The company, which runs Heidelberg Speedmaster SM and SX five-colour presses with coaters, replaced a Fuji Luxel system that was eight years old and in need of an upgrade.

“By switching to Heidelberg we can benefit from the service levels in Scotland,” said managing director Jim Thomson, who works with wife Veronica and sons Barry and Michael.

Their 13-staff business turns over £1.6m and specialises in packaging for the high-end spirits market, such as whisky, gin and vodka, producing labels, cartons and promotional material.

“The technology won't push us into new markets or add to our turnover but it gets Heidelberg plates to the presses and links into the software.”

Thomson Print & Packaging extended its Prinect workflows from pressroom software to include the Prepress Manager package.

“We had excellent training at start-up and this is going to continue with secondary training in two weeks’ time to iron out any issues we have come across now it is up and running.”

Thomson Print & Packaging, which offers foil blocking, forme cutting, embossing, debossing, creasing and ram punching, recently added a new Gietz foil blocker and also a reel-fed self-adhesive line in addition to its latest spend with Heidelberg.

“This focus on in-house control has paid off, enabling the business to ride out the recession and to currently be enjoying good sales levels,” Thomson added.