Specialist printer Wyndeham Press has capped a remarkable recovery by winning a £50 million contract with the largest private magazine publisher in the UK.

The Hove-based firm has secured a deal with Haymarket Publishing Group to print most of its weekly and monthly titles during the next five years.

Among them are FourFour Two, the monthly football title for adults, and the weekly motoring enthusiasts' magazine Autocar.

The contract extends the number of Haymarket titles Wyndeham prints from 30 to 45 and cements a relationship with the London publisher spanning four decades.

It has also validated Wyndeham's decision to get out of trouble by investing heavily in new printing equipment, including a new 64-page press.

In 2003 the Hove-based group's profits fell by almost a third to £4.4 million as the advertising downturn took its toll on the industry.

Since then, the business has been through a major overhaul with the merger of various divisions and the creation of a new sales team to target blue chip companies.

The restructuring paid dividends last year when the group won a lucrative contract with the National Magazine Company to print its celebrity weekly Reveal.

By November, the group's half-year profits had soared by 63 per cent to £3.1 million, prompting it to cautiously declare "some feelings of optimism".

And last month Wyndeham won another three-year contract with Nat Mags, worth £2.25 million, to prints Cosmo Bride and You And Your Wedding.

Wyndeham Group managing director Paul Utting said the deal with Haymarket was a "significant vote of confidence in the integrated business model we have created".

He added: "Long-term commitment from our customers enables us to continue our programme of investment in the latest press technology and strengthen our offering."

Haymarket chairman Lord Heseltine said: "This contract with Wyndeham demonstrates once again Haymarket's commitment to ensuring the highest production quality across our titles which has always been our hallmark.

"Our relationship with companies now in the Wyndeham Group goes back four decades and we are delighted to be entering this new phase of partnership."

Wyndeham Press is one of the UK's leading printers of specialist magazines, commercial literature and direct mail.

The company, whose headquarters are in Western Road, employs about 1,600 at sites including Milton Keynes, Manchester, Grimsby, and Essex.