The £500,000-turnover printer, which is based on the outskirts of Newcastle, installed the £35,000 Canon Image Runner to replace its Konica Minolta Bizhub 450 press. It bought the printer, which sits alongside its five-colour Komori Litho press, from Océ.

Print North East also installed a £70,000 Heidelberg Suprasetter, £10,000 Morgana AutoCreaser and a £5,000 D&K laminator to bring in-house functions that it previously had to outsource.

The new installations have helped the company to reduce its turnaround time on jobs from an average of one week to three days.

Print North East director Steve Gilbert said: "We are finding that more and more jobs are won and lost on the speed that you are able to turn jobs around and our new equipment has enabled us to significantly increase efficiency and capacity.

"The installation of the Canon Image Runner has enabled us to tap into the shorter run market and it is good to be able to give clients the option of longer or shorter runs. We looked a lot of similar machines on the market but I knew from day one that it was this one that I wanted. The quality is incredible and it is hard to differentiate between its print quality and litho print.

"All of the machines fitted straight into the business with no problems, the installation process has been very smooth."

Print North East intends to introduce a web-to-print solution for new and existing customers to its website within the next few months.