The business has taken on a Muller Martini Ventura MC 160 thread sewing machine and a Kolbus KM 610.A perfect binder in the last month, with the first jobs being run on the kit this week.

The KM 610.A has gone into a space previously filled by a Muller Martini Acoro A5 perfect binder that was installed in 2007 and has now been sold on. Park also considered kit from Wohlenberg but felt that the Kolbus model was best suited to its requirements.

“This investment firstly upgrades our existing perfect and PUR binding capability, in terms of both speed and quality, and secondly enables us to internalise thread sewing, which we currently outsource,” said Park managing director Alison Branch.

“It also enables us to internalise OTA binding, which is where the spine of the cover doesn’t actually affix to the book block so it allows the books to open more broadly.”

With the new kit the company can also now bind larger and thicker books up to 317mm wide and 70mm thick and can bind 6pp and 8pp covers as one pass rather than two.

“With the new technology you also require much less paper to make ready, which is a very important consideration. And we can run the PUR glue at a lower temperature, which draws less energy,” said Branch.

“Also, by internalising we save all the carbon emissions of the transport to and back from whoever we might outsource to.”

Park Communications employs 130 staff and turns over £14m from its 4,370sqm site in Beckton, East London.

In 2017 the business invested in a second highly specified Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 as well as wide-format kit from EFI, Fujifilm and HP to help establish its Park Display division.