At the heart of the investment was a six-colour-plus-white Fujifilm Acuity 1600 LED.

“The reason behind the installation was to offer ‘wet-proofing’ offline and expand into digital print, but because it can print four-colour, white and varnish it can mimic nearly everything we do on our litho presses,” said Oriel managing director Richard Simms.

He added that the company would also look to add short-run self-adhesive vinyl labels and a packaging sample service once the Acuity beds in.

“We’re just edging into the digital UV market really. But because we offer UV litho this really complements what we already do,” he said.

The Acuity was installed last month and, according to Simms, the Hull-based company has spent the past few weeks profiling a wide range of substrates including polypropylene, PVC and PET.

“It’s an incredibly versatile machine and we’re just getting our teeth into it now,” he added.

To support the circa £50,000 investment in the Acuity the firm, which offers commercial, POS, packaging and plastic stationery products, has also upgraded its GMG ColorServer colour management software as well as the addition of some bolt-on features to its existing Fujifilm XMF workflow.

The £3.6m-turnover, 42-staff confidential litho trade printer installed a £2m Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102 seven-colour press with coater two years ago, which runs alongside a seven-colour CD 102.