Nearly 30 companies visited the two-day event earlier this month, branded 'from Austerity to Prosperity', to see the GH525 five colour B3 press configured with an optional swing-away numbering and perforating unit, as well as Hans Gronhi’s Speedy 56 CTP system B3 metal thermal device.

Joint managing director Graham Moorby said the open house had been "fantastic", having followed on heels of a similar event at the company at the end of June, from which Printers Superstore had already secured four orders.

"The really good thing from our point of view was that companies came from all over the country, from northern Scotland and from the south coast. And we had big B1 and B2 companies, including some of the largest in the UK, as well as owner operators, so the spread was there," he said.

Moorby said the September event had already produced agreements in principle for two machines and generated a lot of interest for the company to follow up for the remainder of the year. "We're extremely busy now - we just want to install as many presses as possible."

He said that the attitude towards the Chinese-manufactured machines had changed, with one customer telling him: "I'd seen the adverts in the past and thought, 'that's not for me'. But you know what Graham, I can't believe I've gone and bought one."

Printers Superstore is on track for double-digit sales for the year, and Chinese manufacturer Hans Gronhi is having a record year, having manufactured and sold more than 380 presses, according to Moorby.

While the manufacturer is expected to have a B2 machine on show at next year's Drupa, "the buzz is about B3 for us," he said.

He added that companies were interested in replacing short-run digital volumes, citing "a traditional litho firm that went into digital and discovered that it was paying £4,000 a month in click charges."

"We have finance arrangements from £600 a week, and with set up of just a few minutes and having the edge on colour. They're thinking, 'we're liking litho again'," he said.

The GH525 press includes CIP networking, auto-plate change, stream feeding, touch screen ink profile adjustment, auto wash up, remote register control and offers low power consumption and compact footprint.