The purchase follows a period of "financial distress" for basysPrint. The first phase of the deal will see Punch take on the firms debts, worth approximately 10m, for 2m as well as providing 1.3m of working capital.

"With Punch International basysPrint has found a partner, with which we can strengthen and enlarge our market position," said basysPrint president Friedrich Lllau

Production had ceased at the factory in Boizenburg (pictured), north Germany at the end of June but resumed as soon as the deal was agreed. Punch expects its acquisition to turn over 4.7m in the second half of this year.

It is believed that one of the causes of basyPrint problems was that sales of the CTCP pioneers products had stalled due to the touted release of Esko-Graphics' 65,000 Expresso at the start of 2005 (PrintWeek, 7 June).

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

basysPrint currently employs 80 staff, following some redundancies earlier in the year. "We foresee a further streamlining of the organisation," said Smits.

Punch International also owns Xeikon and Strobbe Graphics, the Belgian pre-press manufacturer. The Belgian manufacturing group plans to for basysPrint and Strobbe to work closely together in the future.

"By gearing their activities to one another, we will reap maximum benefits from economy of scale and from diversification of our activities in that market segment," said Guido Dumarey, chief executive officer of Punch International.

Story by Darryl Danielli