The expansion is centered on the company's flagship plant in Japan – the Tsukuba factory –  which will double in size to become "the world's biggest" when the 15-month building programme, which starts this September, is completed.

Yoshiharu Komori, president and chief executive, said strong growth worldwide, especially outside Japan, was the root of the investment.

"We want to meet increasing demand for our sheet-fed and web-offset presses. The market needs automation, flexible configurations, quality and return on investment," he said.

The Tsukuba plant opened late 2005 to meet demand for the B1 Lithrone S40 sheet-fed series. The latest phases of development will add a further 27,000sqm to a total 60,000sqm of space for manufacturing, assembly, testing, research, demonstration and training.

The making of web-offset and banknote presses, previously handled in Sekiyado, will be moved to Tsukuba where production of all large-format presses will be centralised.

Manufacturing will be streamlined to squeeze down lead times and cut production costs. Sekiyado will make component parts, while assembly of smaller presses will remain at Yamagata.

Komori is also expanding its Graphic Technology Center at Tsukuba for demonstrations and training. Technical centres will also open in Prague and Kuala Lumpur later this year.

Net sales at the Japanese manufacturer rose 9% last year to Y155bn. In the past five years, sales turnover has grown almost 65% and exports have contributed 73% of total turnover.