The mailshot, to households in the Edinburgh and Glasgow areas, went out on Monday for an unnamed client.

It is part of a major expansion into the UK mainland for RMS, which has bagged 78 clients in Northern Ireland, including British Telecom, since its launch last October.

The firm provides software and training to printers and mailing houses which allows them to provide sacks of ready-sorted mail to Royal Mail sorting offices for delivery.

RMS negotiates prices with Royal Mail, and offers postage to customers from 21p per item for overnight delivery to 16p for delivery in three days. Delivery on any day the client chooses is also available, at 19p.

RMS managing director and founder John Hughes said: "The advantage is in the savings on mailing. We're a virtual handler, in that we don't actually touch the mail ourselves."

He added that 2.5m items had already been mailed using the system since October.

Story by Josh Brooks