MGS, which distributes and installs a range of new and used graphic arts equipment, as well as providing service and maintenance, recorded a 19.7% year-on-year increase in its first-quarter service revenues.

Darren Eliot, managing director of the Leighton Buzzard-based company, said he was delighted with the recent upturn in business, which he believes is due to print directors keeping a much closer eye on capital investment.

He said: "While all suppliers have recognised that companies are shying away from making significant investments in new equipment, the flip side to that coin is that they are having to spend money on maintaining or improving their current pre-press setup, and that's where MGS comes in."

Thanks to the boom in business, MGS is now projecting a 27.1% increase in its full-year 2009 service revenues and has announced plans to appoint two additional service technicians in the near future.

Eliot added that pre-owned equipment, either updated or upgraded by MGS, has also proving popular in the current economic climate.

"Justifying the need for a £60,000-plus purchase, to the bank or to fellow directors, is difficult at the moment," he said.

"Upgrading platemaking equipment to work with new plate technology, or adding new software to make a workflow more efficient, is significantly less expensive, far easier to justify and usually highly productive."

MGS supplies a range of new and used pre-press equipment including imagesetters from ECRM, Agfa, Heidelberg and Esko, and platesetters from ECRM, Agfa, Highwater, Screen, Heidelberg and Esko.

The company also supplies Epson and HP proofing devices and StudioRIP's eponymous low-cost RIP.

Eliot claimed the company's success was based on its ability to offer impartial specialist advice.

"People contact MGS because they know that we will not try to sell them something that they don't need," he said.

"If they want to retain their existing equipment, we can support them. If they want to upgrade their existing solution, we can offer them alternatives. If they do want a complete new systems, we can also offer impartial advice on both pre-owned and new solutions."