EFI is placing more importance on the professional print market to counter falling sales in the office market.


"The professional market continues to invest in standalone servers in the office market its more discretionary," said chief financial officer Joe Cutts. "In professional printing you cant defer the investment, its becoming a more important market for us."


In September the firm will introduce a new product range that incorporates improved colour reproduction using some of the technologies it acquired from Splash and MGI.


EFIs second-quarter profits were down 48% to 8.3m ($11.7m) on sales down 5% to 103m. Despite the drop in sales the firm beat analysts profit expectations. Sales in Europe were up 3% to 42m.


"Europe held up the results for the first half of the year, but its not sustainable," said Cutts. "But by then the US is expected to rebound."


The firm has put 35m in the bank to invest in expansion either by acquisition or by developing new products.


It has appointed Najib Khouri-Haddad to the newly created role of vice president business development. He will be responsible for acquisitions and investments to grow the business in existing markets, including production print, and to apply its technology to new markets.


Story by Barney Cox