VUTEk again

Mimi Sells, Director of Corporate Communications at Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (EFI) of Foster City, California, flatly denied yesterday that EFI had any intention of closing or moving VUTEk, Inc.'s manufacturing operations. EFI announced last month that it would acquire VUTEk for $281 in a cash transaction.

When the City Council met last week Councilor Judy Krahulec (Ward 1) publicly stated during a discussion of school budgets and their impact on local property taxpayers that VUTEk was moving out of Meredith, with a resulting loss of some 275 jobs.

"We're very excited about the acquisition of VUTEk," Sells said, describing the combination as "a perfect fit." EFI designs and develops software packages for commercial printing applications while VUTEk manufactures superwide format digital inkjet printers for the graphic arts market, where they serve a variety of applications, including billboards, banners, displays and posters.

Sells said that EFI's customers include both printer manufacturers, like Xerox, Konica and Canon, and commercial printshops. She explained that by acquiring VUTEk, EFI would gain an entree to the printer market without competing with its customers, who do not make superwide printers, with a product line suited to expanding its market among commercial printshops.

"This is a great opportunity for both EFI and VUTEk to grow," Sells declared. "There are real synergies between the two companies."

VUTEk employs 330 people, about 275 of them in Meredith between its manufacturing facility and a subsidiary, Inkware, Inc., which makes inks exclusively for inkjet printers. In 2004, the firm , which is owned by American Security, a New York investment company, reported revenues of $130 million.

In 2004, EFI employed 1,414 between its headquarters in Silicon Valley and 25 offices around the world. EFI has been traded on the NASDAQ exchange since 1992 and last year reported earnings $38 million on revenues of $394.6 million.