The Rotherham-based company has purchased a new Kirikko SK21m card cutter from UK distributor Graphic Arts Equipment (GAE) and said the machine has quelled the bottleneck in its finishing department.

Earlier this year, B&B bought two new Sakurai presses, spending in the region of £1m. But according to managing director Barry Liversedge, the new machine is as crucial as its previous investment.

He said: "The increased productivity impacts the bindery so we looked at ways to reduce the pressure on some machines, such as the guillotine; the Kirikko was the perfect solution.

"The card cutter handles some of the most time-consuming work, freeing up the guillotine and feeding some essential time-savings back into the production schedule."

The Kirikko machine features fully adjustable slitting and cutting positions, Optical Mark Recognition, quick set-ups and is compatible with Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh OS platforms. Up to 150 business cards can be cut in a minute.