Chief executive David Jones said the group had been "surprised how poor it was in terms of demand" on the manufacturing side during the second quarter, but added that summer orders were looking stronger than was typical for this time of year.

Its investment in its c-store document management IT system and the opening of a European sales office for print management will not bring any sales benefit in the first half, but the group is confident of a longer-term reward. Finance director Aidan Hughes will leave the group at the end of the summer.