“This is not the end. It’s an evolution, it’s a start,” said commercial chief executive Simon Ward, who spearheaded the strategy.

Group managing director Brian Edwards added: “It’s about unifying us as a group and taking the next step forward; simply speaking, working together as one business.”

The initiative is focused on promoting a single sales, marketing and customer service strategy driven by a group sales force tasked with moving St Ives away from being a “commodity printer making lower and lower returns”.

The goal is to position St Ives where it can challenge the raison d’être of print managers, whose time, Ward believes, is coming to an end.

“If you want cheap print then go to a print manager. If you want quality, innovation and development then come to us,” he said.

The figure was quoted at St Ives’ ‘Working Together’ conference, which was attended by more than 200 delegates.

Following the event earlier this month, its message was taken on a whistle-stop tour of the group’s sites last week.

The national conference, the group’s first, also heralded a rebrand of the firm’s divisions, introducing common logo design and the relaunch of its corporate website.

“Now we can confidently say we are not only thinking and acting as one business, but presenting ourselves that way too,” said Ward.