The machine has been installed at the £5m-turnover company's Newark facility, one of three sites the Midlands printer has.

Sales director Andy Storey said: "We generally expect to get a five-year return on investment but with the StitchLiner this is likely to be just three years.

"This is partly due to the fact we can quote for much shorter runs because we know we can turn it around much faster."

Storey added that the company had reviewed the market and felt it needed to take action in the face of decreasing print runs and shorter turnaround times, which ultimately meant its post press department needed upgrading.

"A major benefit of now completing the work in-house is that we can take on urgent jobs and change our schedules according to priority," he explained. "The automation on the Horizon means we can cut into longer runs if needs be and, of course, we have the option of overtime too."

Willsons Printers has three businesses, Willsons Printers, Newark, which runs a five-colour Heidelberg Anicolor and two iGen3s, Willsons Printers, Grimsby, where it uses a four-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster and Progressive Printers, Nottingham, which operates a B1 Komori.  It employs 72 staff across the three sites.