Equipment

Heidelberg is to acquire Hi-Tech Coatings, the supplier of water-based and UV curable coatings, as it expands its range of consumables for packaging and print.

Hi-Tech Coatings produces more than 1,000 products and formulations for the printing and packaging industries from sites at Aylesbury in the UK and Zwaag in the Netherlands.

Heidelberg said it had been selling the firm's products in the UK, China and parts of Eastern Europe for a "number of years", but Heidelberg's sales network would in future sell Hi-Tech's products worldwide.

Heidelberg chief executive Bernhard Schreier said the firm was pursuing its strategy of expanding the range of services offered to customers.

"Using high-performance consumables on our machines makes customers more efficient and enables us to achieve margins that are not tied to economic cycles," he said.

The acquisition needs approval from the German anti-trust authority.

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Hi-Tech Coatings was established in 1983 and sells its products worldwide through dealers and licensees. Britain and Eastern Europe are its largest markets and the firm's turnover in 2007 was €25m (£20m).