"Bringing the two together makes a lot of sense," said Fujifilm Graphic Systems director Keith Dalton. "We've got an increasing number of common customers.

"Most of Sericol's large screen point-of-sale customers moved into offset with KBA's Rapida 205, which may be a small number of firms, but their influence is significant. In the rest of the market litho and screen printers are looking at digital flatbeds."

Dalton added that the move, which follows a similar re-organisation in the US, would result in little change in the short term but would deliver long-term benefits.

According to Dalton, sector specialists will remain and there will be no redundancies.

Former Sericol sales staff will report into Graphic Systems' Bedford headquarters.

"Fujifilm has market-driven organisations and product-driven organisations. For example, Sericol's site in Broadstairs, Kent, becomes a product-driven organisation just like our plate facility at Tilburg, Holland."