Robin Skinner, 4DM group sales and marketing director, stressed that the Kettering-based company was not looking to take on the traditional UK inline market.

He said: "The complexity of the equipment available at Venturini is very much about unique products and that is where the focus will be. Venturini takes web inline products to the next level; they have bespoke equipment that allows them to produce very complex direct mail pieces.

"For example, they do a lot of charity lottery booklets that are personalised throughout and they have things like collating systems that can bring together up to 20 reels of paper to form a very complex product."

The deal, which makes Kettering-based 4DM the sole representative of Venturini in the UK, follows its March acquisition of Direct Link and is a result of that company's association with Venturini.

Skinner said: "Keith White, who owned Direct Link, also ran Venturini UK, which was a UK sales division of Venturini Italy. What we've now done, because of the acquisition of Direct Link, is form a UK sales agency for Venturini through Direct Link."