The Earby, Lancashire-based business has recorded a £530,000 boost in sales during the first five months of the year thanks, in part, to completing the company's largest ever order.

Producing 29m envelopes for the charity Children with Cancer, the job was the culmination of four months planning and three weeks production.

Farrimond said the combination of a "good, knowledgable team", up-to-date production facilities and frequent investment into the business has enabled 30-staff The Envelope Works to continue growing.

He said: "We have utilised our growth as an opportunity to heavily invest within our company; we have created a new sales office, design studio, production office, IT and MIS system, all within the last 12months.

"In addition to these building, infrastructure and process improvements, we have also increased our staffing levels by 25% to ensure our customer levels remain as some of the very best in the envelope industry."

The company currently outputs 275,000 envelopes an hour and operates a range of equipment that includes Halm jet presses and one W&D 212 colour press.

According to Farrimond, the business currently turns over £5m but is targeting £10m turnover in the next few years.

"With the same 30 staff we have here, I truly believe that is acheivable. We currently have 600 active clients but not one customer accounts for more than 4% of our turnover," he said.

Farrimond added: " We still have a long way to go but we will continue to invest in this business and make it even more of a success."