Equipment

Coding kit specialist Domino Printing Sciences has continued its acquisition spree after paying EUR15.2m (£12.1m) for German firm Alternative Printing Services (APS).

The takeover of the thermal inkjet printer manufacturer is Domino's fourth overseas acquisition and its third in Germany since October.

APS, which in based in Herrenberg and manufactures thermal coding and marking products for primary and secondary packaging, will become a subsidiary of Domino's German operation Domino Holdings Deutschland.

Domino group managing director Nigel Bond said that the deal would give his firm access to patented ink technologies "that we believe will broaden the use and application of thermal inkjet products in Domino's core market areas".

He added that APS's products were particularly strong in 2D bar-coding and other machine-readable formats that are key to applications such as track and trace.

Under the terms of the deal, four senior managers at APS who previously owned around 85% of the company will stay on long-term employment contracts.

One of them, Werner Schäffer, has retained a share of around 5% but has an option to sell it to Domino for around €800,000 at any time in the next seven years.

Bond said that all the management team "have substantial experience in the coding and marking industry".

Turnover for APS has not been revealed but in its most recent accounts, to 31 December 2007, it had assets of €2.5m and operating profits of €400,000.

Domino, which had sales of €232m last year, expects APS to contribute to its profit from next year.

Domino's acquisition spree:
* Oct 07 – bought Control Information Technology for €4m
* Nov 07 – bought Belgian distributor for €4.3m
* Jun 08 – bought Photon Energy for €4m
* Aug 08 – Alternative Printing Services, €15.2m