Agfa has announced that it has reached an agreement with Barco to acquire the assets and all staff of Belgian-based dotrix, manufacturer of digital colour printing solutions for industrial applications for approximately EUR6m.

Albert Follens, Agfa management board member and general manager for Graphic Systems, says, "This acquisition fits in our growth strategy for 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 EUR5m.

Rob Haak, dotrix CEO, says, "We are excited to be part of the world’s largest pre-press company. 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 recognised brand name we expect to rapidly expand our customer base."

dotrix’s printing solutions consist of a high-speed full-colour industrial digital inkjet press (the.factory), a raster image processor for driving the digital press and workflow software to support the different applications.

Jan Van Daele, Agfa’s head of Imaging Solutions, says, "We fully recognise the value of dotrix’s innovative developments in inkjet technology. We are planning to add the experience and skillset of the dotrix staff to our own internal expertise in imaging. Consistent print quality requires a balanced integration of print engine, printing ink and substrates. We believe that this acquisition will give us a maximum synergy to offer cost-effective digital printing solutions in rapidly growing applications, such as packaging, label printing, decoration, object printing and security."