The machine was installed at the company’s site near Brighton in March and has replaced a 10-year-old iSaddle which has been part-exchanged.

Managing director Steve Cropper told Printweek: “With lockdown easing and with many customers coming back, we’re finding that our fold, stitch, trim work is ramping up again and we needed a new and improved system to keep up with demand.

“The iSaddle is the perfect system, building on the back of what we already know and trust. It has allowed us to respond faster and produce work a little quicker for the customers. The automation means that our makeready times are really fast and actually quite simple.”

He added: “We were very happy with our old iSaddle and our operators knew the intuitive software very well.

“We’ve had a long and very prosperous relationship with Duplo; their machines do exactly what we need them to do, when we need them to do it. Their service engineers are professional and very helpful. It’s always a pleasure to buy a new piece of kit from Duplo.”

The new iSaddle, which has a list price of £105,000, will sit alongside a DC-745 multi-finisher and a DPB-500 perfect binder from Duplo at Gemini’s site, where it also operates HP Indigo, Kodak and Xerox printers.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Gemini Print Group had a turnover of just under £20m and had employed around 180 staff – a number that the company said had been reduced due to the impact of the pandemic.