The 12-staff company in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, which also has a site 10 miles away in Barnsley, replaced a Matrix 370 with the wider Matrix 530DP last month.

“A lot of work is in runs of 25 to 2,000 and sending it out is expensive,” said director John Brailsford. “We spent £15,000 on the kit but make enormous savings in costs and production time.

“In the past a 500-sheet job would be sent out to trade and we would get it back two days later. Now it's done in an hour, all packed and wrapped.

“Costs using the new Matrix double-sided laminator work out at around £18 per 1,000, but if I sent it out to a trade company it would be more like £50-plus.

“We don't chase turnover – and this machine won't add an inch to it – but it will help profits, which is what we do chase. And we don't fight on price, we sell on service.”

John Brailsford Printers makes £1.2m turnover and was started around 30 years ago when John Brailsford produced his first print job aged 16.

The company runs two four-colour Presstek DI presses, a 34 and a 52, a two-colour Heidelberg Printmaster and five Xerox 700 Series digital machines.

Its output includes banners and outdoor signage, stationery, business cards, leaflets, notepads, deskpads, booklets and magazines.

The new Matrix Duplex system, designed and manufactured by Leicestershire-based Vivid Laminating Technologies, laminates both sides in one pass, halving production time.

“Pneumatic roller pressure allows us to use standard OPP film, even with heavy coverage digital print so the savings are enormous, at around 70% less than using our previous digital film laminator,” added Brailsford.

“Our first Matrix was great but the cost implications of the digital film for laminating digital print from our Xerox presses made the process uneconomical on longer runs. With the MX-530DP, a 2,000 run just seems like a short sprint and the job’s done.”