“This is good news for the printing industry, as we were the only finance company awarded the RGF funds who made the application on the back of their involvement with the print sector alone,” said Compass director Mark Nelson.

The two print finance firms are part of only five schemes nationwide to be selected for the £300m Fund, of which Close Brothers has secured £40m.

Nelson declined to reveal Compass’ allocation, saying that it had been asked to withhold details by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the £300m of funding is expected to unlock £1.9bn of additional private sector investment, creating or bolstering employment across the country.

Close Brothers Asset Finance chief executive Mike Randall claimed that its previous £15m allocation of RGF funds had already assisted “over 250 firms, helping to both create and safeguard over 1,000 jobs”.

Nelson said that Compass had decided to apply directly after seeing how the scheme had worked on deals where it had acted as an intermediary over the past year. He said that despite criticism from printers that it was hard to secure funding using the scheme, that it was “achievable, but that you’ve got to be realistic”.

“Of the RGF applications that we’ve put forward, 80% have been funded; and with those that haven’t it has been where the company was financially strong, which is where Funding For Lending comes in,” he said.