ChromaGraphics Acquires Reach360.

SANTA ROSA – November 7, 2008 – Commercial printer ChromaGraphics expanded into the rapidly growing market for electronic document retrieval, distribution and on-demand printing with the acquisition of a Santa Rosa company last month.

Santa Rosa-based Graphic Enterprises Inc., doing business as ChromaGraphics, a 24-employee company with $4.5 million in revenue last year, acquired Reach360, a printing company with a dozen employees and an HP Indigo digital color offset press housed at 1821 Empire Industrial Court.

Digital offset printing is analogous to toner-based printing in that the image moves from computer to press to paper or other medium without intermediate steps such as plate-making. Using ink instead of toner allows for higher print quality and flexibility but at slower run speeds. A number of printers have acquired digital presses to allow for multiple jobs per run and customized elements such as sequential numbering.

The Reach360 printing and order-fulfillment team and equipment likely will stay where they are. Eventually, ChromaGraphics will relocate its digital printing division there from its main print shop at 440 Tesconi Circle, according to President Eric Janssen.

ChromaGraphics has offered short-run and customized computer-to-paper printing since the beginning of the decade and currently has toner-based Xerox devices, one for black and white and one for color. However, demand for smaller, quicker-turnaround jobs in the past year and a half called for more automation to keep prices down, according to Mr. Janssen.

“We’ve been grappling with streamlining our digital printing procedure because there are so many jobs and they are so small handling them with the way we do commercial jobs is not cost effective,” he said.

That’s when Reach360 Chief Executive Officer Eric Wold and his team of software developers came into view. ChromaGraphics is committed use Aethos Technologies’ PressWise software in their new acquision for web to print, shopping cart, template, order management, digital asset control, shipping and MIS requirements. Jannsen says, “We see PressWise providing us a competitive advantage in today’s digital printing marketplace."

The company developed an efficient way of accepting orders placed through the company Web site and feeding the $50 to $150 orders directly to the press. Revenue was $1.5 million last year. The software also keeps completed jobs at the ready for follow-up orders or online updates to the job. Another component of the software is Internet-based marketing distribution.

Mr. Wold’s programmers will form a new firm, Aethos Technologies to further develop that software and will be a technology partner for ChromaGraphics.

For more information, call 707-545-3600 or visit www.aethos.com.