Research conducted by graphic arts server specialist Silicon Systems suggests that the repro company is nearly dead.

The firm surveyed potential customers about the nature of their business and found that far fewer firms class themselves as exclusively or in part a repro company. This year 207 out of the 7,522 firms approached said repro was part of their services compared to over 700 last year.

Managing director Robin Horsley attributed the change to printers bringing repro in-house, which he backed up with the finding that for print firms with a turnover of between 250,000 and 1.5m the average number of Mac workstations rose by 40% to just over five machines per firm.

"It goes a long way to explaining where repro as a function is going," he said. "Overwhelmingly its going to print."