Flowman managing director Petri Karjalainen said a number of UK firms had shown interest in the system following a presentation in London last week. "We are starting negotiations with them immediately," he said.

Teams from News International, Northcliffe Newspapers and Johnston Press, among others, attended the presentation at the Finnish ambassador's residence. Karjalainen would not reveal which firms he was talking to.

The interest came as Flowman, whose workflow collects, rips and distributes page files from a central control centre, signed a group-wide deal to install the product at Sanoma Corporation, a major Finnish newspaper group.

Sanoma had previously been using Flowman across its five-site print division, but will now expand it to become the only pre-press workflow in its editorial and advertising offices by next summer.

Karjalainen said that the deal was "very significant" for the firm. "This is definitely the biggest one-time deal for us," he said.