Installation of the £500,000 investment began in the week leading up to Ipex with one of the machines being delivered to its Cornwall operation. The second machine, on display at the show on Oce's stand (12/B150), will be delivered directly from the show next week.

According to Tony Chard, managing director of MPG Books, a "substantial explosion" in the demand for ultra-short-run books led to this new investment. He said: "We have signed major agreements to produce books that fall into the 1-99-run category.

"This latest investment, on top of £5m we have already spent over the past two years, is part of our drive to offer the complete lifecycle of the product and will provide the capacity to cope with an explosion in terms of short-run book production."

The firm's recent spend will create an extra 300% capacity for mono book production, with each machine specified with MBO folders.

Chard added: "We chose Océ because it is the clear market leader, has the highest quality and most productive systems for digital book printing.

"Added to that, we will have up to a 40% reduction in our total electricity costs due to the environmental benefits that include substantially lower temperature levels for the systems."