The machine, which costs around £160,000, will allow the company to create curves, lines, intricate cuts and complex images.

The company, which creates premium packaging mock-ups, prototypes for pre-production, research and advertising and items for experiential marketing, does all its manufacturing in-house, including plate-making.

It runs three Dainippon Screen offset litho proofing presses and two digital printers as well as two hand screening tables and a UV curing station. It offers silk screening, hot foiling, dembossing and debossing, die-cutting and full model-making to clients, which include Diageo, Mars and Harrods.

Technical director Andrew Panatti said: “Part of what we do is pushing the envelope. With a laser you can cut much finer lines, you can do a beautiful roll around if you want a curve or you can produce really sharp folds. We can make a pack concertina or we can etch an image onto a really thin substrate. It browns but it doesn’t burn.”

The motioncutter was created, developed and manufactured by German personalised direct mail and packaging company Themediahouse, after it could not find the machine it wanted on the market.

Printed sheets of up to 580mm-wide are moved on a special conveyor belt through the system and the mirror laser positioned above follows the sheet and cuts the shape in motion.

“We’re going to use this in an innovative way,” Panatti said. “There are all sorts of things you can do with a laser. We did a lot of research, we want to say ‘yes it can be done’.”

Finish has ordered its machine and it is currently being manufactured.

The Kings Cross, London company was established in 1991 and now has 18 staff and a turnover over £2m.

It prides itself on pushing both old and new print techniques to the limit and mixing them to create extra special printed items. The company is described by client account manager Ross Shrubsole as “like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory”.