Received at the end of June, the £7,765 grant came to the Gateshead-based print and design company from the Business Energy Saving Team (BEST) project, which is being run by renewables company Narec Distributed Energy in collaboration with Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tynside, Northumberland and Sunderland councils.

The BEST money helped JMF to invest in new electrical heating and cooling systems in two of its four units to replace oil-fired systems. The systems cost around £29,000 to install.

JMF chair Michael Foggin said: “We are trying to get away from fossil fuels as a company, and I think everyone in the country is looking to work with companies that are focused on renewables, recyclables and sustainability.

“We are trying to do our bit to help with the heating systems, but we are trying to go green in other ways. We run completely digital printers now rather than our old Heidelberg litho machines, and we recycle the materials that go into the temporary signage we produce.”

The company has installed the new heating systems in its logistics and assembly units, while its head office and metalwork units are likely to be upgraded in the near future. JMF also runs a sales office in Islington, London, which Foggin said was the easiest to convert to completely green energy.

Its print production facilities comprise a Ricoh Pro C7100 production printer and three 1.6m-wide Roland DG wide-format systems. Foggin said a flatbed printer was likely to be next on the company’s agenda as its signage service continues to grow.

Serving a variety of blue-chip clients which includes high street pound shop brands such as Poundstretcher and Poundland, JMF Group also provides finishing services such as numbering, folding, binding and guillotining, as well as design.

JMF employs 30 staff and has sales of £3m.