In January one of the biggest names from the pre-press world will finally disappear when CreoScitex is renamed Creo.

The new identity and logo will be revealed at MacWorld in January along with a new desktop software product.

The firm is stressing that the move is purely rebranding and that the former Scitex products will remain, particularly its Brisque workflow. The firm described industry rumours that Brisque is to be canned as scaremongering by its rivals.

"We're not moving away from Brisque at all," said UK marketing manager Maria Machera. "As a company we wouldn't just drop over 6,000 users. We still sell more Brisques than Prinergy."

The firm is dropping the Scitex name because it has successfully completed its consolidation and because there was too much confusion between CreoScitex's pre-press business and the operating units of Scitex.

"We don't own and don't control the Scitex brand," said corporate vice-president of marketing Boudewijn Neijens. "The only question was did we call it Creo or something else?"

Creo has also announced a further restructuring, which will see the transfer of production of its Iris proofers from Boston to Vancouver, the loss of about 10% of the workforce at CreoScitex US and a worldwide reduction in salaries and benefits, which will be offset by stock options.

Creo Products made an adjusted fourth-quarter loss of 4m ($5.7m) on sales of 101m (PrintWeek, 19 October). It reported an overall loss of 248m for the quarter due to write-downs and restructuring charges.

Sales for the year were up 45% to 463m due to the acquisition of the Scitex pre-press business. Adjusted earnings were 19m, although it made a net loss of 269m.

Story by Barney Cox