Supplied by finishing equipment supplier Friedheim International, the machine has been bought to allow Carte Blanche to handle fast-turnaround orders.

Warehouse manager Fraser Nurse said: "We are now able to wrap, price, label and band our card ranges to order from part-finished product received from our suppliers. This provides us with more control over the operation, and it is better and cheaper than having them supplied already wrapped as we did previously."

The 250-employee Tangmere, West Sussex-based company designs and artworks a range of cards, which are outsourced for printing.

Run lengths start from around 3,000 cards and the company supplies customers including high street independents and chains and supermarkets. It also exports a small percentage of work.

The company was formed in 1987 and moved to its current location in 2002.