US-headquartered ECRM will focus on its imaging technology for other business areas including medical devices, robotics and instrumentation.
In a statement, Kodak chairman and CEO Jim Continenza said: “This acquisition reflects Kodak’s commitment to the printing industry and our focus on investing in growth.
“Acquiring these assets of an impressive company like ECRM makes us an even stronger player in the CTP category and we will continue to look for ways to better serve customers across the spectrum of traditional and digital print.”
ECRM’s violet CTP systems include the 2pp Mako 200, 4pp Mako 400 models and the Mako News platesetter targeted at small- and medium-sized newspapers.
Its product range also includes the Newsmatic 60 unattended operation system, and RipMate Plus standalone RIP.
Over the years the longstanding manufacturer, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, has been a manufacturing partner for a number of printing industry suppliers including Fujifilm, Konica Minolta, Berthold, Japanese manufacturer Sha-Ken – and Kodak.
ECRM chairman and CEO Rick Black said 2020 had been a “challenging” year because of the pandemic.
“We decided that this is a good time to rest on our past successes, yet protect and service our many long-term customers with an established company of appropriate size, CTP competence, and resources,” he said.
“We are pleased today to place our company assets with Kodak.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
ECRM’s UK distributor is L&M Imaging Systems in Halifax. Managing director Tim Clough told Printweek the firm also provided support services to a wide range of customers across Europe and beyond – including Africa and Russia.
“There are a lot of ECRM machines out there including some Stingray imagesetters that are still in use for specific applications, where re-investing in new technology would be too expensive for the customer,” he said.
“In effect, we’ve continued to be ECRM Europe and we supply parts to all sorts of places, because we’ve got the experience and knowledge. We’ve sort of got this old-fashioned mentality where once you’ve been a customer you’re always a customer, and if you’ve got a problem we’ll do everything we can to help you – it’s that sort of approach. We don’t know how the relationship will start to build with Kodak as yet.”
