Following completion of the share-based deal Urban Storm founder Sam Cook has been named chief executive of the combined UK operation, which has a turnover of around £3m although Cook said the firm was targeting "significant growth".

"The merger improves our position in the outdoor industry, where we were previously competing, and gives us a blank canvas to focus on expanding our business collectively in point of sale (POS) and clients direct," he added.

"We've got a very large capacity between us to fill and the aim is to go out and utilise the downtime, because in outdoor advertising we have a cyclical two-week period, so we need to fill our gaps around that."

Cook said the company would target the POS sector and print management companies to fill its available capacity. "Print managers often require short lead times and that's where we're strong because we run 24/7 and can take jobs that others wouldn't be able to fulfil with the capacity we have."

France-headquartered Prismaflex International, which has production facilities in seven countries around the world, has a turnover of €62m-turnover (£52.4m) and employs 340 staff.

The company has eight superwide digital printers in the UK along, giving it the capacity to print 5m square meters a year, while its client list includes CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel, Outdoor Plus and Primesight.

Prismaflex UK managing director Tom Weaver will continue in his present role at the enlarged 28-staff wide format printer, which has developed its own enviromentally-friendly banner materials.

"We'd like to make some real headway on our exclusive eco-friendly materials - that's a big area of growth for us and I'd really like to think that people will start to take that seriously now when making banners for external use and printing posters for internal use," said Cook.

The materials, which are designed by Prismaflex and manufactured under licence, are made from polypropylene (PP) that is comprised of 70% recycled plastics and incinerated locally to make energy.

"It's got a very low carbon footprint when compared to the polyethylenes (PE), which are predominantly made from new plastic and need to be shipped abroad to be recycled," said Cook.

Prismaflex UK's combined print firepower includes two 5m-wide devices, a Fuji Uvistar UV and a Vutec 5300, and six 3m-wide printers, including two Vutec 3300s, two Agfa Jeti 3 UVs, a Vutec 3360 EC and a Vutec QS3200r.