Richard Wells, managing director of the Nottingham-based company, said the Speedmaster CD 74 would give “more options” than the outgoing four-colour SM 74, which also had a coater.

“It gives us more options, more control through the press and prints a bit sharper and on heavier stocks,” he said.

The sixth unit on the press will be used primarily for seals. “Oil-based seals have come on and so we have moved away from water-based coating,” said Wells.

Hickling & Squires' latest investment is its sixth new Heidelberg press since 2000. The firm also runs an eight-colour CD 74 long perfector, installed in 2005, and a three-year-old 10-colour SM 74 long perfector.

The new press has been installed with AxisControl spectrophotometry and will feature Heidelberg’s Prepress Interface.

Wells said: “Colour control is a contractual requirement these days, so spectrophotometry is a must. This investment means we can take short-run, straight work away from the long perfectors and use it for greater volumes of the work it is best suited to run.”