The two slitting machines were installed at Baker's Brentwood site around eight weeks ago and replace a pair of 20-year-old Parkland devices.

The Diamond slitter comprises a duplex rewind section with rotary slitting and control console, a separate shaftless unwind stand and reel lift and an offload trolley. Meanwhile the Solitaire slitter comprises a free-standing slitting/unwinding machine together with a separate shafted unwind stand and an offload trolley.

The Diamond and Solitaire devices, known on the site as Neil and Bruce, can slit at speeds of up to 500m/minute with maximum web widths of 1,650mm and 600mm respectively.

Production manager Paul Sykes said investing in the new technology had brought down production times and improved processes for operators.

He said: “We have to make sure the quality of our work is there so that the customers are getting exactly what they need. At Bakers we have a huge range of different materials and we like people to come to us for the high-end, weird and wonderful products, as well as the norm.

“What Ashe offers is perfect for what we needed, and particularly because they are fairly close to us up in Ipswich, we can work closely with them when we need them.”

He added that the quality of the new devices was “fantastic”.

The improvements offered by the new installs includes: central gangways through the lines so operators can access materials and rollers easily; a differential winder that evens out the amount of torque/tension across the bar so multiple reels of different sizes can be slit correctly at the same time; lay-down rollers that push the material down and the air out between the layers, therefore reducing movement; blade lights; a bowed roller to enable running films without creasing and touch screens on both slitters.

Baker Materials, part of Baker Labels, is a distributor of self-adhesive and non self-adhesive label materials. It is based in Brentwood, Essex. Baker Labels employs 97 staff and turns over around £10m a year.