The Northampton firm became the first UK company to run a secondhand Hans Gronhi Sanxin press and is now replacing its YK522 installed in 2011 with the four-colour Hans Gronhi Sanxin YK524.

Managing director Matthew Willmer said: “The first machine was cracking and we were very happy with the quality; our workload increased off the back of it.

“We do short-run work for print brokers and managers and end-users and when they saw the quality they asked if we could do four-colour work. Volumes grew and grew.”

The general commercial printer employs seven staff and has been trading for more than 80 years. Matthew Willmer recently took over the family firm from his father Roy.

Willmer, who paid less than £100,000 for the equipment, said he was doing much of the same work including magazine and brochures but in fewer passes since spot colours and varnish could be applied in one pass instead of two.

“The purchase wasn't done on the back of big expansion plans but to speed up makeready and turnaround times and improve quality.

“The economics of the Sanxin machines are good. They are a low-cost option, inexpensive to buy but also inexpensive to run, with low-cost consumables and low-power usage.

“Output of our press is equal to anything an equivalent German or Japanese machine can produce. These machines offer little more than a brand name; we need a genuine competitive edge.”

He added: “We regularly take work local printers don’t want or can’t handle. We’ve been producing folding box work for printers who don’t want to put 500micron board through their machines.

“The Sanxin doesn’t have a problem with it. We have even printed on polypropylene using Oxi Combi inks.”