The £72,000 (€100,000) line complements a pair of recently installed Duplo DC 645 slitter/cutter/creaser machines. Its automation is a key selling point for the company, which turns jobs around on a 24-hour basis for domestic work and 48-hours overseas.

Pixart, based in Venice, Italy, is a £22m web-to-print operation, which markets itself across Europe, with more than half its work coming from overseas – especially the UK, Belgium, Scandinavia - and around 45% of work derived domestically.

Pixart founder Matteo Rigamonti said the automation was important as he did not need to employ someone to continuously mind the system, while the controls are easy to understand so that any of his finishing staff can use it.

It also guarantees a level of performance that means it is more tolerant of PDFs where customers have placed text close to the cut.

Pixart employs 60 people across three shifts running 24/7, but employs no sales people.

Instead it markets itself through the internet, directories such as the Yellow Pages, email and even fax, generating between 6,000 and 7,000 estimates each day, resulting in around 2,000 daily orders.

A fleet of HP Indigo 3050s and a Xerox iGen3 handle sheetfed work and Mimaki systems are used for large format.