The Birmingham-based firm chose the guillotine, which replaced a 52cm laser cutter, as it was already a Heidelberg customer and was confident about the quality of the manufacturer’s machines.

Director Darran Squires said: "When we were looking for a new machine, we had the 66 in mind as the 78 would have been overkill for the formats that we specialise in.

"We looked at the secondhand market and we saw Polar 66 guillotines that were 13 years old and still selling for £7,500.

"Heidelberg are due to bring out a new version of the 66 so they were running a promotion on the model we went for, which cost around £12,500. So buying a new machine seemed a much better investment."

In addition to the company’s litho capacity, it has two digital presses and the Polar 66, which is due to be installed by September, will be used for both its offset and digital work.

Family-run Optima Print has five staff and was founded 11 years ago.