Paul Willems, chief executive of GMG, said: "In addition to constantly increasing market share in our traditional proofing and press room markets, it is our goal to also become a major player in the growing large-format print production market.

"The acquisition of Aurelon is an important step in this direction and immediately allows us to offer A to Z production workflow solutions which fulfill the specific needs of large-format printers."

GMG, which will only distribute the new PrintFactory GMG Edition, stressed that the deal would not impact on Four Pees' global distribution agreement with Aurelon for the PrintFactory and ProofMaster brands.

Bernd Staudt, marketing director at GMG, said that the acquisition – GMG's second this year after the purchase of UK-based CWS – was indicative of the company's focus on growing its presence in the large-format print market.

"Of course our main revenue is done in the commercial print format but due to the fact that the packaging and wide-format market segments are showing the most significant growth we have a clear focus on these markets and therefore the decision was made to buy Aurelon to take a major step forward," he said.

"Commercial will still be a very, very important market for us and even in two years' time we will still be doing more revenue in this segment but long-term the growing market is in large-format print."

Staudt added that the launch of PrintFactory GMG Edition was only the beginning in terms of GMG and Aurelon's collaboration, with Drupa a possible target for announcing further new products.

"Drupa is clearly a major milestone and we will do everything to meet this milestone," he added.

Erik Strik, director of research and development at Aurelon, said: "Current users will benefit from further GMG investment in Aurelon technology and also get access to GMG color management technology.

"For new users, there is now an unparalleled technology platform available which suits their production efficiency and quality needs. This will allow service providers to raise their offering to a new level of productivity and quality while reducing costs in large format print production."