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Product category: Manufacturing dealerships, agencies and acquisitions
News Release from: Zetes | Subject: Zetes and Powersys 2000 - print and apply
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 17 February 2006

Zetes acquires Spanish print and apply
company

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To accelerate growth in the Spanish market, Zetes has acquired Powersys 2000, a Spanish company specialised in print and apply solutions and services, for a purchase price of EUR 1.8 million.

A leading pan-European system integrator in the automatic identification (Auto-ID) industry for goods identification and people authentication, Zetes has reached an agreement to acquire 100 % of the Spanish company Powersys 2000 The founder of Powersys, Giuseppe Vernone, will remain managing director of the company

This acquisition totals for EUR 1.8 million (IFRS) and will be consolidated into the accounts of Zetes Industries from 15 February 2006.

Powersys is profitable, allowing the acquisition to be relutive.

In line with its strategy for the Goods Identification market, this acquisition will accelerate the growth of Zetes in the Spanish market.

* About Powersys - Powersys employs 10 people and generated revenues of EUR 2.6 million in 2005.

Founded in 2000 and located in Barcelona, Powersys is a vertically integrated designer, producer and integrator of print and apply solutions in the Spanish market.

Print and apply solutions are used in industrial processes, for automated barcode (or RFID) encoding and labelling of pallets and boxes in production and logistics environments.

As Print and Apply installations are an essential component of a production or logistic chain, they are to be considered as mission critical.

"Print and Apply business requires a very specific knowledge of the technology as well as of its application in industrial processes.

Combining best-of-class building blocks with expertise, flexible production and software development capabilities, allows us to build and integrate solutions tailored to the specific needs of each individual customer, which makes Powersys a unique and high value-added player in this industry," says Alain Wirtz, CEO of the Zetes Group.

"Once built and put into operation, further value is added by providing maintenance services and an optimised combination of supplies, which currently accounts for about one third of Powersys' revenue." Powersys' solutions are used by numerous and prestigious local and multinational references in Spain and Portugal, in various industry sectors (electronics, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, telecoms, distribution, etc), such as DHL, Electrolux, Logista, Beiersdorf and Telefonica.

* Increased power on the Spanish market - "By integrating the sales and service force of Powersys into our existing local company, Zetes Multicom, we are reinforcing our position and our system integrator's activities in the Spanish market.

In particular, this acquisition allows us to better service the big industrial and economic area of Barcelona/Catalonia where Zetes Multicom, headquartered in Madrid, still has room for growth," comments Wirtz.

"Moreover, incorporating the P and A systems in our solution set will improve our offering to the manufacturing sector.

Print and Apply equipment is typically used at the end of a production chain to automatically apply complex barcode (or RFID) labels to boxes or pallets before these are launched in the logistics chain.

Adding highly differentiated PandA solutions to our offering will definitely extend our strong coverage of the total supply chain upstream into manufacturing," Wirtz adds.

* Unlocking Powersys' print and apply to the European market - in a second stage, through the mechanism of the Zetes international 3i Competence Centres, Powersys will make its print and apply solutions available to the entire European market through the local Zetes subsidiaries as primary channel.

A focused 3i Print and Apply team will make standard tools available to facilitate integration into MES, LES, ERP and WMS systems, to enable flexible label design and overall management of multiple printer applicators in complex production environments.

"Developing transnational resources (Zetes' competences centres) that specialise in new or specific technologies and innovative solutions is an essential part of our business strategy for Goods Identification," emphasizes Wirtz.

"Zetes has been extremely successful in applying this model to Voice based solutions, and we aim at repeating this with Print and Apply solutions." Wirtz says: "Powersys' solutions will take advantage of Zetes' very large and 20+ years experience in the Auto-ID market to strengthen their competitive advantages.

At the same time, Zetes will extend its offering to existing customers with new high value added complementary solutions, also adding leading multinational accounts to its customer base." Wirtz concludes: "Powersys' integration will thus benefit our entire organisation, bringing us new opportunities in manufacturing and logistics sectors in terms of additional expertise, solutions, services, customers and recurring businesses." * About Zetes - Zetes (Euronext Brussels: ZTS), established in 1984, is a leading Pan-European system integrator offering value-added solutions in the Automatic Identification industry (Auto-ID) for goods identification and people authentication.

These solutions use both emerging and mature technologies (barcode, voice recognition, RFID, smartcards, biometrics) to optimize the business performance of many private and public customers in many market segments.

Zetes' solutions are implemented in various sectors of activity: industry, transportation, logistics, distribution, healthcare, finance, telecommunication and public services.

The Zetes group has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, with subsidiaries in Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK.

Zetes employs approximately 440 employees (in FTE) and generated consolidated revenues of EUR 100 million in 2004.

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