American Reprographics Company Acquires Firm in United Kingdom
American Reprographics Company (NYSE: ARP), today announced the acquisition of the assets of The Reprographics Warehouse Ltd., a provider of document management, document reproduction, and related services to the architectural, engineering and construction industry in England. The company is ARC’s first wholly owned reprographics company in the United Kingdom.
The Reprographics Warehouse Ltd. operates a single centralized service facility in Central London with year-end revenues in 2007 of approximately $2.7 million (U.S.). Consistent with American Reprographics Company’s operating philosophy, Reprographics Warehouse Ltd. provides a conventional range of digital reprographic services including document management and fulfillment, black & white and color reproduction, bid management services, as well as specialty document services in the legal and financial markets. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
John Snell, managing director of the firm, said, “This is a fantastic opportunity for us and I am very happy to be part of this transaction. I think the synergies are immense. ARC is the largest company of its kind in the world, and we’re proud to represent its first step in setting up a strong presence in London. We’re looking forward to providing our existing customers with new software and services, and to act as a springboard to help ARC reach deeper into the U.K. and European markets.”
K. “Suri” Suriyakumar, chairman, president and CEO for American Reprographics Company, stated, “We are extremely excited about this acquisition. Although it is a relatively small firm from an overall revenue point-of-view, bringing Reprographics Warehouse into the company is an important step in establishing our presence in the U.K. It also gives us a chance to serve our U.S.-based customers there, several of which are currently involved in major projects in London. With John and his team on the ground in London, we will be able to serve these clients far more effectively.”
Adobe Introduces Creative Suite 4 Product Family: Its Biggest Software Release Ever
Adobe recently announced the Creative Suite 4 product family, a milestone release of industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Delivering radical breakthroughs that bring down the wall between designers and developers-and packed with feature innovations-the new Creative Suite 4 product line advances the creative process across print, Web, mobile, interactive, film and video production.
With new levels of integration for Flash technology across the entire product line, the release includes Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design editions, Creative Suite 4 Web editions, Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, Adobe Master Collection, as well as 13 point products, 14 integrated technologies and seven services. For more information visit www.adobe.com/go/pr_adobecs4family.
Adobe Delivers Creative Suite 4 Design Premium
Adobe Unveils Creative Suite 4 Web Premium
Adobe Releases Creative Suite 4 Production Premium
Adobe Introduces Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended
Adobe Debuts Powerful InDesign CS4 Release
Adobe Advances Mobile Testing in Creative Suite 4
Océ Announces Third Quarter 2008 Results
Total revenues decreased organically by 1.5 percent if the non-core fax business is excluded. Non-recurring revenues, sales of printing systems and software, decreased 2.7 percent, due to continuing adverse conditions in the financial services and the construction sector. Recurring revenues excluding fax decreased 0.9 percent. During 2008 Océ acquired Intersoft whilst Arkwright and Océ Document Technologies were divested. Excluding these transactions recurring revenues were stable. Recurring revenues include services as well as sales of toners, inks and media, and represent some 70 percent of total revenues. An increasing part, currently 26 percent, of total revenues relates to color.
Normalized operating income, representing the continuing business, amounted to Euro 16.8 million (2007: Euro 21.2 million), including a negative currency exchange impact of Euro 6 million. One-off items amounted to Euro 28.0 million of which Euro 10.2 million were restructuring charges; the remainder related to the sale of the loss making coating business of Arkwright, being a Euro 4.6 million book loss and the realization of Euro 13.2 million currency translation differences. Under IFRS, translation results on equity in subsidiaries denominated in non-euro currencies are recognized directly in Equity under the heading “Currency Translation Differences.” Upon disposal of the subsidiary the accumulated translation results are realized via the Income Statement. This IFRS accounting rule has no impact on Equity or cash flow.
Read the full release online.
Canadian Printing Firm PacBlue Digital Receives FSC Certification
PacBlue Digital Imaging, Inc., Vancouver’s premier digital imaging and reprographics company, has received Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody certification which ensures the sourcing of printing papers from responsibly managed forests and tracks warehousing, manufacturing, and distribution with a validated audit trail.
“We strongly believe that protecting our forest resources is critically important,” said Jonathan Colley, president, PacBlue Digital Imaging. “Because the fibre going into printing papers is tracked and identified at every stage of manufacture or distribution, we can assure our customers that virgin fibre comes from a sustainable source and claims of recycled content are verifiable.”
According to the Forest Stewardship Council Canada, FSC-certified forests are managed to standards for responsible forest management. FSC Canada coordinates the development of regional standards and takes into account local ecology and social circumstances. In Canada there are four regional forest management standards: National Boreal Standard; Maritimes Standard; BC Standard; and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence, Laurentian Standard.
LexJet Forms Strategic Alliance for On-Site Service and Support
LexJet announces the formation of LexJet Service Company, a strategic alliance between LexJet Corporation and GEI WideFormat, based in North Canton, Ohio. The new organization will expand LexJet’s service offerings with nationwide, on-site wide-format printing equipment service and support.
LexJet Service Company allows LexJet customers across the United States to easily access on-site service for a wide variety of digital equipment and software, including Hewlett-Packard’s line of wide-format printers and Digital Equipment Company’s Legend 72HUV hybrid (roll-to-roll and flatbed) industrial UV-curable printer.
With 50 service locations across the U.S. – including locations in most major metropolitan areas – same-day or next-day on-site service will now be available to LexJet customers.
Product lines supported by LexJet Service Company include Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Canon, Mimaki, Mutoh, Seiko, Digital Equipment Company, AGFA, DuPont, and OKI. LexJet Service Company will act as LexJet’s on-site service division, augmenting the technical and product expertise of LexJet’s extensive staff of highly trained account specialists.
Paradigm Imaging Adds Dealer Area to Web Site
Paradigm Imaging Group, a leading distributor of large-format scanning and printing solutions, announces the addition of a Dealer Area to their Web site.
Due to launch in mid-September, the new dealer area will enable Paradigm’s authorized dealers access to a variety of sales aides and marketing information. Registered dealers will have access to promotional information, product photos, in-store display graphics, industry articles and much more. They will also have entrée to valuable industry links and technical product details.
“We believe that strong partnerships in the dealer community and easy access to information are key to providing superior large format scanning and printing solutions. This new site will be extremely valuable to our channel, providing dealers with many sales tools and marketing resources at their fingertips,” says Randy Geesman, President of Paradigm Imaging Group.
Colortrac appoint Matthew Harris as Director of Operations
Colortrac Limited has announced the appointment of Matthew Harris as Director of Operations, effective from 1st September 2008. Matthew Harris brings to Colortrac more than 30 years of experience gained in senior appointments within the British electronics, telecommunications, safety and quality certification industries.
“Matthew’s primary role is to direct and lead our production, quality assurance and technical support staff as we increase our production capacity, implement ISO quality processes and improve our product support activities for the expanding end user base world-wide. Matthew will be based at our UK HQ and split his time between our UK and Suzhou PRC operations centers. I am looking forward to working closely with him.”
EFI Wins Important Patent Lawsuit on Its VUTEk Inkjet Technology
EFI and its superwide-format printer unit VUTEk, recently obtained a sweeping victory in its defense of a patent lawsuit filed by Leggett & Platt, Inc.
The Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled decisively and recently concluded that all the asserted claims of Leggett & Platt’s (L&P) patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,755,518) were invalid on multiple grounds.
Leggett & Platt brought the lawsuit during EFI’s acquisition of VUTEk in May 2005 in its home court of the Eastern District of Missouri, asserting that the L&P patent covered VUTEk’s ultra-violet (UV) ink curing technology.
From the outset, EFI maintained that VUTEk was the first to invent and patent the UV technologies in question. The federal judge sided with EFI, finding that VUTEk’s UV curing methods were invented and patented first (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,457,823 and 6,616,355) and as result invalidated all of Leggett & Platt’s claims used in the lawsuit against EFI.
The victory clears the way for EFI to continue to deliver its innovative next generation wide format UV printers and inks, including the VUTEk QS2000, VUTEk QS3200 and VUTEk QS3200R systems which are now shipping to customers worldwide.
The company believed from the outset that L&P’s claims were without merit given VUTEk’s early entry into the digital UV printing market and its remarkable success against the competitive UV technologies. The company believes this ruling concludes any issues with this patent.
Oai Captivates Baseball and Oranges in Tropicana Field’s New Wall Mural
There’s guaranteed excitement for Rays fans this season! Fans throughout Tampa Bay are celebrating their success at winning the American League East title. Two celebratory grand banners, located on the Colonial Bank Building (also known as Park Towers) in downtown Tampa, capture the excitement. The two large vinyl banners - printed by Tampa-based large format printer OAI –greeted downtown residence, employees and Rays baseball fans on Monday morning.
“At OAI, we are all Rays fans and we are excited our team won the American League East title. We wanted to do something unique, so we worked over the weekend to produce the banners for the city and fans to enjoy,” Said Jessica Blevins, Print Production Manager of OAI. “The banners were printed on our two Vutek 5330s, which allowed for the color to be consistent and vibrant.”
Some of America’s top-tier companies and most visible national brands trust OAI, the Southeast’s largest large format printer, to bring their big ideas to living color. OAI achieves this through use of the industry’s most advanced digital imaging equipment and a commitment to quality. The company serves various industries, including outdoor advertising, point-of-purchase, tradeshow, professional and collegiate athletic teams, corporate and consumer advertising.