Top level sales figures came in at €621m (£543m) for Q3 2011, compared with €665m for Q3 2010, although taking into account exchange rates and other effects the company said year-on-year revenues were in line.

Operating income (EBIT) was reported as a loss of €11.5m, compared to a €17.1m profit a year ago, largely impacted by restructuring and integration operations, resulting in a pre-tax loss of €16.7m (2010: €8.8m profit).

Gross margin also declined a few points because of a change in product mix according to the company. And while sales teams from both Canon and Océ are trained and are selling each other's portfolio its cutsheet portfolio remains by far its strong suit, making up more than half (€346m) of sales, although a drop in recurring revenues for this business put a dent in its overall profitability.

Océ added that joint marketing plans for its alliance with Manroland were already being implemented.

The struggling construction sector continued to hobble the wide-format business, while "challenging market conditions" hampered the business systems division although the company believes that demand will grow for its higher margin services.

Chairman Rokus van Iperen said: "We will continue to carry out measures to mitigate the ongoing challenging conditions. These include a continuous ramping up of the production of new machines, intensifying marketing and sales efforts and ongoing stringent cost control.

"During the quarter, jointly with Canon, we have launched the Océ DirectPress technology as well as new black & white and color productive printers. These new products have been developed by the combination. In addition Océ participated in the kick off of an open innovation center, where corporations and knowledge institutes jointly will develop new document services. This is fully in line with our commitment to leveraging the opportunities of the growing document services markets."

Oce senior vice president communications Jan Hol explained: "Ramping up production is directly connected with the intensified marketing efforts. This is to say: we're selling more systems, therefore we're increasing our manufacturing of recently introduced printers, specifically Océ ColorStream 3500 and the successful Océ Arizona family. Here, the costs are directly connected to sales orders, so it supports our bottom line.

"On stringent cost controls, we're continuously reviewing all out-of-pocket expenses, whether is related to housing, utilities, company cars, temporary workforce, among others. In addition, we're carefully monitoring fixed workforce. If someone is leaving, is a succesision really needed and busines critical?... This way we're approaching current challenging markets, particularly the very weak construction markets in EU and US."

The company ended the quarter with a net loss of €22m compared to a positive €8m for 2010.