The Manchester-based hub-and-spoke print franchise said that the addition of the €6.7m-turnover MFG, which subcontracts all its printing requirements, added to its own French subsidiary could justify a second Printing.com Hub.

It added that the acquisition was in line with its strategy to exploit its intellectual property in other markets and would give it an excellent basis for the launch of bolt-on franchises in the Netherlands.

Tony Rafferty, chief executive of Printing.com, said: "We're looking forward to working with our new partners at MFG to establish a pre-eminent position in the Dutch marketplace."

Hans Scheffer, managing director of MFG, added: "Partnering with Printing.com in this way makes eminently more strategic sense than unilaterally developing our business.

"By adding Printing.com's new template systems, we'll achieve speed to market and scalable systems in a way that would have otherwise proved expensive in time and money."

Scheffer, who led an MBO at MFG in 2008, will continue as managing director of MFG post-acquisition and has joined the board of Printing.com.

The €2m (£1.7m) acquisition included €1m in cash, half of which was funded from existing resources and half from a Convertible Loan Note repayable in equal amounts quarterly for 12 months post acquisition.

The remaining consideration was paid in shares, comprising 2,562,164 ordinary shares in Printing.com to be satisfied by the issuance of 1,948,462 new shares (priced at 33.2p) and 613,702 from Treasury.

MFG produces a similar range of products to Printing.com, including flyers, leaflets, business cards and letterheads, and was already looking at ways to add template-driven web-to-print technology – similar to that being introduced across the Printing.com network – to its online channels.

Meanwhile, in its interim results for the six months to 30 September 2010, Printing.com posted a small 0.4% drop in turnover to £7.1m, while pre-tax profit excluding exceptional costs relating to the MFG acuisition dropped 18.4% to £710,000.

The company blamed the shortfall on a lack of SME confidence across the bulk of the UK, which resulted in a 4.5% contraction in trading volumes outside London and the South East, where volumes grew by 5.9%.

Meanwhile, trading volumes in Ireland were in line with the second half of last year, while French trade grew 40% and is now almost on a par with Ireland.

In the chief executive's statement, Rafferty said that company had taken steps to engineer growth in areas beyond its established domestic market in order to counter the impact of the uncertain economic climate on UK business.

He cited the MFG acquisition and the launch of Printing.com's template-driven web-to-print system, Brand Demand, as two main growth opportunities. The latter will target larger businesses and public sector departments with an annual spend of £20,000 to £100,000, whilst driving additional volumes to the firm's Manchester print Hub.