Installation of a new Canon Océ ColorStream 3900Z and an upgrade of an exisiting Océ ColorStream 3700 to 3900 specifications, plus software enhancements, will begin just before Christmas.

The installation and upgrade at Adare’s Nottingham site, the former Polestar Applied Solutions business it acquired in July, will be completed early next year.

The 3900Z replaces a nine-year-old Océ JetStream, which had reached the end of its life.

Adare managing director Barry Crich said: “The Nottingham site, going back to the Polestar days, has always had the Canon technology, so we looked at some of the big players but the right decision for Nottingham was to continue down the track with Canon.

“Canon is good kit, there’s no doubt about it, and the track record in Nottingham of the kit is very good. This will give us significant uplift on capacity and improvements in quality as well as improved colour capability, so that opens the door if you like to taking on other work at the site.”

Part of the Canon Océ ColorStream 3000 series of continuous-feed, high-speed inkjets, the four-colour duplex 3900Z will also be fitted with a Tecnau Dynamic Perforator, which comprises part of the spend.

The two lines will have a maximum speed of 127m/min at 600x480dpi and handles reels up to 540mm wide in weights from 60gsm to 160gsm.

The Nottingham Canon spend follows Adare bolstering Nottingham's sister Huddersfield site with a £3.3m spend on Ricoh high-speed colour inkjet kit at Drupa. This latest deal means it runs five latest specification high-speed colour duplex production lines across the two sites.

Crich said Adare considered sticking with Ricoh across both sites but went for Canon in the end and is happy with the two different manufacturers.

“To a certain extent they are different technologies but both kits are similar, and clearly the ability to have dual-site capability and get the same results whilst having the capability to move work between sites is crucial,” he added.

“One option would have been to go with a sole supplier but it’s nice creating some competitive tension between two of the market leaders, that is always a good position to be in.”

It’s been a busy year for Adare, with more than £6m spent on Ricoh and Canon kit, along with finishing investments and multimillion-pound contract wins for N Brown and Domestic & General.

Adare SEC now accounts for around £90m of Adare Group’s £240m turnover. Along with the Nottingham and Huddersfield sites, it also has operations in Redditch and Guildford.

Adare's heavy capex spend this year has been more than matched by its M&A activity, which also included the deal for £60m-turnover Banner Managed Communication (BMC), which was fully integrated within the Adare Group last month, just 10 weeks after it bought Polestar Applied Solutions.