Repro has a long client list that includes international companies such as McGraw Hill, Pearson, Longman, Oxford and Heinemann in educational publishing, and Igloo, Arcturus, Beaver Books and Dalmatian in children's book publishing.

The group has purchased a wide range of kit, which will be housed at the site in Sachin – a special economic zone (SEZ) – near Surat in Gujarat, India.

Chief executive officer Sunil Unni told PrintWeek India: "Our Drupa shopping basket is more than full with two units of four-colour Goss SCC semi-commercial web presses, and two units of four-colour Goss M500 commercial presses with strategic add-ons."

In addition, Repro has added binding lines from Kolbus and Osako for soft cover books, along with three Aster book sewing machines, and a Ryobi five-colour sheetfed for printing book covers.

Currently, the site spans 4460sqm but an additional 928sqm is under construction. It is expected to be part operational by the end of the month and in full swing by the end of this year.

Unni added: "The unit compromises of two RCC factory buildings on the ground, plus two floors to house the dtp, prepress, CTP, sheetfed, binding and finishing lines."

According to Repro, the site is being housed in Surat because it is a SEZ and this means it is a free-trade zone and offers benefits such as reduced regulatory paperwork and no duties or levies.

When fully operational, the unit will be able to supply 100m books to the educational and children's book markets in USA, Europe, UK and Africa, but the company aims to increase this figure to 200m "soon".

Unni said: "We have successfully garnered a position of leadership in global education. Our results are 19% growth in revenue with INR 155 crores (£18.2m) in 2007-08 and 69% growth in profits (after tax) at INR 15.55 crores (£1.8m)."