"Acquiring Radius gives us access to the European market and to packaging, resolving two issues at one time," said Marc Olin, EFI Advanced Professional Print Software (APPS) general manager.

"We've been looking at the packaging space for MIS for many years. We had a gap in our offering and packaging is a growing part of print, and one that is important to EFI."

Olin added that, as a result of the deal, "we don't have a pressing need for further acquisitions in Europe".

Radius Solutions, which has 90 staff, is headquartered in Chicago, but the majority of its staff, including software developers, are based in Leicester and Derbyshire, and it also has an office in the Netherlands.

Olin added that Radius' Pecas Vision would become EFI's packaging MIS platform, but may be renamed.

Radius has 300 customers around the world and Olin claimed that most of the top 10 packaging printers in the US and the UK already used its system. The majority of EFI's packaging clients use its PSI Flexo package, which has ceased to be developed and is in "maintenance" mode.

The undisclosed cash deal, which is subject to certain conditions before closing, came as EFI posted a pre-tax loss of $9.7m (£6.4m) in its first-quarter results, despite increases in revenue across two of the manufacturer's three business segments.

Group turnover rose more than 15%, from $96.1m to $110.8m, for the three months to 31 March, largely thanks to strong sales in EFI's inkjet business.

Inkjet revenues grew 37% to $43.8m, while the manufacturer's Fiery business also grew 7.9% to $53m. Sales in the company's APPS division fell from $14.9m to $14m.