The RR Donnelley-owned DBPO (document business process outsourcer) will be providing the society with services, including the management, procurement, production, storage, distribution and fulfilment of marketing and operational print as well as direct mail.

Britannia managing director of member business Tim Franklin said the contract would help the society, which has a network of more than 250 branches, to deliver one of its key values of "be faster, cheaper, better".

"We are a membership organisation and are constantly challenging ourselves to put our members first," said Franklin. "The proposal that we received from Astron was prepared to a very high standard and covered every aspect of our requirement."

He added that Huntingdon-based Astron's ability to provide a specially tailored service was the "winning factor".

The deal is the first to be announced since Astron founder David Mitchell revealed he was standing down from the group he founded in 1996 exactly a year after he sold it to Donnelley, which is the world's largest print group.

Mitchell is replaced as president of Astron by Donnelley's Bob Nelson, who has been in the UK since January working on the handover.

"We're delighted to be working with Britannia," said Nelson. "Our aims are to give excellent service and provide an outstanding set of document BPO services to help support Britannia's mission to be Britain's best mutual."

Donnelley also announced its first-quarter results this week. It reported net earnings from continuing operations of 63.4m ($114.2m) on net sales of 1.3bn, compared to net earnings of 60.7m on net sales of 1.05bn in the first three months of 2005.

Chief executive Mark Angelson said that in addition to "top-line growth" in existing operations, the group had supplemented its platform through the acquisition of US BPO Office Tiger.

"Our strength in BPO, in conjunction with our pre-media and logistics capabilities, provides us with an unparalleled service offering that is increasingly important to our customers."

About Britannia
- It is the second largest mutual building society in the UK
- It has more than 3m members
- It has total lending of over 7bn and over 32bn of group assets
- It has a network of more than 250 branches