PPS hopes to have its DICO branded digital printing business fully integrated into its sheetfed sales division by Ipex 2002.
The Mitcham firm has formed a dedicated digital service team and has taken on 19 staff as a result of MAN Rolands purchase of Agfas digital printing systems division.
Current PPS employee Malcolm Frost becomes digital products manager, while Greg Neesham, who was sales manager at PPS when it took the original Xeikon agency in 1994, returns as digital product sales manager from Typetronics.
Three field sales staff have joined from Agfa and will continue to cover the same territories: Paul King in southern England; Nick Kernick in the Midlands; and Alan Strickland in the North and Scotland.
Marketing director Murray Lock, who has overall responsibility for digital sales until the division is fully integrated, said PPS was also looking to add to the 14 engineers it had recruited. They will be responsible for maintaining four-hour service response.
Lock said PPS was talking with Repro Centre in Dublin with a view to it becoming a sub-distributor of the DICO products and taking on service work.
He said MAN Roland was looking to add its own features to the DICO range, including Pecom offline packages.
Lock claimed that MAN Roland was at a unique point, where it could offer products from variable to industrial printing.
Story by Gordon Carson