The £8.5m-turnover company, which was founded in 1999 by former school friends Andy Smith, Aron Priest and Greg Ralph, said it is printing an extra 3.75m pages per month since installing the £280,000 machine.

Essex-based Solopress, which employs 108 staff, is also due to install its sixth Heidelberg Speedmaster SM74 within the next few weeks.

Rik Haynes of Solopress said: "We installed the Xerox press to increase capacity; we are a 24-hour turnaround printer and having two machines helps us to ensure our operation is as reliable as possible. We like the Xerox iGen because of the colour quality and speed."

Haynes added that the company is looking to hire printers and print finishers but is struggling to find experienced staff.

He said: "There does seem to be a bit of a skills gap, which I think is being plugged at the moment by staff from companies that have gone out of business; however, in the mid to long-term, I think finding experienced staff is going to become more and more difficult, as more and more colleges seem to be dropping their print courses. I don't know where the next generation is going to come from."

Solopress also operates a B2B delivery service for print buyers, resellers, design agencies and marketing companies.