It was originally slated for arrival in August, but was delayed slightly "while HP worked on a couple of things," said Precision managing director Gary Peeling.

The company has reorganised its Indigo room to make space for the 10000, which has a footprint of 8.1x4.7m and weighs 11 tonnes.

"It will be very exciting to get it here and get it going," said Peeling.

"The planning has been rigorous. Everything is ready for the installation, and we're ready to go – there's literally an 'X' marking the spot!" he added.

Peeling said the larger format of the new press would open up new opportunities for the company: "It will allow us to print a lot of very familiar and popular formats digitally – there's a lot of pent-up demand."

He cited 6pp A4 products, pocket folders and self-mailers among the items headed for the new press, along with new products for Precision's photo product clients, such as A2 calendars.

The £15m turnover, 110 employee company is also looking at potential packaging applications, including personalisation and packaging with enhanced security features, such as unique coding.

The HP Indigo 10000 can produce 1,725sph 4/4 and the seven-colour press has a duty cycle of 2.2m sheets per month.

Peeling added that the ability to impose smaller formats on a B2 sheet "and get more out of the click charge" would also be a key aspect to the ROI model on the machine, which has a price tag of around £1m.