The London-headquartered printer and print manager has been awarded a five-year billing contract by long-standing RR Donnelley client BT from December 2012.

In a statement issued this morning, Communisis said that it would produce the work using the twin HP T400 high-speed inkjet web presses at its transactional facility in Speke, Liverpool.

"We are delighted to be entering a strategically important new relationship with BT," said Communisis chief executive Andy Blundell, in the statement. "This provides further evidence of the attraction of the Group’s market-leading propositions in the application of high-speed colour digital technology for transactional communications."

It is currently unclear what the contract switch will mean for RR Donnelley's Gateshead facility, which produces the bulk of BT's customer statements and associated communications on three Infoprint lines.

RR Donnelley picked up the BT contract in 2005 when it bought Astron, which had acquired BT's original outsourced print partner Edotech the year before.

Edotech was awarded the £50m, five-year contract in 2002, at which time it took over the telecomms giant's Gateshead and Milton Keynes sites.

RR Donnelley no longer has a site in Milton Keynes, according to the company's website, leaving the Gateshead facility as the home of the majority of BT's transactional print work.

Neither Communisis nor RR Donnelley were available for comment at the time of writing.

More to follow...