The Ratiobinder with a 15 station ZU840 gatherer and a three knife trimmer has been installed at subsidiary C&R Printing Services in Enderby, Leicester.

It comes with a PUR hot melt glue facility and was bought alongside a thread sewing machine.

As well as handling internal work from C&R Printing Services, the machine will take in work from sister company Taylor Bloxham.

Kevin Moss, marketing manager at PPG, said: "What we have found over recent months is that we are handling increasing amounts of square back books. We were placing a tremendous amount of work out to the trade.

"We decided that there was enough business for us to justify the investment and retain the work in-house. We are by no means full capacity and we will be offering the machine out to the trade as well."

The finishing department offers die cutting, auto Wiro binding, calendar making, folding, stitching, guillotining, and flow wrapping alongside a large number of bench operations.

C&R Printing Services offers services including conceptual design, photography, web design, large format print, canvas framing and prepress.

It runs Heidelberg presses, up to six colours, as well as a digital department using an HP Indigo five-colour press.

C&R Printing Services has been part of the PPG since 1978. It has a turnover of around £3.5m and employs 40 staff. PPG expects to turn over £25m this year, and currently employs around 210 staff.