Southern Lithoplate and Esko Enter into Strategic Alliance in Commercial Print Sector

WAKE FOREST, NC—Oct. 8, 2012—Southern Lithoplate (SLP) is expanding its recently announced strategic alliance program for the commercial and offset printing market through a partnership agreement with Esko. The new partnership strengthens SLP’s growing portfolio of integrated systems solutions to help companies that produce commercial printing, folding cartons and offset labels manage and grow their business.

“This agreement is key to fulfilling our commitment to the North American commercial print market,” said Steven Mattingly, senior vice president of sales and marketing for SLP. “Medium- and large-sized printing companies can combine Esko’s state-of-the-art automated workflow software products with SLP’s commercial digital printing plates and allied prepress products to execute cost and operational efficiencies and accelerate revenue growth.

“The great value and opportunity inherent in Esko’s business structure and array of workflow management products become increasingly clear. SLP will leverage the diverse customer base of Esko to serve commercial printers and establish SLP as a premier resource,” added Mattingly

“This is the first time in recent history that Esko has partnered with a supplier of consumable products in the offset printing segment,” observed Dennis Mehta, vice president of market development for the commercial market at Esko. “In every sense of the word, the SLP Strategic Alliance is an alliance. We have the opportunity to collaborate, support and excel together to enhance our customers’ business. Upgrading software systems is always a big decision for printing companies.

“The combination of SLP’s innovative commercial printing products and our suite of prepress software applications will provide new and important benefits for our commercial printing customers,” continued Mehta.

SLP’s Strategic Alliance partnerships are focused on providing customers with easy-to-use, robust solutions through collaboration of joint expertise and integration of complementary technologies. Esko has established a reputation as a global leader. Esko’s advanced workflow products increase productivity, facilitate job turnaround, reduce errors and improve customer communications in the highly competitive commercial printing arena.

The core of Esko’s workflow platform is Automation Engine. The feature-rich, modular system fully automates the daily tasks in prepress production. Optional software modules add functionality.

Other members of the partnership program include color management expert X-Rite Pantone. Along with Esko, their combined capabilities allow commercial printers to bundle best-in-class solutions for themselves.

About Esko
Esko is a global supplier of integrated solutions for packaging, sign and display finishing, commercial printing and professional publishing. Esko products and services help customers raise productivity, reduce time-to-market, lower costs, expand business and improve profitability. Esko software for artwork creation, structural design, pre-production, workflow automation, quality assurance and online collaboration support and manage the print processes at brand owners, retailers, designers and packaging manufacturers. Esko is headquartered in Gent, Belgium, and has R&D and manufacturing facilities in five European countries, the United States, China and India.

About Southern Lithoplate
Southern Lithoplate (SLP), headquartered in North Carolina, specializes in the manufacture, distribution and service of digital plates and associated products for targeted print markets. SLP enjoys a reputation for Quality, Value and Performance throughout the world. SLP and its Strategic Alliance partners provide customers with a full array of high-quality, value-driven solutions. SLP’s service infrastructure is designed to exceed the needs of the company’s customer markets. State-of-the-art manufacturing facilities are located in Jackson, TN, Grand Rapids, MI, and near the world-renowned Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.

Source: SLP.