and wide-format offering.

Mason said that the £3m-turnover business was on track to achieve a four-fold increase in profits while turning over £1m less thanks to its new strategy of cutting unprofitable revenue to free up capacity for higher margin work.

He said that the company had gone from having a number of public sector contracts to having none because "there is too much pressure from public sector organisations to print for nothing."