The purchase followed a request from one of the Stockport-based company's best customers, which asked it to add a board cover to a wire-bound book – something that was too difficult for its existing punch.

Deanprint bought the £50,000 Duplex Punch machine to handle the contract and will now offer the service out to other customers.

Production manager Mark Kennedy said: "It is a very versatile machine; we can put paper and board through it, and this has advanced a product that we have done for years.

"The machine is still under development so we haven't told everyone yet, but it is definitely something that we are going to push – there aren't many of these machines in the country."

The EX610 is capable of punching up to 100,000 sheets of paper per hour or 2,500 boards an hour.

Meanwhile, SPF and James Burn have announced their Ipex plans, which will include two brand new products, the Wire-O Flex and Wire-O Binding machines.