The Buckingham-based, £11m-turnover firm installed the Horizon 5500 with four VAC-60 towers last month.

Managing director Tyrone Spence said: "We tend to ignore the finishing side of digital. We have so much firepower on litho [post-press] that we forget to invest in the digital side. That is why we have bought the 5500 - it's perfectly suited to the digital marketplace."

As a result of the contract win, the firm is producing print-on-demand orders for the bank's various branches.

The contract requires the printer to ouptut up to 80 different products a night, with run lengths varying from 10 to more than 1,000.

Spence said the machine had already improved the company's effectiveness because it does not have to stop runs on its other stitching lines that are handling its litho work.

He added: "Everybody says that now is not the time to be investing because of the recession. But we have the opposite view.

"We believe now is the right time to be buying new kit - we want to stay in front. We are looking to invest in new machinery in the pressroom next."

Spence said he would look into the flexibility of any new machine and the company would consider employing extra staff to operate it.

BCQ Print, which employs 120 staff, was formed two years ago when rival companies Buckingham Colour and Colour Quest merged. Spence heads up the firm with former Buckingham Colour managing director Richard Knowles.