A MALVERN company has invested £500,000 into producing what it believes to be the fastest and most efficient bagging system in the world.

Automated Packaging Systems is one of the world's leading manufacturers of bagging machines and boasts more than 20,000 customers.

On Wednesday it launched its latest system called SPRINT, a machine capable of filling bags at rates of up to 120 per minute.

One of the key advantages of the system is that it can pack at very high speeds and can also build kits of mixed components such as DIY fixtures and fittings.

The new machine is the latest in a long line of bagging machines which not only feed components into bags, but also count components, seal bags and even print up the bags.

Robin Hill, product manager, said they would be aiming at hardware markets with this new machine.

"So if you go into B&Q and you need to buy plumbing fittings or a new sink plug they may be bagged in a plastic bag produced by us," he said.

The packaging company was established in the USA in 1962 and opened its first UK branch in 1983.

Since then it has prospered throughout Europe to the point where, in 1997, it moved its European headquarters to Enigma Park in Malvern.

Today it has four manufacturing sites in the USA and more than 900 people are employed by the company.