"Point-of-sale takes up so much of our finishing capacity and that is where those jobs are won or lost," said production director Mark Turner. "We can handle an additional £3m-£4m worth of ultra-wide-format work without affecting the rest of the business."

Although well regarded for poster printing, including winning the PrintWeek Poster Printer of the Year award eight out of the past 10 years, Woolwich, London-based SMP had fought shy of the digital market due to low margins.

"That market has moved on now with Clear Channel and JCDecaux moving to one-piece skins," he said. "We've been putting out that work, so we decided to bring it in-house."

To handle printing it has invested in an HP Scitex 5300 5m-wide UV machine and additional finishing equipment.

"Customers are asking for banners and backdrops for interiors and the HP is great for those ultra-wide applications and for outdoor," Turner said.

He also added that the UV-cured ink enables the firm to print onto lower-cost substrates than its solvent machines.

To house the finishing kit, which includes a Miller Weldmaster hot air welder and an eyeleting machine, the firm has installed a mezzanine floor.

As part of its recent investment, it has also upgraded its Agfa M-Press to the latest Tiger configuration.

Turner said that the upgrade enabled the firm to output at up to 1,583sqm per hour, and at 500sqm per hour the output was indistinguishable from its litho work.

He added that the Tiger had improved consistency making it simpler for the company to colour match its digital output to litho – all its work is produced to the ISO 12647 standard.