The machine, specified in a 1:4 perfecting configuration, will be installed at the company's Gloucester facility in January of next year.

Its new press, which will also feature an inline coater for seals and varnishes, will handle a range of jobs but predominantly greetings cards work, which comprises 40% of Alpha's output.

The press investment, which will also be installed with Heidelberg's spectrophotometric colour measurement device AxisControl, comes on the back of a positive year for the business with sales up 16%.

Jeff Williams, managing director at Alpha Colour Printers, said: "In the intervening six years since the first B2 Speedmaster was installed the on-going Heidelberg research and development has shone through and the XL 75 press is a staggeringly impressive machine.

"The quality is great and it’s easy to use. We wouldn’t entertain buying any other make of press because we have had such good experience with Heidelberg equipment." The Speedmaster XL 75 replaces one of the company's existing CD74 presses.