The Alderson Brothers Print Group has acquired the staff and client base of F1 Digital to create its own digital print division, Alderson Digital Print.

F1 Digital was formerly based at the workflow centre of digital and pre-press equipment distributor RES in Wokingham, where it operated a Xerox DocuColor owned by RES.

Its four staff have now transferred to one of Aldersons West Molesey sites and the company has installed a MAN Roland DICOpress, based on the Xeikon engine, along with some digital finishing kit.

"Its another string to our bow," said Ron Alderson, who co-directs the print group with brother Peter. The group also runs two Komori web-offset presses and a raft of Heidelberg B1, B2 and B3 sheetfed machines.

"[F1 Colour] had a lot of blue chip customers and we were hoping for spin-offs on the sheetfed and web side," Alderson said.

He added that the company opted for the DICOpress "because of the charm of Greg Neesham" [digital press sales manager of MAN Roland UK agent PPS]. "Also the people who joined us all knew about the DICOpress," he said.

Mitcham-based F1 Colour did not form part of the deal.

Story by Lauretta Roberts