The Malton, Yorkshire-based company also took back the lease on a neighbouring 370sqm building, which it built 14 years ago but leased out immediately. The company's overall premises size is now 840sqm.

The Stitchliner, installed in December, cost around £165,000, with the remainder of the investment likely to be spent on large-format kit and other finishing equipment. The new machine replaces an older StitchLiner, the older model's four towers are being retained for collating.

In Print managing director Paul Coulson said: “We wanted to really improve output. That’s the third one from Horizon that we’ve had. They’ve always been very good and the one we're replacing is 10 years old. It’s really just making our performance the best we possibly can.

“The collating, which is on the long edge, makes a hell of a difference and is superior to the old machine. Then we’ve got the book press as well to give that extra finish.” 

Coulson added that the machine is mainly being used for runs of up to 200,000 books.

Running at maximum speeds of around 6,000bph, the StitchLiner can fold, stitch and trim a flat sheet in one process. It has a three-knife trimmer plus landscape feeding and saddle-stitching flows, and takes a wide variety of stocks.

In Print took the lease back off its neighbouring premises on 1 February, but Coulson said it will take around three months for machinery to be moved out, with refurbishment and moving costs of around £50,000. The new site will be purely for finishing, and will house the StitchLiner along with perfect binding, folding and laminating equipment. 

It runs two Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52s, one 10-colour and one two-colour, plus a Roland VersaCamm VS-640

The family-run 16-staff firm, which was founded in 1983, produces a variety of book, commercial and large-format work.