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Presstek Reports on Progress of ABDick Integration

Press release from the issuing company

HUDSON, N.H., April 19 -- Presstek, Inc., a leading provider of direct digital imaging technology, announced today that the integration of its newest business, ABDick, is progressing ahead of schedule. "The union of Presstek and ABDick fuses a high-value products and technology company with a market leader in a very important market segment," said President and Chief Executive Officer Edward J. Marino. "It not only extends the distribution capability and channel support for Presstek, but also delivers a broad array of digital solutions and services into ABDick's served market." Marino continued, "Our efforts in early 2005 have been focused on the restructuring of our operations in order to leverage each of our business's areas of expertise. Accordingly, we have restructured ABDick to operate as the sales, marketing and customer service arm of the company. We have combined its well-respected sales and service organization with our existing channels of distribution to create synergies not previously available to either of our companies. Presstek is now structured to operate as a source of product, leveraging its competencies as a high tech research, development and manufacturing company. With so much progress under way, we felt this would be a good time to provide an update on the achievements made in the implementation of our plan of integration." Plan of Integration Presstek's three-phase plan of integration is designed to provide (1) operational excellence; (2) transformation; and (3) growth for our company. The Operational Excellence Phase of the integration addresses the realignment, restructuring and rescaling necessary to achieve profitability and strengthen the operating foundation across the ABDick business. It also includes the integration of certain functions between the Presstek and ABDick businesses. The Transformation Phase covers a wide range of business improvements including significantly strengthened digital solutions offerings, expanded digital competency in the workforce, infrastructure improvements, and continued gains in the company's overall efficiency resulting in reduced operating costs. The Growth Phase is expected to drive organic growth within the company's ABDick and Presstek businesses. Marino continued, "We are pleased to report that our progress in the Operational Excellence Phase of our plan has been better than expected. We have filled a number of key management positions and we are executing well on our plan. At the same time we have strengthened our overall efficiency and effectiveness in both ABDick and Presstek by examining and redesigning a number of key processes. This progress in the first phase has also allowed us to begin to work on the Transformation Phase of the integration plan ahead of our original schedule. Consequently, we recently introduced several Presstek computer-to-plate and direct imaging products to our expanded ABDick sales and service force, which were originally planned for introduction late in the second quarter." Key Management Appointments Presstek recognized the need to expand and strengthen its executive leadership team with the completion of its recent acquisitions. As a result, the company has made a number of key appointments over the past several months, resulting in very strong and capable executive management teams at both Presstek and ABDick. Key operating executive level appointments at Presstek Corporate include: * The promotion of Moosa E. Moosa to the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; * The promotion of Michael McCarthy to the position of Senior Vice President of Operations; * The appointment of Peter Bouchard to the expanded position of Vice President and General Manager Direct Imaging and OEM Businesses; * The appointment of Diane Bourque to the position of Vice President, Integration; * The appointment of Tim Turner as Vice President of Research and Engineering; and * The promotion of Eugene Langlais to the position of Chief Technology Officer. In the company's European Operations, Quen Baum has been promoted to the newly created position of Managing Director for Presstek Europe. Ray Hillhouse has assumed Quen's previous position and been promoted to the position of Managing Director of ABDick UK. Presstek's ABDick, North America business has also strengthened its management team, with the following key operational executive-level appointments: * Susan McLaughlin as President ABDick NA, and Senior Vice President of Presstek; * Joe Musgrave as Vice President Service Operations; * Emile Tabassi as Vice President of Sales; and * David Vanderwiel as Vice President Customer Support and Operations. These new appointments further strengthen the existing executive leadership team and position the company to effectively capitalize on near and long-term growth and development opportunities. Manufacturing and Engineering Operations Presstek has successfully integrated all manufacturing, research and engineering operations to Presstek Corporate, including the former ABDick and Precision Lithograining resources, under the leadership of Michael McCarthy. The company expects to achieve additional operational improvements and cost savings as a result. Included in the integration is the relocation of all Rochester, NY engineering and manufacturing operations to Presstek's Hudson, NH facility. European Operations Under the direction of Quen Baum, Presstek has integrated its European and ABDick UK operations into its Brentford, U.K. location. This move is intended to streamline European operations and again result in operational improvements and cost savings. Sales and Service Integration Several important improvements have been made to integrate and streamline Presstek and ABDick NA sales and service and dealer resources under the leadership of ABDick NA's Emile Tabassi. This unified sales unit now has full responsibility for all direct and indirect sales operations. Presstek and ABDick NA's service operations have been integrated under the leadership of Joe Musgrave. As part of the service integration, ABDick NA will assume all service responsibility for the maintenance and support for the Dimension CTP system line, which had been previously provided by a third-party service vendor. The new unified sales and service force is better prepared to present and deliver the company's array of print solutions to customers, and be more responsive to customer needs. It also creates the opportunity for Presstek to introduce its full line of digital print solutions through a greatly expanded direct sales and service network. Product Introductions Presstek recently began offering its Dimension and Anthem Computer-to- Plate (CTP) solutions for sale through its ABDick NA direct sales and service force. This move complements the company's existing network of graphic arts dealers, and is expected to result in the continued growth of the company's CTP product lines. In addition, Presstek has also announced that ABDick NA is working with Kodak's Graphic Communications Group on the sale of Kodak-branded Direct Imaging (DI) presses. This move greatly expands sales reach for DI presses in the Americas and represents the first introduction of DI press technology into ABDick NA. Presstek has also confirmed its plans to introduce its new line of CTP solutions -- the Vector TX52 and Freedom printing plate -- approximately mid- year. This exciting new line of chemistry-free CTP solutions will be marketed and supported through the company's new unified sales and service network. Customer Support and Logistics A number of operational improvements have been made in the areas of customer support and logistics under the direction of David Vanderwiel. Among the improvements, all customer support operations are being moved to ABDick NA. This move includes the integration of Presstek's Hudson, NH customer support organization to ABDick. The company anticipates that its customer support organization will operate as a single contact point for all customers. Marino concluded, "We are very pleased with the progress of the restructuring and integration, and proud of the efforts made by our newly organized leadership teams and all of our employees who have worked hard to make our integration efforts successful thus far. We have a lot more work to do, but feel good about the progress to date and the prospects for continued improvements."