The Croydon-based company was forced to wait an additional week for the £69,000 guillotine after the recent riots caused extensive damage to surrounding businesses and buildings.

Graphico owner Shaukat Dungarwalla said: "Our road was closed for four days as the fires were still simmering but we were alright and we did get our Polar in when the road re-opened."

Graphico chose the Polar guillotine, which was installed four weeks ago, after previously buying presses from Heidelberg and being pleased with the service it received.

The £2.8m-turnover company, which added a Suprasetter 74 CtP device two years ago, plans to buy a Heidelberg B2 press over the next few months as a replacement for its existing two-colour.

Dungarwalla said: "We are a Heidelberg house from pre-press to finishing. We liked the Polar technology and Heidelberg’s aftercare service is very good. We needed to be sure that there would be good support in place if anything goes wrong with the guillotine because otherwise our business could come to a standstill."

The majority of Graphico’s clients are from the service sector and include hotels, restaurants and banks.