The carton printer's new Masterfold 75 A1 lines will replace four older, existing machines and, according to Benson Group managing director Mark Kerridge, represented a good opportunity to concentrate on finishing within the plant.

He said: "Having recently invested in both print and die-cutting to release bottlenecks in production at our Gateshead plant we now need to attend to finishing. The folder-gluers at the plant are the oldest in the group and the strategy behind ordering two new Bobst Masterfold lines is to balance capacity there."

Each machine comes complete with a Bobst Easyfeeder GT automatic feeder and a Cartonpack GT automatic carton packer.

The 900-staff business is expecting the new investments to not only cater for existing production but also build in significant capacity for the future.

"Our core market for Gateshead is high volume sleeves and straight-line boxes for food packaging and these machines will be ideal for producing these products," said Kerridge.

According to Kerridge, the £93m-turnover business opted for Bobst over products from other manufacturers on the market because of previous positive experiences with the company.

He added: "Across the group we have had great success with Bobst Alpinas, the forerunners to the Masterfold, and we expect the same from these new lines.

"It is this mixture of speed and consistency that gives us the production levels we need and we will use the productivity of the new Masterfold lines to help drive organic growth at our Gateshead plant."