Fax machines, scanners and online fax-to-email services have seen increased sales and usage as UK users try to beat the postal strike.

PC World and Currys reported that fax machine sales are up 25 per cent, and scanner sales 20 per cent, since the dispute began.

Online service Efax said that it had witnessed increases of "around 15 per cent" during the strike period.

"We have seen a run on faxes and scanners this week as customers have been flocking to buy them," said Niall O'Keeffe, marketing director at PC World.

"We thought that faxes were heading for extinction with the advent of broadband, but the recent industrial action has caused us to think twice."

Paul Geoghegan, general manager of finance at Efax, claimed that his company had also benefited during the industrial action at Royal Mail.

"There is not a uniform increase across the UK but initial figures show it's between 12 and 20 per cent, so it probably works out around 15 per cent," he said.

As well as running its own service, Efax handles the fax-to-email service for 'on demand' fax solutions provider YAC.