The east London-based printer has taken on a secondhand machine from failed Southend printer Mayhew McCrimmon.

Blue also took on the company's staff, including its managing director Bob Williams.

Managing director of Blue, Paul Mursell, said he expected the Polyman six unit web press, which has been mothballed for the past year, to be up and running by 1 June.

He told PrintWeek: "You pay in excess of £2.5m for a 12-colour with cut-star. But this press has cost us much less.

"At 40,000sph it is three to four times faster and we are coming off folding. It is also paid for – we have no cost hanging over our head because of it. With this machine and everything else we do, we must be the UK's most versatile printer."

The press features in-line gluing and a sheeter. It is capable of running 32 page three-back-three or 16 page six-back-six.

Mursell said the machine would remain in its current location in Southend, but jobs would be booked in at its Harlow headquarters.