The Burgess Hill-based company has bought the unit next door and bought a Heidelberg Stitchmaster ST100 and a second-hand MBO folder. The creation of the department cost around £200,000. Two members of staff were employed as part of the expansion, taking the company's total to 14.

Quentin Press will now take on more booklet and magazine work.

Managing director Paul Dupret said: "Before our finishing machines consisted of a buckle folder and a guillotine. Now we can do leaflets on the original buckle folder and take 16 and 32 page sections on our larger machine. We can take B1 sheets if we need to."

Dupret added that the company would also be able to keep more work in-house, as well as taking more work from sister Gemini businesses.

"In the time it takes us to load a lorry full of work and ship it down the road to a sister company, we can finish it ourselves now," he said. "We are finding prices tighter and margins are decreasing. There is not enough value in the whole package, so keeping things in-house contributes more to overheads."

The expansion came about when the company next door opted to move to a nearby building. Quentin Press had owned its site for 10 years, and had a good relationship with the company.

Dupret added: "We had always said to them if they ever considered selling to let us know.

"They have moved across the yard and bought a bigger unit, and we have our finishing department."

Next on the agenda for the £1.5m-a-year business is achieving colour-management standard ISO 12647-2. Longer term, Dupret is looking to buy a new press with a coater.