The Wolverhampton company bought a Horizon BQ470 PUR from IFS and installed the kit, which is in addition to existing machines, just before Christmas.

“We won an ongoing contract for PUR bound books through one of the agencies we work with,” said project manager Nicole Hunt.

“This was something we were outsourcing before as the majority of work was small runs. With the new job it made financial sense to invest in a perfect binder.

“We haven't worked out yet what it will save us on outsourcing costs but we take on jobs for as little as one book up to thousands for a big client. Not only are we keeping costs in house but giving ourselves more control over the production times.”

She said the stand out feature on the Horizon was its quick makeready times.

Lion FPG was set up 75 years ago and has more than 80 staff serving clients from blue-chip companies to online customers.

It runs commercial and sheetfed presses including a black-only Goss and two Heidelbergs, an XL 75 and a 102. Digital presses include two Ricoh 9110s and a mono Konica Minolta.

Hunt said the Horizon was easy and fast to set up and simple to operate. It had robust build, finished jobs quickly and let operators “jump on and off”, allowing them to be more productive.

“Because of its ease of use and quick set up it will support the production for our web-to-print service much more effectively.

“It has also given us the confidence to go out and sell perfect binding more as a service and we are looking forward to it generating greater revenue.”

She added the kit would help Lion FPG be more responsive to market changes: "More customers are demanding short-run, high-quality work.”

The small-footprint, 1,350bph PUR perfcet binder features four-clamps and interchangeable EVA / PUR glue options. In addition it can bind books up to 65mm thick and offers fully automated set-up through an icon-based LCD touchscreen.

List prices for the BQ470 PUR start from £85,000.