The new machines, which were purchased at Drupa, were installed last week.

The two machines replace older Heidelberg models that had been with Tewkesbury for more than a decade.

Tewkesbury is now due to upgrade its Prinect pre-press software to the latest seventh generation Prepress Manager specifications, to work alongside the post-press upgrade.

Tewkesbury managing and sales director Peter Siddall said: “This has been going on for about a year and when we went to Drupa that’s when we made our final decision.

“We were originally going to buy a digital folder but decided to get the Stahlfolder as it would be quicker and we could still do digital-type work. So we are utilising its extra capacity to safeguard jobs and the company.

“Printers don't like replacing anything but the press. You can’t visualise the actual benefits of it.”

Approximately 20% of Tewkesbury’s work is digital. It has a Xerox colour device and a Ricoh mono press. On the litho side, it runs a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 with Inpress Control, which prints at 18,000sph.

Siddall said the Polar guillotine was faster and more accurate than the previous model and also allows for MIS info to be sent from his pre-press equipment. It joins a second Polar 92 model.

The folder replaces an outgoing sheetfed Stahlfolder and is Tewkesbury’s second continuous-feed Stahlfolder.

“We looked at others and it was a close race with the folder but, like with everything, we’ve had Stahl before. I’ve had about five over the past 30 years,” added Siddall.

Tewkesbury will also soon be upgrading its shrink-wrapping and laminating facilities, bringing all of this work in-house.

The Gloucestershire-based company employs around 23 staff and has no current recruitment plans.

Having had a difficult few years, Siddall said the company is right back on track in terms of orders and financials.

“The company went through difficult times about four years ago but now we’re rocking and rolling again and have made it much more efficient,” he added.