The £6m-turnover Precision Marketing Group, which has facilities in London, Bury St Edmunds and St Ives, financed the deal via its cash reserves and said that no redundancies are planned.

All but one of the staff from Ipswich-based AMS, which had a turnover of around £1m, have been transferred over to Precision Marketing Group.

Former AMS owner Nick Pryke is now sales director of Precision Marketing Group.

The company, which now employs more than 50 staff, offers a range of services including mailing fulfilment, print management, database management and supply, digital and e-marketing, telemarketing and specialist healthcare marketing.

Managing director Matthew Caldwell-Nichols said: "The main equipment we acquired from AMS was an HP-based inkjet mailing line; the other bits that came were fairly superficial because we already had quite a substantial production resource. This deal will allow us to increase the utilisation of that equipment.

"Nick and his team at AMS will significantly add to our wider business and together we can offer an enhanced service, not only to existing customers but also to other new customers. We now aim to increase our presence in East Anglia."