The company has recently expanded its Winchester base by 50% to 240sqm to accommodate the print and finishing equipment it has acquired for the new service, which trades under the name Brocha Print and Design.

Mint Signs managing director Warren Beard said that the total investment for the new launch has reached around £60,000, covering a new Xerox 700, and a raft of Duplo kit that arrived in January.

The Duplo deal included a DC-615 digital cutter-creaser, DF-100 folding machine and Ideal 4860-ET SRA3 guillotine, as well as an A1 laminator from Vivid that can also offer encapsulation work.

The new division is expected to become fully operational from next week. Beard said that he had already introduced a "soft launch" for the services, slowly making his 800-strong client base aware of the new offerings.

Mint Signs’ staff will produce work for both business from the same site, but Beard decided to call the new division 'Brocha' to avoid conventional print customers being put off by the connotation of the name Mint Signs.

He added that his unconventional decision to venture into the print market from sign making was a response to the current trend of traditional printers entering the exhibitions market.

He said: "I started on the signage side six years ago and now local opposition is coming into my market place and the only way to react is to get into their space.

"The ability to offer conventional print services is a natural extension of the exisiting business so the choice was quite straight forward."

But he expects the new launch to be a profitable one, adding £40,000 revenue for the coming year, amounting to a 20% increase in Mint Signs current £150,000 turnover.

He is on the hunt for a graphic designer to help him with his workload, and said that more staff could be recruited in the near future depending on the needs of the new business.