Esko recorded another quarter of positive growth

Esko, specializing in pre-production of packaging solutions, confirms its strong growth trend continued during the third quarter of 2006. The consolidated net income increased 11% in comparison with the third quarter of the previous year. Excluding product discontinued to other markets, sales revenues of packaging experienced an increase of 13% year on year. (Excluded services) new systems sales increased 29% in comparison with the same quarter of 2005. The profit margins before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter was over 11%. Net working capital and the flow of funds continue to evolve positively. During the first nine months of 2006, Esko has registered a growth of the consolidated business of packaging more than 14% in comparison with the same period of 2005. Sales of new systems (excluded services) during this period increased a 27% year on year. The EBITDA margin for the entire period exceeds 9% of revenues, which is a four times better result than in the same period of the year previous.

As in previous quarters, all regions and product lines have contributed to business growth. During the first nine months of 2006, the business of packaging and packing of Esko recorded an annual growth exceeding 20% in Europe and close to 15% in the markets, American and Asian. From the perspective of the products, the line of drives CTP flexo Esko is that obtained the best results with an increase in sales worldwide more than 50% year on year. The growth of the software Scope and the Kongsberg tables exceeds 15%. Esko services business is also booming: the increase of the benefits of facilities, maintenance contracts and other services to customers in the sector of the container and packaging exceed the reduction of services related to CtF and CtP products offset not already underway in other markets.

"The continuation of our tendency to the growth of earnings in the third quarter indicates that Esko is able to offer the appropriate integrated solutions to designers and manufacturers of packaging around the world, helping them to take full advantage of new business opportunities"says Carsten Knudsen, President and CEO. "It is important to maintain dialogue with our customers and other companies in the supply chain to ensure that our solutions are at the height of the improvements in efficiency, cost reductions, collaborative initiatives and technological, made changes that make the packaging sector is evolving." "For about two years, Esko has devoted its resources to the container and packaging industry."Now we see the results of the many initiatives of improvement that we launched to energise our company, increase the efficiency of our internal processes, shorten the decision-making process and deadlines for implementation and, more importantly", closer to our clients, our daily activity", adds Knudsen. "Thanks to a solid financial base we can keep the prosperous development of the company, e.g. funding the development of new products (more than 8% of revenues), expanding the resources of the customer and entering new markets and areas of activity".

In the recent edition of the LabelExpo Americas fair, Esko won prize Label Industries' 2006 New Innovation. The judges praised innovative JDF format-oriented solutions from Esko, remote testing, virtual images in 3D, exceptional points of the iron, the rapid preparation and commitment key to the digital future of labels.

As announced at LabelExpo Americas, Hewlett-Packard has become reseller of Esko with two digital front solutions for HP Indigo ws4000/4050/4500 machines, in order to optimize solutions for digital printing for label converters, flexible packaging and shrink packaging. Esko dedicated settings reduce the time limits for preparation of the printing and the capabilities of matching color, improving all the workflow and productivity of the HP Indigo industrial printing solutions.

Heidelberg Asia and Esko-Graphics Asia Pacific have signed an agreement of reselling allowing Heidelberg Asia to distribute DeskPack, dish and ArtiosCAD for Scope software modules, as well as the popular table of Kongsberg XE10 Court for Cartonboard. Heidelberg will offer these products from Esko customer converters of paperboard in China, India, Korea and Malaysia. In addition, Heidelberg will provide assistance to customers with the support of the Organization for assistance of Esko Asia Pacific. "We are very happy and proud to collaborate with these two leaders of the sector," adds Knudsen. "Both distribution agreements focus on areas of the industry of the containers that are experiencing rapid growth." "In this way, more customers are eligible from the combination of the best products coupled with the knowledge and assistance of these companies, thereby creating a new value, greater opportunities for growth and business results".

At LabelExpo Americas, Esko introduced DeskPack 3-dX, a new plug-in for Adobe Illustrator that allows to visualize and examine three-dimensional images of the design of the packaging. At the GraphExpo fair, presented three new plug-ins the DeskPack family: imageX, for the conversion of images embedded in external images linked; seamlessX, a mounting tool by repetition for cylinders of flexographic or rotogravure to produce continuous patterns; and screenX, for adding multiple lineaturas, corners and frames within a single separation in Illustrator. DeskPack is very popular among designers, fotomecánicas and converters, because it adds functionality for containers to Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, which are used to create more than 90% of all packaging designs.

During the third quarter, Esko also introduced the technology of plot PerfectHighlights, which offers a superior quality in the areas of lighting, smooth vignettes, a remarkable expansion of the range of colors and a greater consistency between runs for labels and flexible packaging applications.

ArtiosCAD 7.10, the update of the month of October of the leading software for structural design of Esko, incorporates technology of SolidWorks, the leading supplier of 3D CAD technology, with the aim of creating a continuous workflow between design of the product and the packaging environments.

The new range of Esko value-added consulting services provides proactive solutions aimed to present the container and the packaging industry, with focus on the "3I": improvement of existing processes (Improvement), innovation by adopting best practices and technologies available (Innovation), and integration of applications to promote the processes of production, planning and design (Integration). Esko consulting services focus on five key areas: 'Quick Wins', to design and implement a road map to improve the performance of the investment; Color Excellence, to improve standards and capabilities of the color management; Operational Excellence, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the workflow; Collaborative Excellence, which integrates all those involved in the packaging supply chain; (e) Integration Excellence, which integrates the architectures of the JDF framework-based applications.