Costing around £82,000, the kit was refurbished by MBO in Germany and supplied by Friedheim International. It was installed at the Preston, Lancashire-based trade finisher’s 1,020sqm premises earlier this month.

ECM co-owner Simon Wilson, who runs the business alongside his brother Andrew Wilson, said the new machinery will enable the business to meet market demands for increasingly faster turnarounds.

“It will make us more efficient and increase our capacity. We’ve got six other MBO folders already, but the K800 can fold at twice the speed of those while also giving us a more accurate fold.”

Last year the company completed a prior £500,000 three-year investment programme after installing a Gordian Strapping Strapack JK-5000 ram bundling automatic strapping machine and adding a new unit to an existing Smipack T452 heat shrink tunnel.

It also operates Renz wire-binders, collating machinery from Col-Tec and a Muller Martini Primera saddle stitcher.

“The Primera can get through things so fast that at times we’ve had five of our MBO folders going to try to feed that. So the new MBO, which is additional to our line-up, will support the stitching area,” said Wilson.

Established in 2010, ECM Print Finishers has 16 staff and predominantly serves small to medium sized printers in the North of England. It runs a 24/5 shift pattern as standard and can move to 24/7 during peak times.