It comes as the government opened the fourth round of RGF funding, worth £350m, for bidding.

Managing director of Print-Leeds Rod Fisher secured £500,000 from the third round of RGF allocations, at the end of 2012, allowing the company to invest in a new B1 Heidelberg press and expand its facility. He said that the process was very simple and didn’t require excessive work.

He added: "As long as you have a good business plan, it’s entirely possible to do this on your own – I did.

"The only difficulty that some printers may have is that you need to give a 10% deposit on the total value of your investment," he added.

Fisher said one of the biggest barriers preventing printers from applying to the RGF was that there simply was not adequate publicity.

He added: "It’s so hard to get finance as a printer but this really is accessible so I’d say find out about it and give it a try."

Private sector organisations can bid in the first tier as individual entities or in partnership for a minimum grant of £1m. While this threshold may exclude many printers, those allocated funds in tier one – including financial institutions – are able to pass on the finance in grants and loans, for around  as little as £10,000, to SMEs.

Another successful printer, West Midlands-based CS Labels, secured funding in this way allowing the firm to invest in a new Xeikon 3500.

Managing director Simon Smith said: "So many printers fail to sell themselves properly so you just need to go in there and convince them that they have security and that you will get a return on that investment."