The press will be up and running at the Leeds-based operation over the summer. It is a used model that has been sourced from the continent.

Joint managing director David McGolpin said: “We’ve been after one for a while, the reason is the type of format we can produce with it inline while making very efficient use of paper.”

The five-unit M4000 handles 965mm-wide reels and has a 1,240mm cut-off. Lettershop prints reel-to-reel and then creates one-piece products using a variety of special finishing lines with overprinting for variable data. It also has a full-colour inkjet overprinting system of its own design, which uses Kodak Stream heads.

“Clients like one-piece mailers, but they run out of space, because most inline products are constrained to 198-200mm,” McGolpin explained. “We can produce five 236mm products out of this cut-off, so we can make a C5 window envelope with a full 210mm letter and inserts inside, fully inline. We’ve got a huge amount of interest in it already.”

Lettershop already has two web presses, an 8pp M110 and 16pp M600. It also has enough space at its 13,000sqm facility to install the M4000 without having to move any of its existing equipment.

“We’ll take a view on the other presses once the new press is up and running. As well as running reel-to-reel it has a combination folder and stackers, so we can produce conventional products on it as well,” McGolpin added. “We want to grow the business.”

The new press should be running in June, McGolpin said it was part of a significant multi-million pound investment at the business.

Lettershop is one of the Top 20 direct marketing printers in the UK, with sales of circa £26m. It employs 210 staff.

YM Group was the subject of an MBO six months ago. The overall group, which includes York Mailing in York and Pindar in Scarborough, has sales of more than £100m and employs circa 580 staff.