The spend includes the purchase of the Leicester-based company’s fourth Corona C18 binder, as well as the full refurbishment of its oldest C18, bought around 10 years ago, including a new trimmer added.

Artisan’s newest C18 will be installed next month, replacing an aging binder that was unable to handle larger catalogues.
Following the installation the company’s battery of Coronas will consists of a new and three- and five-year-old machines and a refurbished 10-year-old line.

According to works director Gavin Hall, the 270-staff company will have an hourly capacity of around 60,000 books, which will be capable of handling run-lengths as large as 7m-8m.

He said: "We need to keep our quality and efficiencies up; this investment will support our catalogue binding contracts.

"The C18s are special, they can do brochures and magazines as well, but they are perfect for the high-pagination catalogues which we specialise in. Upgrading our oldest machine will bring it up to the level of our other machines."

As well as consolidating its existing contracts, the £40m-turnover company is also now on the look out for extra work to feed its growing binding battery.

• Maybritt Cook, formerly commercial director and managing director at Cooper Clegg, and most recently sales director at Pindar, has joined Artisan as sales director.