SP has made a £300,000 investment on a Horizon 4000 computer-aided binding system, which can handle 4,000 books per hour.

According to SP's marketing and communications manager Kevin Godfrey, the machine will probably run at half pace to start with.

He added: "Even at 2,000 books per hour it is an increase in capacity for us and it means that if we bring in further work we have room there to manoeuvre.

"We have already won business on the back of the machine that we would not have been able to get without it coming in."

Godfrey said that SP, which employs almost 3,000 people globally, had big plans for the CFI site and that further news was expected throughout the course of 2009.

The new Horizon machine replaces an existing Horizon BQ440, which was bought when CFI first made the move into security document printing.

However, the company will retain an automatic BQ270 that offers additional capacity.

Tim McAuliffe, production director for SP, said: "When the BQ440 was bought, we were just getting into this market. We're now a leading player and as such wanted to strengthen our processes."

SP bought CFI in August last year for £9.5m. It was the fourth investment of the year for the 90-year-old £235m-turnover company.

CFI outdates its parent company – it was founded in 1897. It employs more than 100 people, with around 70 based in London.