The rebrand, which rounds off an 18-month re-engineering of the business, signals MPG’s ambition to move away from a singular focus on books and into new markets for "book-like products".

MPG Printgroup chief executive Tony Chard was reluctant to give specifics on which markets MPG was targeting, although he ruled out report and accounts and marketing services.

"We’re not trying to replicate what St Ives is doing," he said. "But we felt that books represents too narrow a focus and didn’t reflect our push into new markets."

Chard added that the group was "still highly acquisitive" and would continue to look within its traditional market – as well as outside – to organisations that offer web-to-print expertise in alternative markets.

He refused to be drawn on whether that would more likely be a software development business or a print business with an existing web-to-print platform and customer base, adding that it "could be both".

Meanwhile, the group’s £12m-plus capital expenditure programme is nearing completion with its new Barhill facility set to be fully up and running in the next six weeks and the UK’s first commercial installation of an HP Indigo 10000 (following the two beta installs at Precision Printing and Pureprint) due at MPG’s Kings Lynn plant in mid-March.

Once in place, the Indigo 10000 will produce all MPG’s colour component parts, including covers and jackets, while a new Indigo 7600 is also on order and due to replace a 5500 at MPG’s Bodmin print-on-demand facility around the same time as the 10000 install.

All that remains is for the group to finalise its high-speed colour inkjet plans, which Chard said was likely to happen in the coming weeks, ahead of an announcement in early March.

Once the paperwork has been signed, this line will be installed, together with inline finishing equipment that is likely to include MPG’s third Timsons T-Fold, at the group’s Barhill site.