The firm researched the second-hand market and also looked at new alternatives, but decided on the Wohlenberg kit having had experience of its machinery in the past, including a previous three-knife trimmer and a saddle-stitcher.

The kit, which cost Deanprint around £300,000, was supplied by Friedheim International and installed last August.

The company has reaped the benefits of the investment since. “The investment was to be more efficient in the business that we do. We required better makeready times and a quicker runtime and we’re now a little more competitive than we’ve been in the past with perfect-bound products,” said operations director Kevin Lee.

“It’s part of an ongoing programme of renewing pieces of kit that have come to the end of their lives. The Quickbinder has replaced an old Rondofix Buffalo. The Trim-Tec three-knife was bought to give us the ability to make all four cuts of a folded section on items such as wire-bound books rather than the fourth cut going over to the guillotine. It improves our world greatly in that respect.”

Deanprint’s customers fall into the categories of commercial and trade finishing, which it will primarily use the Quickbinder for, government contracts and the educational market.

The length of print runs undertaken at the firm commonly involve two-colour printing with runs from 1,000 to 100,000 sheets and case bound book runs of 100-3,000.

It also produces ‘one-off’ custom-designed items on request. “We recently produced a book for Chelsea FC that was to mark Frank Lampard’s 203 Chelsea goals. It was a landscape A3 oversize 4-colour book, blue leatherbound, foil embossed and also had a blue leather slipcase,” said Lee.

The firm employs 45 staff and has a turnover of £2.5m. It began trading in the 1890s and has been established at its present 4,650sqm site since 1920.