The UK firm is joined by other members of the Omnigraph Group which accounts for 30% of all MAN Roland sales - in Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

MAN Roland took a majority stake in Omnigraph in 1998 to create an umbrella of agencies.

MAN Rolands sales partners in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark have made the same move from 1 April.

The legal status of local companies and their management structures are unchanged.

MAN Roland chairman Gerd Finkbeiner said: Our uniform market appearance creates more transparency and credibility at both the local and international level.

The rebrand will be formally unveiled to the UK market at Ipex.

The European market outside Germany contributed 46% of MAN Rolands sales in 2001.

The group also confirmed the "best results in company history", with pre-tax earnings for the year to 31 December 2001 rising 13% to 54.5m on sales also up 13% to 1.275bn (PrintWeek, 8 March).

But it anticipated slightly weaker business trends this year than last year.