The colour printer said it has never been more important to increase efficiency and now is a prudent time to invest and prepare for the future.

Managing director of the £8.6m-turnover company, Kevin Creechan, said the new presses are more flexible than the three SM 102s - a 12, six and five colour - that they replace at its Glasgow site.

Creechan said: "The XL 105-12-P is capable of handling stocks up to 0.6mm perfected in one pass and this is ideal given the broad range of work we handle."

Each press will be supplied with Inpress Control, Heidelberg's inline spectrophotometer which automatically adjusts colour and register to provide non-stop makeready.

He said: "The speed increase is significant and we expect Inpress Control to reduce our paper content given that, in demonstration, colour and register was achieved in very few sheets.

"This resulted in quicker job delivery and reduced paper consumption."

The first press, the six-colour, arrives in June with the long perfector following in July. Both will have closed loop colour and the company is now looking towards JDF linking its Optimus MIS system with Prinect production workflows.

The family business also has plans to grow its digital offering, and by the end of 2009 hopes that 10% of its turnover will be from digital work.

Creechan said: "The digital market is evolving for us. I believe that to be successful, you now have to offer both digital and litho products if you're involved in the commercial print sector.

However, he added that given the economic circumstances there is still "extreme price pressure" in the market.

"I don’t expect that to change during 2009 and probably beyond. It will be a very challenging year for the market," he said.

Some 80% of the company’s clients are in Scotland and its sectors include advertising, commercial, construction, design, education, fine arts and retail.