mergers & acquisitions 
The Australasian master franchise holder of the UK’s on-line Printing.com company has sold three local franchises since it took over in August, with one franchisee in Napier and two in the lower South Island. Steve Messenger, CEO of the Wellington-based Astra Group which bought the master franchise, says they have plans to roll out another couple of franchises before Christmas.

He says the group has plans to have up to 30 in New Zealand alone where the brand will be Printshop.

The franchise offers a range of standardised printing products which will be printed by Astra for nationwide distribution, using Printing.com’s systems and software.

Meanwhile the parent company Printing.com has revealed plans to revamp its Agfa pre-press set-up at its Manchester hub in the UK as it eyes further international expansion.

The firm is considering a move away from violet platesetters to a thermal set-up at the site, in an investment expected to total around four hundred thousand pounds.

Tony Rafferty, Printing.com chief executive says a tender process has started with all the pre-press suppliers, including its current partner Agfa.

The overhaul follows the recent commissioning of the world’s first Komori double-decker Lithrone 440SP at the site, which has increased its sales capacity to between 40 and 45 million pounds.

News of the tender came as Printing.com published half-year results showing a 15.9% year-on-year increase in its network’s total retail sales to 10.9m pounds, giving the firm a turnover of 6.2m pounds (-3.4%) and flat pre-tax profit of 1m pounds.

The group’s first overseas master licensee was secured in New Zealand and Rafferty is also in talks with firms in Poland, France, Holland, Germany and the US over setting up the model in those countries.

"They are very complex things to negotiate, but we’re hopeful of being able to announce something by the end of the fiscal year," he said.

In the UK, the firm’s bolt-on franchising model is also gathering pace. There are now 128 bolt-on franchises, compared to 91 a year ago.

Rafferty said: "We’re talking to a lot of small, jobbing printers who might be running two-colour A3 kit but are realising that payback on an investment in four-colour is questionable."