The new machine, bought directly from the manufacturer, was installed at the 418sqm premises in Bethnal Green last month and has the benefit of rated speed on a range of papers, including uncoated and recycled, a popular option with clients, according to repro manager Jason Sullivan.

He said: “We’re a long-term customer of Konica Minolta's equipment. We liked what the KM 8000 was doing for us. We looked at the competition, at Ricoh and Xerox, but we came to the conclusion that the evolution of the Konica Minolta was the way to go. If we saw something that’s head and shoulders above the competition we would have changed but for what we needed it for it’s the best we saw.

“The KM 8000 was one of their first super-dooper printers, it was the first evolution and the C1100 is the improved version. It runs 110spm on A4 but most of our stuff is SRA3 and it prints at 28 sheets/min duplex on that. It’s extremely flexible, some of these machines you are limited to the stocks you can put through, but with this one we can use all the litho stocks. People are keen on recycled and uncoated paper and it handles it really well.

“A customer who wants 400 16-page books might balk at the price of litho, so this makes us a bit more competitive. We’ve got to trust the machine to deliver and we do. Most people want things at a cost and as long as it looks nice they are happy.”

Calverts, a workers cooperative, was established nearly 40 years ago in a working-class area of London.

Traditionally its business was commercial printing for the cooperative movement, community groups and the third sector, which appreciated its structure and environmental ethics. It uses biodegradable inks and has FSC and ISO 14001 certification.

Now it is right in the middle of London’s ‘hipster’ art and design community and close to the flourishing IT zone dubbed 'Silicon Roundabout'. It has consequently expanded its services into web and graphic design.

Sales and marketing director Arthur Stitt said that as commercial print declined, sales of short-run books for artists and art galleries have increased, and increasingly Calverts prints the inside pages of books on digital and covers on its five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74.”

A happy coincidence, he added, is that the new Konica Minolta uses food-safe inks, which allow the company to print packaging and bags for local food retailers.

The 11-staff business also runs a Konica Minolta C6000 and has a turnover of just over £1m.