Business News

Océ acquires Intersoft, gains prominent position in wide format graphic arts market in France

Thursday 26. June 2008 - Océ N.V., an international leader in digital document management and printing for professionals, today announced it has acquired the French company Intersoft. Intersoft is a distributor of printers, scanners and print media in the wide format graphic arts segment. Amongst other customers, Intersoft assists retail chains in the production of their promotional material.

Intersoft generates annualized sales of approximately EUR 21 million. The company was founded in 1998 and employs more than 60 people. Financial details of the transaction are not disclosed. Océ will consolidate Intersoft effective third quarter 2008.

The company counts numerous large French retail chains among its customers. Billboards, ceiling banners and other promotional material are made on Intersoft printers and print media.

Intersoft develops and sells specialized workflow software for these customers, thereby guaranteeing the uniformity of all promotional material. Océ will be offering this software to customers outside France as well.

The transaction is fully in line with the Océ strategy to accelerate growth in the wide format graphic arts market. This market is expected to grow at about 6% per year. The part of the wide format graphic arts market that current digital technology can tap is estimated at EUR 4 billion.

Océ offers numerous new printing systems in this market: the Océ Arizona 200/250 GT, the Océ ColorWave 600 launched in May 2008, and the Océ CS2224/CS2236 inkjet printer line. The existing Océ TCS300/500 products also have printing applications to handle retail promotional material.