AN entrepreneur from Worcestershire has played a key role in launching a ground-breaking internet business he believes can make inroads into the multi-billion pound market for greetings cards and florist's franchises.

The firm, Messages4U, provides an alternative to traditional greetings gifts by using a sender's voice message with a music track burnt on to CD.

David Keller, from Cleobury Mortimer, was asked to become involved in the Messages4U project by friend and former business colleague Brian Perrins, who came up with the initial concept while on holiday in South Africa in February 2004.

By logging on to the website www.messages4u.co.uk customers are given a step-by-step guide on how to send someone a 30-second recorded voice message with an accompanying music track.

The resulting CD is then packaged into a smart sleeve cover and posted directly to the nominated recipient's address.

Mr Keller said: "While the idea behind Messages4U may be essentially straightforward, several major hurdles needed to be overcome because nothing like it existed anywhere in the world.

"We approached Business Link in April 2004 and found them very helpful. Their team put us in touch with local suppliers who could potentially help us with the technical elements from the taping of the voice message and delivering it across to the selected track, through to burning the two onto CD."

Another major area which needed to be addressed involved the use of a library of music tracks for the venture.

Mr Perrins took up the story: "We contacted and met with four major recording companies - Sony, BMG, EMI and Universal. They all liked the concept.

"Messages4U is very simple and apart from the development costs, the venture is virtually self-financing now it is up and running."