The installation at the main Pensord site in Blackwood is a like-for-like 1,150mm guillotine replacement but the machine going into Cambrian Printers in Aberystwyth will replace an existing 1,370mm-wide model.

Operations director Karl Gater said: “Cutting is an area which is least analysed and looked at but which is absolutely critical to production.

“The guillotines take work from litho and digital presses and feed so many functions including laminating, stitching and binding and they are also a backup for the automatic trimmers, too.”

He added: “For B1, the [1,150mm] configuration is just right and these guillotines give us the latest technology, replacing kit that is 10 to 15 years old.

“The technology has changed, and we like to invest and keep up to date. This is welcomed by the operators because the touchscreen, programming and Optiknife knife changing make it easy equipment to operate.”

2018 installations at Pensord included a Komfi Amiga 52 thermal laminator, an eight-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 with the full suite of ‘Push to Stop’ autonomous printing technology and the firm’s second highly automated Stahlfolder TH 82-P.

Cambrian Printers was acquired by Pensord in 2017. Overall the group employs around 180 staff.