The Melksham-based company began offering direct mail work two years ago, adding to existing services that included litho and digital print, e-marketing and fulfilment services.

According to production director Stewart Powell, Superior Creative has recently received more requests for its mailings to be polywrapped.

He said: "This service is to meet existing customer requirements, so that we can provide them with a total solution for direct mail for their promotional material and magazines.

"The demand was for polywrapping because clients perceive that they can achieve a better response if the recipients can see what is in the envelope."

Initially the 135-staff company installed a second-hand machine, but Powell said that it became evident very quickly that it needed to improve productivity.

"This was not possible with a machine that had makeready of one-and-a-half to two hours," he said. "The difficulty was that we could not find a mid-range C4/C5 machine with a decent output and quick makeready, as most of our runs range from 5000 to 50,000 envelopes. With our volumes, it was not viable to invest in a very high end industrial polywrapper."