Manufacturer of the PowerSquare branded finishing solutions Watkiss Automation is being acquired by rival Plockmatic Group, in further industry consolidation.
The deal is the latest in a line of acquisitions by the Swedish based Plockmatic, it bought digital finishing solutions developer Morgana five years ago, and Italian bindery equipment manufacturer KGS in 2016.
The company says the acquisition extends the Plockmatic booklet making range into the high-end market segment where digital prints are created using both toner and advanced high-speed inkjet technology.
Watkiss has been supplied in Australia by AGS since 2016. Glenn Maynard, managing director of says “These changes will not have any immediate impact for the Australian market, and we are looking forward to embracing opportunities that this new arrangement with Plockmatic may bring in the long term.”
Chris Toll, regional sales manager – Plockmatic Group ANZ, Asia based in Australia said,
“This brings the high end spectrum of booklet making to our growing range of finishing products. I am looking forward to working more with AGS and Glenn’s team for the Watkiss products"
In addition to Powersquare technology, which is usually implemented online to a digital print systems, Watkiss manufactures offline bookletmaking systems and a range of finishing equipment.
Watkiss - which was family owned – manufactured from the UK. Members of the family will make the transition to Plockmatic.
Scott Russell, Plockmatic Group vice-president of inline systems says, “We are seeing a growth in bookletmaking applications in the inkjet-enabled cut-sheet segment. Inkjet has made digital print for longer runs for catalogues, magazines, brochures and other documents more cost-effective and we wanted to be there. Watkiss is already inkjet-ready and performing well around the world on a number of these emerging devices.
“The Plockmatic Group can now address a larger number of the growing applications, both in terms of page count by going higher volume with Watkiss, and across the spectrum of applications with creasing, binding, perforating, provided by Morgana, all optimised for digital.”