Under the deal, worth 1.7m, Buhrs will supply the most cutting-edge machines it has yet produced, with cameras on the feeders, input and output.

"When fully operational, they will churn out a million full-colour personalised A4 pages a day," said RDI chairman Peter Rivett. "Each machine has the capability to check match and verify."

RDI managing director Andy Ruddle added: "Camera verification is key. We don't think that if you are buying direct mail, you should accept 93% or 96% delivery.

"We believe that if you pay for 100%, you should get 100%."
The order included two Buhrs BB600 B5-sized machines and a further six envelope inserters that are being developed specially for RDI by the Dutch firm.

"We work at the forefront of the technology and we can only do that with customers, such as RDI, which also work at the forefront," said Buhrs president Adrian van der Klooster (pictured left).

"We didn't come to the market asking what people have got," added Ruddle.

"We wanted to find out what people could do."

Buhrs is to set up a UK arm with Basingstoke-based Computermail, its distributor in the UK. From 1 June, Buhrs UK will take on the employees of Computermail. Oc UK Production Systems sales director John Ricketts will become managing director of the new division.