Thumb through a British mail order catalogue or browse a magazine or Sunday supplement and there is a fair chance that it will have started its journey in the Liverpool suburb of Speke, where German investment has created a huge printing plant that its backers say will have a significant impact on the UK print market.

The £120m ($246m) commitment by Prinovis is one of Liverpool’s biggest inward investments in recent years and will have created 420 jobs when fully operational next year. The plant uses the gravure method – traditionally used for long-run, high-quality printing – to produce colour output for clients including News International, Ikea, Tesco and Littlewoods (the last a near neighbour of Prinovis in Speke).