The Bishop’s Waltham, Southampton-based business invested in the Watkiss machine to helps finish a range of jobs including motorcycle manuals.

The company produces hundreds of titles per day and, according to Martin Reynolds, director at Solent, the ability to handle offset and digital stocks was imperative.

He said: "We’ll produce as many as 500 per day, and it’s 10 of these, 50 of those, five of those all day with a combination of offset covers and digital pages.

"Speed of makeready is critical, and again, the Watkiss machine delivers, with fast highly automated set ups."

Solent operates two- and four-colour Ryobi B3 presses for longer run work, and a digital line capable for short runs and variable print jobs.

According to Reynolds, the addition of the Watkiss machine has enabled the business to improve the quality of its finished books.

He added: "The PowerSquare produces a SquareBack spine, which is similar in appearance to a perfect bound product, but without the inherent instability of a glue bind which can mean pages falling out, especially with prolonged use.

"One of the machine’s regular tasks is to produce manuals for a well known motorcycle manufacturer, which need a long shelf life. They also need to shout ‘quality’ to enhance the client’s brand, and the SquareBack finish delivers."