Supplied by White Horse Machinery, which sourced the press from a printer in Belgium, the machine arrived at Hickling’s premises in Newthorpe, Nottinghamshire in January.

The press has replaced a six-colour straight Speedmaster CD 74, which was part-exchanged with White Horse Machinery, and will sit alongside two other existing CD 74s – an eight-colour and a 10-colour. This marks the first time the company has opted for an all-perfector fleet.

Sales director Lee Jordan said the press was purchased to increase capacity and better accommodate the firm’s increasing turnover: “We weren’t fully operational on a shift system on the six-colour press, we were just running it on days.

“So putting in an additional perfecting press and running it in the same shift pattern as the other two machines just made perfect sense in terms of efficiency and productivity and has reduced our overtime costs when we’ve been really busy.”

January also saw the internal area of the firm’s production department increased and reworked to give an improved fulfilment capability. This included the extension of its mezzanine floor. Later this year the company is also planning to bolster both its digital offering and finishing department.

Alongside the Speedmasters, Hickling runs a Xerox Versant 180, which was installed last summer, as well as two other Versants, an 80 and a 2100, both of which were installed in 2016, along with large-format and finishing equipment, which includes a Muller Martini Presto II saddle-stitcher installed last year.

In April 2017 the management team of Jordan alongside production director Jamie Gilbert and commercial director Steve Seddon took over the day-to-day running of the business from long-term owners Paul White and Richard Wells.

The 42-staff firm, which serves a broad range of customers and sectors, has since increased its turnover from around £4.7m to just over £5.1m.