Esko Revenues Up 20% As Software Sells Well

Esko, the provider in packaging pre-production systems, has announced a strong performance in the first quarter of 2006.

Esko, the provider in packaging pre-production systems, has announced a strong performance in the first quarter of 2006.

Consolidated net revenues increased by 20 per cent, and EBIT was up by EUR1.5m compared to the first quarter of 2005.

The company said that the first quarter of 2006 saw all product lines continue their performance above expectations.

Software made the strongest sales increases, up 28 per cent compared to last year and the CAM table, which increased by 41 per cent compared to last year.

Esko's Cyrel Digital Imager (CDI) range grew by 15 per cent and maintained a global market share in excess of 70 per cent.

All regions contributed to the revenue increase, with North America and Japan growing by 25 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively compared to last year.

In addition to the EBIT increase, a reduction of the net working capital at the end of the first quarter (by more then 20 per cent compared to the same period last year) contributed to a healthy cash flow, added Esko.

Carsten Knudsen, the president and chief executive officer of Esko, said: "We are very happy to see our solid business growth in 2005 confirmed right from the start of 2006.

Our strategic vision for offering integrated systems to the packaging supply chain has been confirmed by analysts and customers throughout the world, and the many new products and services Esko introduced over the last six months are clearly met with great enthusiasm by both existing customers and new prospects.

New orders and selling cycles are up, and we have all reasons to believe that we will exceed our growth targets for the full year 2006." The company added that following the first public showing at the Ipex exhibition of Scope 3, the latest version of Esko's suite of pre-production software tools, the full commercial roll-out to customers has started.

With Scope 3 customers can enjoy full support for Adobe PDF 1.6 and JDF 1.3 and further integration with Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 software on Mac and PC versions.

The additional tools to further integrate CAD and graphics, the expanded asset and project management capabilities offered by Webcenter's most recent version, and the 3-dX technology previewed at Ipex were also the stars at the annual meeting of Esko's AEG and AUGI user associations in Tampa (USA)FL.

In the sample making and digital converting area, Esko introduced the XE10 cutting and creasing table, targeted at folding carton, sign making and display making users together with its i-XE10 twin version.

Esko added that companies having or adding roll-fed or flatbed digital printing systems have shown a particular interest for the prototyping and converting systems.

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