The matrix of waste extraction pipes, installed at the firm's factory last month, works like a giant vacuum, sucking the waste materials generated during the label manufacturing process into a series of shredders, and then a compactor.

Watermill Press managing director Dale Deacon said the new automated, continuous waste extraction process will bring three main benefits to the firm.

“The first benefit is that we are able to run our presses faster because we can strip our waste matrix on the press more cleanly and efficiently than when we used to rewind the waste up into rolls,” said Deacon.

“We’ve also lost all the downtime we used to have when we had to stop the press to cut the waste rolls out when they’d built up to a given diameter.

The firm’s operators previously had to physically transport waste rolls out to the waste areas outside the building, throw them into the skip and then come back in and start up the press again.

“This will increase our overall factory efficiency – we’ve calculated it should increase throughput by over 10%,” said Deacon.

“We’re also saving a significant amount of money on the waste disposal costs because this system shreds and compacts the waste and, consequently, the number of uplifts and swap-outs on the skips has come down by about 75%.”

He added: “The installation has a sophisticated built-in heat recovery system that will also have a beneficial impact on our carbon footprint and heating bills.”

Watermill Press is a certified living wage employer with 26 members of staff and a turnover of £7.5m. It manufactures product identification labels for clients in the food and soft drinks industries including Marks & Spencer, Britvic, Princes Food and the Robert McBride Group.

These clients use the firm’s labels to create high-quality barcodes for case and pallet identification.

The business, which has been shortlisted by the Living Wage Foundation for the 2015 Living Wage Champion Awards, has also recently installed 750 solar panels across the roof of its premises and invested £1m in three AB Graphic Omega label converting machines to support its continued growth.

The firm also operates seven other Omega label presses and six desktop thermal label printers.