The Burgess Hill, West Sussex-based printer is rolling out the new service this month following a trial run with some of the company's clients.

Nova digitally prints the mailers on its recently-installed Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C6501e before one of around 50 scents are screenprinted onto the piece by a local company.

The mailing piece is then creased, folded and glued using Nova's in-house finishing equipment before being mailed.

"We’ve always been innovative at Nova so I wanted to do something with personalised direct mail that went beyond simply putting the recipient’s name in the mailing piece," said Andy Fry, managing director at Nova Direct Mail.

Clients that have already expressed an interest in the £3m-turnover company's Smellymail service have requested scents as diverse as sizzling bacon, leather and pina colada cocktails.

Fry expects the added-value offering to catalyse growth of its targeted, bespoke mailings in a range of markets.

He said: "We have had terrific interest in the technique. We do a lot of work for companies in the travel industry and they have seen the obvious potential for marketing holidays, cruises and exotic travel.

"We have excellent databases and the addition of the bizhub PRO C6501e for digital print means we now have direct control of the whole direct marketing campaign from design to delivery.

"The personalisation that digital print allows coupled with our own Smellymail innovation gives us a new offering in the direct mail market."