Now he plans to offer corporate customers the opportunity to simply use his press like a printer hooked up to their own network - a process he says will help him stand out from his competitors.

In the four weeks VPRS has been trading, he already has put his printing press to work for "a large software company" - he won't identify it by name but says it's "probably the world's largest" - - producing a 5,000-piece order of catalogues with 140 different variations, each of them customised for individual customers.

In the next few weeks Valentine plans to offer a service to small and medium enterprises, addressing what he hopes will be a market gap between the high-street print shops and the large franchise chains.

He says he doesn't worry that his competitive advantage will disappear, even once Xerox sells another printing press like his into Ireland.

"There's no specific barrier to entry, " he admits. "The key is to put clear blue water behind us. By the time someone else buys one, we'll have used it to introduce a whole range of new services."