EAST Riding Sacks of Stamford Bridge can now begin bagging customers in fresh markets thanks to a new £1.5 million computerised printing press.

The company, which produces 90 million paper sacks per year for flour mills, dairies, agricultural businesses and manufacturers of foods, chemicals and building materials, borrowed £1 million from Yorkshire Bank for the project and funded the remainder from profits.

Most of its clients are wholesalers but the higher print quality delivered by the new Fischer & Krecke equipment means that companies selling through retailers can now be targeted.

Sacks with hundreds of different designs are produced at the premises on the Full Sutton Industrial Estate and the new press cuts down on time spent between print runs -previously a problem for the company.

Robert Mabbett, managing director of East Riding Sacks, said: "Yorkshire Bank not only helped us finance the press but guided us through the process of buying it from Germany."

Graham Watson, a manager at Yorkshire Bank's regional business centre which arranged the funding said: "We're protecting the company against fluctuations in currency values and cash flow pressures by helping it to manage exchange rate risk and implementing a staged repayment programme for the funding.

"Robert's latest investment is one of several upgrades we've backed with a total of £6 million since 1997. These have helped East Riding Sacks increase its annual turnover to £16 million."

Updated: 08:45 Tuesday, August 13, 2002