It has been announced today that technical support provider Tech8 will merge with Colorific, a supplier of cost-effective, high quality alternative inks.  The merger, due to be finalised on 1st June 2012, will strengthen Colorific’s research and development capabilities and expands on the strategic alliance announced between the two businesses last year. 

Shaun Holdom, Colorific’s business manager, comments, “The ink market has changed substantially with the widespread acceptance of proven alternative ink solutions such as those offered by Colorific. The demand for our quality inks has grown rapidly and - on the back of this success - our partners are now pushing for us to broaden our portfolio with additional inks offering the same high levels of quality, reliability and proven 'best in class' credentials.

Shaun continues, "We saw the need for a dedicated R&D resource to add the necessary pace to fully exploit these opportunities - so the absorption of Tech8 as an in-house R&D facility can only help in achieving these goals.  It will also allow us to cut the time to market for any new inks, without compromising the excellent reputation of Colorific.”

Following the planned merger, the Tech8 brand will continue and sales activity will be focused on positioning Tech8 as a reliable and cost-effective wholesale provider of printer spares.

Justin Atkinson, business manager at Tech8, says, “With our engineering resource focused exclusively on Colorific R&D, we will free up a lot of administrative and commercial time to further develop our successful wide format printer spares business. We will be announcing, amongst other things, details of a new e-commerce platform in the near future and the continued development of our international partner channel.”

Tech8’s warranty business customers in the UK have already received notice that warranty cover will no longer be available as a service from Tech8 as of 1st June 2012. However, much work has been done in the background to provide contingency for these customers, with the option of continued service provision via a reputable and established alternative warranty provider. For customers choosing this option, the transition will be seamless - with no loss of service and no change in warranty costs.