In addition to the plate, which will not be generally available in the UK until January 2009, Precision has bought a second Acento platesetting system and has upgraded to the latest version of the Apogee workflow.

Precision Printing business development director Simon Cooper said: "We have to be as efficient as possible.

"We started using Agfa several years ago when we switched to an Apogee workflow, which we found outperformed the other available solutions."

The £10.5m-turnover company, which expects to process more than 3,000 of the Azura TS plates a month, made its latest investment after visiting this year's Drupa.

Cooper said: "Our recent review at Drupa confirmed to us that Agfa has the chemistry-free technology we need to be highly productive, improve quality and enhance our ISO14001 environmental program."

The deal follows last month's installation of a new 10-colour B2 Heidelberg press and a £3m spend on extending and modernising the company's East London premises.