Agfa Expands into Digital Press Manufacture with Dotrix NV Acquisition

Published: January 07, 2004, By PRESS RELEASE

MORTSEL, BELGIUM—Agfa-Gevaert reports it has reached an agreement with Barco to acquire the assets and all staff of Dotrix NV, a Belgian-based company that develops, manufactures, and sells digital color printing solutions for industrial applications. Agfa says the transaction involves approximately €6 million.

"This acquisition fits in our growth strategy for [Agfa's] Graphic Systems," states Albert Follens, member of Agfa's board of management and GM of that specific Agfa division. "Dotrix will allow us to take position in the digital printing market and [enable] us to gain [greater] access to such industrial printing niches as decoration, packaging, and security printing," Follens adds.

Agfa says Dotrix manufactures high-speed, full-color industrial digital presses; marketed under the name "the.factory," dotrix's digital printing technology employs a single-pass inkjet engine. Agfa adds Dotrix's the.factory is "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 different applications." The company also says users of the.factory have praised the technology's ability to deliver high-speed, high-quality labels, flexibles, and cartons.

Dotrix employs approximately 75 staff; the company's turnover for 2003 is estimated at approximately €5 million. Learn more about Dotrix at dotrix.be. For more information about its prepress and printing technology offerings, visit Agfa at agfa.com.