The company, which has label converting facilities and manufactures its own print-and-apply labelling machinery, has a turnover of £6m.

The FL1, which was installed at the firm's headquarters in Crawley, West Sussex in December, is a five-colour press with combination drying.

The machine was chosen because of its quality following demonstrations held at Edale’s purpose-built factory in Hampshire, UK, said Kelgray marketing manager Alex Smith.

“It replaced a 20-year-old Edale E250 four-colour machine and will produce self-adhesive labels, tags, tickets in up to five colours at 100m/min,” he said.

“The new machine's stand-out features are its small footprint, short web path and quick changeover time. We hope it will push us into more four-colour-plus-varnish work.”

Production manager John Perry added: “With its small footprint and the advantage of being able to use most of our existing tooling, the FL1 was without doubt the right choice for us. Early signs indicate that on some jobs, running times have been reduced by more than 50%.”

Kelgray has been an Edale customer for 20 years. 

Edale UK sales manager Chris Chappel said: “The FL1 is Edale’s compact flexographic printing press with a footprint of just 2.5sqm and a web path of less than 12m. It is ideal for companies looking for improved productivity and profitability from today’s short run lengths.”