The launch follows the formation of the Prestige Group of companies, which features Prestige Graphics as its hub, with support from specialist sister firms AGI Prestige, which provides packaging expertise throughout Europe and Asia, and FAB Design, the group's London-based design arm.

Mark White, managing director of Prestige Graphics, said: "We have worked hard to formulate a group structure that will deliver effectively to future market requirements."

According to Prestige, the decision to target FMCG businesses came in response to requests from a growing number of companies in the sector for direct services.

This has led to the launch of the ‘Direct to Brand' initiative, which will compliment the Essex-based company's retail division and offer a "total brand management package" to the FMCG clients courting Prestige.

"This end-to-end proposition aligns with the group structure perfectly and offers seamless integration of services typically provided by several disconnected providers in a supply chain," said Prestige Graphics sales and marketing director Don Parr.

The initiative is supported by two production studios in Southend-on-Sea and Leeds, as well as Prestige Group's creative agency Fab Design, based in east London.

Prestige has based its new proposition on a combination of its own asset management toolkit, OPAL, and Kodak's Design2Launch brand asset management and image workflow software.

"OPAL has evolved continuously to include real-time project tracking, live and historical reporting, remote viewing and approvals, digital asset gallery and workflow management," said Parr.

"In addition, Prestige has partnered with Kodak to offer what is arguably the industry's most efficient and powerful marketing automation and communication technology."

Prestige Graphics, which was founded in 1977, said that the addition of Kodak's Design2Launch software would add "immeasurable strength and credibility to [its] value proposition".