The company has seen a 126% rise in sales coming in from exports in the first half of 2009 compared with last year, partly aided by the weak pound.

Its 2009 exports are already 8% higher than export sales for the entire financial year of 2008.

To date, according to sales and marketing manager Daniel Pooley, the company's second-quarter figures are up 19% on the first quarter this year.

Pooley said: "We are seeing more signs of people committing in certain divisions and the UK is still underperforming. But, we are definitely getting back up towards where we want to be, where we should be.

"We still have some areas underperforming machines: sale increases are slower than consumables for instance, but it is encouraging to see the quarter-to-quarter growth increasing rather than shrinking."