The new presses cost 1.5m and will run alongside K2's event-driven marketing (EDM) software, enabling the firm to automatically create personalised colour direct mail for events such as birthdays and weddings.

K2 founder and chairman Kevan Coleman said: "We're very excited by this. It will really give the business more momentum and
will enhance our unique position as the only provider of multi-channel EDM in the market."

K2's EDM software generates personalised items for predictable dates, such as  loan repayments, and unexpected events such as customers getting married or moving house.

"Everyone is talking about one-to-one marketing, but this goes much further than that," said Coleman.

He also revealed that the firm has recently won "four or five" contracts adding around 5m per year to the firm's turnover.

Client names remained under wraps, but Coleman said that the firms were in the insurance, pensions and mortgages sectors.

K2 reported turnover of just over 24m in the year to 30 April, but lost a major contract with HBOS earlier this year.

Coleman added that one of the contracts would account for 20m A4 items per year printed on the two iGen3s, out of a total of around 30m items on the machines.

Peter Taylor, Xerox director, graphics arts, said: "K2 is the first major player in the traditional DM market to go down the iGen3 route, and has stated that it will not invest in digital mono again."