A PRE-PRESS supply company at Clifton Moor, York, has clinched a £250,000 deal with a Danish company.

At the same time Graeme Hunter, managing director of Impress Creative Imaging which is supplying 500 gravure engraved rollers to Denmark, has announced an investment in new equipment totalling - co-incidentally about £250,000 in electronic engraving equipment.

"Easy come, easy go, but you have to speculate to accumulate," quipped Mr Hunter whose latest contract is with Danisco Flexibles, of Horsens, Denmark. The rollers will be used in the manufacture of laminated coffee bags for major retailers throughout the UK and Europe.

The deal, worth £250,000 over 12 months, adds substantially to the £3 million turnover of Impress Creative Imaging which is part of the German Janoschka Group, based at the edge of the Black Forest.

It also means that the 34 employed in York should expand by another two by the end of the year.

The company's success in Denmark is perfectly timed, because Mr Hunter, whose business restructured earlier this year with the help of Business Link North Yorkshire, has been invited to tell its exporting story as part of York and North Yorkshire Export Forum's Talking Exports! initiative.

And it happened just as the Export Forum was organising a four-day visit to Copenhagen for March 2001 - a package which will include travel and accommodation pre- and post- event briefings in the UK and Denmark, meetings with Danish buyers in relevant market sectors, visits to local businesses and an opportunity to explore Copenhagen.

Talking Exports! invites firms to recount their exporting stories in support of the Forum's Achieving Export Excellence campaign funded by £600,000 of European Community cash to develop exporting opportunities throughout the region.

Recommending the Forum's help, Mr Hunter said: "I set up this contract through my own contacts and it is proving crucial to the business.

"The people we supply are a pleasure to work with, which also makes it enjoyable."

Businesses interested in taking part in the trade mission which leaves from Manchester Airport on March 18 and returns on March 21 should contact Business Link North Yorkshire on 01904 686000.