MINNEAPOLIS, March 18 -- Delphax Technologies Inc. today announced a sales agreement with group Tagg Informatique to establish the first major reference site in France for the high-speed Delphax CR Series digital press. Under the agreement, Tagg, a leader in printing innovation in the direct mail marketplace, has purchased a Delphax CR1300, the world's fastest commercial roll-fed digital press. This CR1300 placement is valued at more than $2 million in revenues over the next three years in a two-shift production environment, Delphax said. "The sale gives us immediate credibility in the French direct mail market, and we're delighted that Tagg has agreed to serve as a live demonstration site for this powerful new direct mail solution," said Jay Herman, chairman and chief executive of Delphax. "In just over three months we have announced three major European reference sites for the new CR Series-in Great Britain, Germany and now France." Delphax introduced the CR Series in March of last year, and previously announced the establishment of its first U.S. reference site in June with the sale of two presses to LexisNexis Matthew Bender, a leading publisher of legal and business information. The introduction of the CR Series is driving a major expansion in the potential market for Delphax, which previously built a dominant position in the manufacture of check-printing equipment using electron-beam imaging (EBI) technology. The company changed its name to Delphax Technologies Inc. from Check Technology Corporation at its annual meeting a year ago to reflect the substantially greater breadth of its emerging product offering and market opportunities. "Much more than our name has changed over the 12 months," Herman said. "We will report to our shareholders at this year's annual meeting Thursday on a company that has dynamically redefined its mission, strategy and market opportunities during this period. "The electron-beam technology that has been at the heart of our industry- leading Imaggia sheet-fed printing systems is also at the heart of our new roll-fed presses -- and it is also at the heart of our redefined mission and strategy. We secured control of this critical technology with the acquisition of our Canadian subsidiary in the first quarter of fiscal 2002. Our mission now is to proactively develop this EBI technology to create high-performance digital-imaging solutions." The sale of the high-volume roll-fed CR presses is already having a positive impact on Delphax's service-related revenues, Herman said. These revenues -- from maintenance, spares and supplies -- have helped carry Delphax to record revenues, despite an economy-related slowdown in equipment sales. In the first quarter of fiscal 2003, service-related revenues increased by 130 percent to $12.3 million -- more than the company's total sales in the first quarter of fiscal 2002. The CR Series presses have now been sold into each of the targeted publishing, direct mail and transactional documents market segments. Of these, Herman said, publishing's print-on-demand arena provides the most dramatic opportunities to demonstrate the speed of these presses. In April, Delphax plans to demonstrate the CR Series at the On Demand 2003 Conference & Exposition in New York by producing books at the rate of a 400-page novel every 10 seconds. "Our ability to produce these books at such incredible speed has led to an interesting joint effort to donate the books to the New York City Schools," Herman said. "We will be printing three classics in our demonstrations- Homer's 'Odyssey,' 'The Last of the Mohicans' and 'Little Women.'" Delphax Technologies' annual meeting of shareholders is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at the company's headquarters, 12500 Whitewater Drive, Minnetonka, Minn.