The company, which specialises in the supply of prepress origination for the packaging sector in Europe, has bought the platemaker to help meet growing demand for high-quality plates in the packaging industry.

Matt Francklow, managing director and owner of Creation Repro, said the company's goal was full automation.

"It is fundamental if we want to meet customer demand and increase productivity," he added.

"The challenge we face is the competition from larger and more aggressive repro companies that are targeting the major brands and leading retailers. Continuous strategic investment is the only way to improve and streamline our production process in order to remain competitive."

Francklow said the high speed and reliability of the CDI Spark 4835, which costs around £120,000, gave the company a leading edge, and the quality of the plates and sleeves could not be faulted.

The EskoArtwork workflow, which includes BackStage, DeskPack and PackEdge, as well as FlexProof and FlexRip, was purchased gradually over the past year and has been integrated with Creation's bespoke MIS, SmartServe.

The company's next phase is to install WebCenter, its web-based project management system, which allows real-time pre-production customer approval and monitoring.

Creation Repro is looking to expand its CDI work in the future and is sending plates to Eastern Europe, where many brand owners have their manufacturing plants situated in order to save labour costs and overheads.