The spend included printing and cutting equipment, modifying its factory to accommodate the equipment and enable an efficient workflow and recruiting specialists to operate the new kit.

A Vutek QS2000 UV-flatbed press and Zund G3 table made up the bulk of the spend at its Coventry, UK site.

"We think the combination of these two machines will take us into a new category," said Melville chief operating officer Jason Topp. "For our exhibition organiser clients this opens up bespoke furniture and graphics, and supplementary to that it takes us into areas where we didn’t have a viable production platform before."

In addition to show graphics and directional signage, Topp believes it will enable the firm to offer a new class of bespoke branding graphics for shell-scheme exhibitors.

"We touch 30,000 exhibitors per year, and this new platform means we can really enhance the look of those who use shell schemes," he said. "We could do it before but it was tricky. This allows us to do it efficiently, economically and quite beautifully. Good graphics really illuminate a show."

He added that behind the latest investment was the full support of Melville’s US parent company Global Experience Specialists (GES), at which Topp is also a senior vice president.

"This investment was made possible by the involvement of GES," he said. "We have Vuteks throughout America, and Melville gained from our experience. Melville Graphics Director Steve Comar came to our site in Las Vegas to see what we did there."