The EM4000, which is the third four-colour Halm press to be installed at The Envelope Works' Earby, Lancashire-based factory and its twelfth machine in total, arrives on the back of strong sales growth at the end of last year.

Mark Farrimond, managing director of The Envelope Works, said: "We opened 92 new client accounts in Q4 2013, many of whom are asking for a combination of uncoated and matt-coated four-colour work and as such we felt this purchase was essential to keep our business moving forward throughout 2014."

He added: "We're definitely seeing confidence returning. We've got a fantastic dedicated sales team and we've been getting lots of referrals coming in - we added another 46 new client accounts in January and 33 in February."

The addition of a third 30,000 envelope per hour, four-colour press means The Envelope Works now has the capacity to print up to 1.8m four colour stock items per day. The EM4000 has been calibrated to GMG colour management specifications and upgraded to operate to the latest Fogra standards.

"Our combination of GMG, Fogra and UV capabilities gives us the ability to turn around the highest possible quantity of litho-printed envelopes in extremely short timeframes," said Farrimond. "Our clients consistently comment on how we can often match digital turnaround times, whilst providing them with the superior finish of litho."

Meanwhile, the company has already placed the order for its next two machines: a second Halm Superjet Plus and its first ever five-colour machine, a 4/1 Halm EM5000, which can print four colours on the face and an image or return address on the reverse of the envelope.

Farrimond said: "We've been really busy on the C4 work and the Superjet we bought around two years ago has been inundated, which is why we're adding a second to cope with the demand.

"The EM5000 will allow us to print four colours on the front and usually a return address on the flap in one pass when before we'd have had to put those jobs through the machine twice."

Both the EM5000 and Superjet Plus are secondhand machines that are currently being stripped down and rebuilt with new parts, effectively making them new machines.

"The only thing that's left of the original machine is the frame and even that is blasted and repainted. All the parts are brand new so it's impossible to tell the difference between the rebuild and a brand new machine," he said, adding that the only reason that the company hadn't gone for a rebuilt EM4000 was that there wasn't one available in the required timeframe.

By opting for the two rebuilds, Farrimond said the firm had saved around £400,000 on the £1m it would have cost to buy all three machines from new.