The Cambridge-based outfit is staying at the St John’s Innovation Park, where a number of other inkjet manufacturers are based, including Xaar. Its production team has already moved over to its new premises, Edinburgh House, and the rest of the team will follow in the summer.

GIS, which manufactures and supplies software and hardware components for OEMs, machine-builders and integrators of industrial inkjet, has also continued a recruitment drive, bringing seven new members of staff to its software development and production departments in the past two months. In the past two years, staff levels for the 51-strong company have risen by more than a third.

Marketing manager Neil Stickland said the move was mainly driven by the continuing need for investment in R&D. 

He said: “It is basically to enable various teams within production, logistics, assembly, test and quality assurance plus inks systems, which has now become 25% of our annual revenue, to grow. The profit is churned back into R&D. We are a high-tech innovative company in Cambridge so we have to keep ahead of our colleagues and competitors.

“It will allow for continued growth and development and it will enable our customers to certainly benefit from quicker products to market, time to market, and it’s just the continued support for our end-users.”

The park was founded as part of St John’s Innovation Centre by St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1967, and hosts a number of buildings occupied by 'knowledge companies' and professional services firms.

Stickland said a number of GIS’ collaborators are also stationed there so there was never a question that the company would not remain on the complex.

GIS collaborated with Xaar on its Drupa-launched 5601 printhead, providing the drive electronics and ink system components for the printhead’s evaluation kit, which has started shipping out. Its technology also drives a number of Xaar’s other printheads.