The press, which came from the failed Welsh book printer Creative Print & Design (CPD), was installed at the end of May and is now up to full production.

Peter Leach, managing director at JF Print, claimed that the press, which has been fitted with a new dampening system, would give publishers the option of having long-grain books printed in the UK.

"We wanted a press that would produce a long-grain product because lot of overseas markets will not buy a cross-grain product," he said.

"Not only will we be able to win work from UK publishers currently placing work on the continent, but with the fa­vourable exchange rate, we could also compete with French and German printers."

Leach added that export sales at the company had grown from zero to 8% of turnover over the past year.

The company is now looking to appoint an agent to the German market.

According to the Sparkford-based book printer, long-grain books are perceived as higher quality to their short-grain (cross-grain) rivals and are especially popular with publishers of children’s, reference and religious books.

Long-grain books are said to be easier to open than short-grain ones because the grain direction in the paper runs parallel to the spine. This also makes the books lie flatter and stay open.

Leach argued that the UK had isolated itself in terms of producing short-grain books while the rest of Europe printed long-grain.

"This has led to a situation where French publishers, for instance, will not buy anywhere other than from French printers," he said.