Pdf Solutions aims to undercut rival pre-press suppliers by up to 5,000.


It has relaunched its website, www.pdfsolutions.co.uk, and is selling scanners, digital printers and imagesetters in the UK "at European prices".


Buyers can snap up a Purup-Eskofot DotMate 7500 imagesetter for 40,000. Most rivals charge 45,000, said technical advisor David Johnston.


"Rather than try to make extortionate amounts, we will halve profits to gain customer support," he said.


"Most companies arent giving the client a good enough deal, so we are stepping in the water to see the market response."


Pdf Solutions is selling Purup-Eskofot and Agfa scanners.
Purup-Eskofot UK managing director David Smith said the firm wasnt dealing with Pdf directly, but there was nothing to stop it buying from other dealers.


Johnston blamed prices on companies "raking in the money", rather than the strong pound.


"Competitors often have big premises and staff numbers and have to make bigger profits to meet their targets. But we are primarily an internet firm and our overheads arent as high. We want people to see what internet firms can do," said Johnston, whose four-staff firm has a satellite office in Kuwait and is six years old.


However, Gerry Mulvaney, joint managing director of Litho Supplies, said: "We have bases in Belgium and France and know that market. Kit in the UK is sold at European prices and I dont think theres a massive difference.


"Each item is specified very carefully, it is not like buying something off the shelf. And people often put more emphasis on consumables than equipment."


Prices could be reduced by sacrificing bits of kit like processors or punches, but most firms offered those kind of reductions, he added.


Story by Jez Abbott