Of the total investment, £2.2m was invested in February last year and £558,000 has been made post-Drupa.

The 18,000sqm Sri Lankan plant is located in Phase III, Investment Promotion Zone, Katunayake, Sri Lanka – close to Colombo airport. The plant houses three flexo presses and is designed for the conversion of automatic teller machines and point-of-sale rolls.

Gaurav Goel, director and head of security of the print division at Noida-based Gopsons Papers, said: "The infusion of fresh investment into security printing is on top of our expansion plans.

"We are eyeing specialised and high-value security printing. The move is part of our on-going strategy to expand into other markets."

Gopsons introduced security printing as one of their key operations in 1992 with lottery printing jobs.

A decade-and-a-half later, the security printing operations has diversified into security products which include business forms, government forms, cheques, railway and bus tickets, thermal rolls and ATM rolls, personalised mailers, scratch-off coupons and cards, lottery tickets and telephone and mobile recharge cards.