dotrix digital solutions acquired by Agfa

Agfa-Gevaert has reached an agreement with Barco to acquire the assets and all staff of Belgian-based dotrix NV, which manufactures and sells digital color printing solutions for industrial applications. The price of the transaction is around six million Euros.

’This acquisition fits into our growth strategy for Graphic Systems’, says Albert Follens, member of Agfa's Board of Management and general manager of Graphic Systems. ‘dotrix will allow us to take position in the markets of digital printing and to gain larger access to industrial printing niches such as decoration, packaging and security printing.’

dotrix employs approximately 75 staff and its turnover in 2003 is estimated at close to five million Euros. ‘We are excited to be part of the world's largest pre-press company’, says Rob Haak, CEO of dotrix. ‘End-users will benefit from new product offerings and extended services which will lead to increased customer satisfaction. With improved time-to-market and Agfa's recognized brand name we expect to rapidly expand our customer base.’

dotrix's printing solutions consist of a high-speed full-color industrial digital press (the.factory) based on state-of-the-art inkjet technology and UV inks, a raster image processor for driving the digital press and workflow software to support the different applications. ‘We fully recognise the value of dotrix's innovative developments in inkjet technology’, adds Jan Van Daele, head of Imaging Solutions. ‘Consistent print quality requires a balanced integration of print engine, printing ink and substrates. We believe that this acquisition will give us maximum synergy to offer cost-effective digital printing solutions in rapidly growing applications, such as packaging, label printing, decoration, object printing and security.’