Personalisation specialist reports double-digit growth and boosts management team.

Berlin – Despite the continued downturn in the economy, personalisation software specialist DirectSmile GmbH has reported double-digit growth of sales in the first two quarters of 2009.

As Axel Marciniak, Managing Director of DirectSmile points out: "Sound growth figures come as no surprise because DirectSmile offers its customers exactly the right tools to exploit new profitable fields of business so desperately needed in these tough times. When I speak with customers they tell me that now is the best moment to invest in innovative technology to beat the recession and be in the lead once the markets take pace again. I am expecting even better results in the second half of 2009!"

Confirming this growth, DirectSmile has additionally opened new sales offices during 2009 in Sydney, Australia, for the Asia Pacific Region and in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the growing Latin American market strengthening its presence in these key territories.

Completing its management team at the Berlin-based company headquarters, DirectSmile has also appointed three new members to oversee key areas of the business.

"In times when many others are cutting jobs, I am especially pleased that we could further strengthen our already well-positioned team with three experienced professionals at management level," confirms Marciniak.

Franziska Müller takes over the newly created position of Marketing Director. With a background in engineering, Franziska holds a degree in marketing communications and has over 10 years experience in the printing industry. Before joining DirectSmile, she worked as a Product Manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions.

Commenting on her new role Franziska says, "I am excited to be joining the market-leaders in image personalisation at a time when the company has launched a new innovative product for cross-media marketing which is setting new milestones in direct marketing. I look forward to the challenge of reaching out to new target groups such as marketing executives and agencies to make the new tools as popular as our image personalisation tools already are."

Bernhardt Wolff joins DirectSmile as Sales Director for Germany, Austria and Switzerland having previously led the sales team for direct marketing services at German business information service Creditreform.

"DirectSmile is already well-established in the German-speaking world," says Wolff. "For me, it is especially important to strengthen our already close customer relations to make our customers even more successful. From a sales perspective it is a pleasure to have such innovative products such as the new DirectSmile Cross Media solutions at hand."

The final new member of the team is Claudia Dehne who holds degrees in both law and economics from universities Potsdam and Osnabrueck and who takes over the position of Manager Legal and Human Resources.

For further information on DirectSmile and its range of personalisation and Cross Media products, please visit: www.directsmile.de