All printing equipment was destroyed at the Chesham-based business after it fell victim to a fire caused by an electrical fault at its site in February.

Thankfully, according to Finn, the majority of the company's workload was backed up, minimising the impact and disruption on clients.

"We owe special gratitude to our neighbouring printer Ink Link, which set aside some space for us while we got back on our feet," he said.

The company invested in an entry level Konica Minolta digital machine to fulfil short-run orders while outsourcing other jobs to trusted print partners during the period.

Prestige lost its entire print fleet in the blaze, including a two-colour Hamada litho press. Ink Link has handled much of the litho workload since but Finn is unsure whether Prestige will re-invest in capital litho equipment.

"We need to decide what is best for the business but we are not sure if we have the appetite to re-enter the litho market on that level. I think focusing on digital and wide-format is the way to go for our business now," he said.

In addition to the assistance provided by Ink Link, Finn praised the "invaluable" help given by Perfect Colours, which loaned Prestige a wide-format machine until it was ready to invest.

According to Finn, March ended up proving to be a record month for the company and he cited its six staff who are "worth their weight in gold" for the productive period.

"We have always placed quality, efficiency and reliability at the top of our agenda and our small team excelled themselves during this trying period. There were no deadlines missed thanks to their efforts," he said.

The company expects to have fully moved back into its renovated premises by early November and has just taken delivery of a new Polar guillotine from Heidelberg.

"Our 20 year old Polar guillotine had given us no trouble and only ever had one minor repair. That reliability meant that it was never in doubt that we would replace it with another Polar. We didn’t even look at another make," added Finn.