Punch has bought the ailing German firm's bank loans, worth approximately 10m, for 2m as well as providing 1.3m of working capital. Production, which had ceased in June due to the non-payment of suppliers, restarted as soon as the deal was signed.

As part of the deal trade debts were "retired" with suppliers agreeing to get less than 50% owed. "The alternative was that the company would go bankrupt, so they would get nothing," said Punch chief financial officer Jan Smits.

Punch, which also owns Xeikon and Strobbe Graphics, the Belgian CTP manufacturer, has no plans to merge Strobbe and basysPrint. "We have a very good platform from Strobbe, which we can integrate with basysPrint technology. I think we could make very good machines," said Smit.

Punch is also planning to reduce manufacturing costs. "We will try to make basysPrint a leaner, meaner organisation," he added.

According to sources sales had been hit by interest in Esko-Graphics' Espresso (PrintWeek, 8 July). "The basysPrint product is very good, that was the reason we bought them, and they're still the first in the market," countered Smit.

BasysPrint made 40 redundancies in the months prior to the takeover and now employs 80 staff, but a further reduction is likely. Punch expects its acquisition to turnover 4.7m in the second half of this year.