Installed at the beginning of October, the Kudu was in production within days, according to Charles Linney, the family firm’s executive director.

“The training was fantastic, actually. It’s a proper ‘plug-and-play’ piece of kit,” he told Printweek.

Replacing an older Inca Onset S40 wide-format press, the 305sqm/hr Kudu leaves production speeds at around the same level, but provides a stunning step up in print quality, Linney said.

The team first saw the machine in action at Fespa in Munich in May.

“The quality was just miles above everything else – and about half an hour later, we had one on order. Everyone that has seen it has been blown away,” he said.

The 1,350dpi, ten-colour machine has joined Linney’s line-up of Inca and EFI machines at the 1,200-employee firm’s Mansfield supersite.

Including neon colours and text as small as 2pt, 3D effects, haptic print and white and spot varnish capabilities, the Kudu is likewise able to print on a wide variety of substrates without primer.

Linney hinted that the team has been so pleased with the “faultless” Kudu that the company might well be soon looking to buy another.

He said: “We never like to have one of anything – back-ups are very important – so we’ll be analysing whether or not to put another one in.

“We always try to stay ahead of our growth curve – but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another one in six months.”

He added: “It’s a really good team that we have put together on the machine, and they really benefited from having both operators and pre-press put through the training. So far, everything has been without issue, it’s great.”

Linney turns over around £120m annually across a variety of marketing and creative services, with a substantial print and packaging presence.