The five-colour machine will be installed along with a Baumann pile turner at the firm's Tamworth base early next year, replacing a two-colour MAN Roland 800.

KEP managing director Mark Plowman said the new press, which will join two Thieme screen presses and two Durst 205 digital machines, would "complete a full range of devices for poster-sized work".

"We believe that with the latest makeready facilities on the 900XXL press, we will be able to switch jobs to litho when run lengths hit 100 copies," he said.

KEP has made room for the press by moving part of its finishing department and its screen-printing section out of its existing 3,500sqm building and into a factory unit nearby.

MAN Roland director of sheetfed sales Gary Doman said that KEP's attitude to its staff was the key to its success. "Machinery itself does not make a good print firm and Plowman has always invested heavily in his staff," he added.