The 12-staff company in Bromley, south London, paid around £76,000 for the press that runs alongside two five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 52s and a single-colour Heidelberg 52.

The Linoprint is outputting about 15 jobs a day such as leaflets, brochures and ranging from 100 to 1,000 runs.

David Spragg, joint owner with his brother Mark, said: “Our customers were asking us for more short-run work and as a B3 printer we are nearer the digital market in respect of our press sizes.”

Spragg found that plenty of work could be converted to digital and some jobs even looked better on the digital press, for instance on wove stocks.

“By taking on those smaller quantities we are keeping customers loyal,” he said of the machine that was installed just over a month ago.

Spragg singled out the 6pp A4 format for praise. “That format has been used from the start and the ability to coat is relevant for some jobs. We are even handling three or four brochures a week on it, some of 40 pages.”

He added: “In just the first month we can see it’s the right move, with digital opening up new channels - about five new jobs a week.

“It will push us into new markets and lets us offer a complete service – it's like a catapult: we can use it on the work that we currently produce and also to attract new customers.”

He said some new digital work came from existing customers but that the firm is also bringing in more work, primarily B2B from companies of all sizes.

T&C Printers was set up in 1970 by David and Mark’s father Terry and his brother Colin. Print “has been in their blood since childhood”, according to the company, which is also developing a web-to-print service that could also boost B2C business.