A LANARKSHIRE printing firm which is diversifying into making machines is targeting up to £10 million of revenues over the next three years through sales of its Behemoth creation, after securing £850,000 of funding from Clydesdale Bank.

Newhouse-based DPi Print, run by Geoff Hall, has set up a subsidiary called DPI-Technologies as it pursues its prototyping and building of the Behemoths, which it believes will “generate considerable interest from printing businesses across the globe”.

DPi Print employs 15 people and in 2010 achieved record annual turnover of £1 million.

It plans, through DPI-Technologies, to recruit about 10 engineering staff as it aims to fulfil its ambitions for the Behemoth.

DPi Print has been helped in its diversification plans by economic development agency Scottish Enterprise (SE).

It has received support from taxpayer-funded Scottish Development International, a joint venture between SE and the Scottish Government, in targeting new overseas markets and had its manufacturing operations reviewed by the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service.

A spokeswoman for DPi Print, which provides commercial printing services to customers including BMW, Tennent’s, House of Fraser, the Scottish Rugby Union, Tesco, Ikea, and has done work for the T in the Park music festival, said the company decided to create the new machine because it knew what it wanted but such a device was not on the market.

She added DPI-Technologies would start recruiting the first of about 10 engineers just before Christmas.

The Behemoth, a water-based “grand format” printer, which DPi says will be “one of the largest and fastest commercial printing machines available on the market”, will be launched at a European trade show early next year. DPi Print said each machine would have a market value of about £500,000.

Clydesdale Bank has provided support to DPi Print through the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) lending initiative – a scheme launched by the previous Labour Government at Westminster in January 2009 as part of its “Real Help for Business” campaign.

The EFG facilitates additional bank lending to viable small and medium-sized enterprises as a tailored alternative to standard commercial loans.

Martin Sharman, DPi Print’s account manager at Scottish Enterprise, said: “DPI-Technologies is exactly the kind of innovative, forward-thinking company we want to work with and, by supporting ambitious companies like this, we can ensure that they have the tools they need to realise their full potential and achieve their growth plans, creating more jobs in Scotland and ultimately boosting the Scottish economy.”

Neil Berry, business development partner at Clydesdale’s Glasgow financial solutions centre, said: “DPi Print is an excellent example of a Scottish business with big ambitions to grow internationally.

“The production of the Behemoth will bring a host of benefits to the central belt of Scotland – most notably in the form of economic development of the region through exporting this state-of-the-art product to overseas markets. Clydesdale Bank is delighted to support this quality management team as it embarks on this exciting new journey.”

Mr Hall said: “We are extremely excited about developing a prototype of the Behemoth – there is a great deal of demand for this type of large format, environmentally sustainable printing device across the world, and this will be a cutting-edge piece of technology.”