The £250,000, Clitheroe-based facility will be run alongside the company’s existing factory in China, but will offer much faster turnaround times; cups printed from the new factory can be delivered within three to five days, compared to around three weeks for orders that have to be air-freighted from the Far East.

With the addition of the new site, the Printed Cup Company will be able to take orders for as little as one thousand to in excess of one million paper cups.

The £1m-turnover Printed Cup Company was founded in 2005 by Mark Woodward, who began the business from his front room after being made redundant in his fifties following a long career in the packaging industry.

The company’s turnover has doubled over the past 12 months, and it has taken on two additional members of staff within the past six months.

Woodward said: "We are expecting to employ nine people at the new factory within two years' time. There is a lot of demand for short lead times from places such as marketing and event companies, who are used to a fast turnaround for their other print requirements, and who don’t necessarily want to wait three weeks to have their paper cups delivered from China.

"Most other UK-based manufacturers print volumes of at least 100,000 and up, but our business model is to print short runs of around one thousand and deliver them within three to five days.

"The printing process we use is called DirectXPrinting, which is a new development in the marketplace that will enable us to cost-effectively produce short runs. We are offering 100% coverage and it is a four-colour process."

Woodward declined to disclose details of what machinery the company is installing.

The Printed Cup Company is forecasting that the Clitheroe facility will enable the company to double its turnover within a year.

Woodward added: "We are anticipating that the new site will bring about a step change for our business and think that our turnover will be £2m by March 2013."

The manufacturer predicts that around 75% of the cups it produces at the Clitheroe factory will be for export, and it is actively targeting countries such as the US and Ireland. It has built a new European sales office adjoining the Clitheroe factory.

The Printed Cup Company’s new factory was part-financed by the Rural Development Fund, which gave the company 50% towards the cost of its machinery, and which is designed to help certain areas make the transition from being agricultural to industrial.

It will be officially opened by Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans on 10 April.