The Livingston-based printer will handle overflow lasering and inserting work to relieve the pressure on Standard Lifes own production unit in Portobello. The contract is initially worth 250,000 a year.

"Standard Lifes business has really taken off and they cant move their walls further back to fit it in," said Waddies business development manager Bill Menzies.

Waddies is using two Xerox DocuPrint 4890 lines and will shortly take delivery of a third. It has also sourced a new Pitney Bowes 8 Series mailing machine with intelligent inserting to cope with personalised mailouts.

Waddies staff will man the facility but overall management and control will remain with Standard Life.

Menzies said Waddies was handling 7,000 packs a day but he expected volumes to "expand considerably".

The packs contain annual updates of Standard Lifes customers investments.

Last July Waddies and Standard Life announced the formation of a strategic alliance for direct mail, print and fulfilment services.

At the time Waddies chairman Iain MacRitchie said the alliance would provide his firm with "a strong foundation for us to develop in the future". The agreement contains benchmarks and improvement targets. The firms have worked together for over 12 years.

Two years ago Waddies moved all its operations, including direct mail, to the Deans Industrial Estate in Livingston, which already housed its web division. It had previously spent 50 years at a site in Edinburgh, but it had become unsuitable for a modern business.

Story by Gordon Carson