The firm is to build an 11,000m plant on a seven-acre site in the South Yorkshire town's Enterprise Zone to house the new press, whose purchase has been mooted since last year's Drupa.

Funding for the project has been boosted by a 570,000 grant from regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.

The four-unit 48pp press will be delivered to the site in November, and will be operational by January 2006. It will feature rotary trimming and spine gluing, and print at up to 45,000cph.

Nick Alexander, Garnett Dickinson group director (pictured), said that the new factory would be the "most advanced manufacturing facility in our sector" of catalogues and magazines with run lengths below 70,000.

The existing factory would be closed and its sale would help to offset the cost of the current investment programme.

Alexander said that the programme was "all about servicing customers in our niche of the market".

"Customers expect fast turnaround, exceptional quality and prices are tough. The specification of the new press adds to the existing configuration of the factory and gives customers even more reason to use us," he said.

The firm has not yet decided whether to transfer its 32pp Baker Perkins G16 and 16pp Heidelberg M600 A-24 to the new factory. "It all depends on customer demand," said Alexander.

Garnett Dickinson also runs an eight-unit MAN Roland 708P perfector and an Indigo Turbostream digital press at its existing Eastwood Works plant.

The investment also follows upgrades in pre-press. Two Agfa Xcalibur GLV platesetters have been installed, running an Apogee X workflow with Sublima screening and online approval.

Story by Josh Brooks