The machine, which squares the spine on stitched books, was bought privately from the previous user and installed at the Preston, Lancashire-based trade finisher’s 1,020sqm premises last week.

“If you take an A4 book, rather than making it 210mm you would make it 215mm and this machine squares the spine, so you end up with a 210mm A4 book but with a squared perfect-bound spine,” said ECM co-owner Andrew Wilson, who runs the business alongside his brother Simon Wilson.

“Last year we did over 60,000 school books and we would have to fold and stitch the text and then they’d all go out to be square-backed.

“So we thought we could cut out the two or three days of them driving round the country looking for someone to do this. It will now be one process from flat sheet to finished item for them.”

He added: “We’re hoping to get the same volume of school books this year, but with the addition of this machine they will get the books into the schools earlier and we will earn the additional money for it.

“We also plan to send out some samples to other printers to see if there’s any other interest from different markets.”

ECM has had to modify some of its existing kit to facilitate the arrival of the Watkiss device. A Muller Martini stitching line has been turned around to run the other way while extra presser/stackers have been added onto an MBO folder to ensure sheets are smooth.

“The guy who has been running the Watkiss has looked after it for years and said that he couldn’t fault it. It’s such a beautiful, simplistic piece of kit for what it does,” said Wilson.

ECM had initiated a 12-month investment programme geared at taking it into new finishing areas last summer, when it installed various MBO kit.

In 2017 it had installed a Gordian Strapping Strapack JK-5000 ram bundling automatic strapping machine and added a new unit to an existing Smipack T452 heat shrink tunnel.

The business, which also operates Renz wire-binders and collating machinery from Col-Tec, has 16 staff and predominantly serves small to medium sized printers in the North of England.