This year's work required the firm to bind a total of 1.3m diaries. There were around 4,000 different versions of the diaries as each are personalised to individual schools and also tailored to different year groups.

The work for this year's diaries was handled largely on its new Rilecart B599 automatic binding machine, which was installed in March this year.

"A contract like this needs flexible equipment that allows you to ramp up production to meet peak demands," said Blue Sky Wire-binding managing director Neil Atkinson. "Our automatic wire-binding machine has been producing 2,000 books per hour."

He added that the firm was "actively looking for new customers" in the south of England.