"What is clear is that the slowdown has now impacted on all channels of the colour market, in a sector which had remained stable over the last five quarters," said EFI chief executive Guy Gecht.

The company said the slowdown had hit spending in both the professional printing and office markets on colour printers and copiers.

EFI forecast that revenue for the first quarter would be 57m to 59m a fall of around 23% on its fourth-quarter figures for 2001.

EFI also said its pro-forma earnings per share would fall by at least 50% from the previous estimate of 6p to 2p-3p.

"We are anticipating that the figures for the second quarter will show a very modest improvement," added Gecht.

Despite this, Gecht said EFI was hesitant to give a forecast for the second half of this year.

The latest announcement prolongs a difficult period for EFI. Its fourth-quarter 2001 sales were also down 19% on 2000 to 74m, while year-end revenue was down 11% to 367m. The firms Fiery standalone colour server business also reported a fall of 24% on its annual sales to 152m.

The announcement came ahead of the live launch in New York of the PrintMe Networks system, which enables remote printing over the internet. EFI has added 14 new strategic partners to the system, including Canon, IBM, Minolta and Palm (PrintWeek, 26 October 2001).

EFI will use Ipex as a launch-pad for PrintMe, where it will also show its Fiery server driving DI presses.

Story by Andy Scott