Quark fights back in Australia & NZ with direct representation

The new strategy kicks off today [Thursday] with a gathering of key Quark customers at the MCA in Sydney for an afternoon of presentations and product announcements, followed by dinner. The high-profile event is part of a revitalised push by the software company to roll back the advances of Adobe into the page layout sector, especially its CS Suite-bundled InDesign program .

“While some people have said to me, ‘better late than never’, we are determined to get in touch with our customers,” said Richards who joined Quark from its local previous distributor, Modulo. “We are going to bring in new products to the market in Australia and New Zealand and with our new master distributor, we will provide better service.”

The new representation arrangements are timed to take advantage of the launch of QuarkXPress 7, which is supposedly “only around the corner.” At the invitation-only event this afternoon Quark customers will be given the inside track on new features from QuarkXPress 6.5 as well as seeing, what is termed the ‘premier performance' of QuarkXPress 7.0.

In addition the company will release details of its local launch of enterprise systems targeted at the publishing industry. Well established internationally, Quark has not promoted its publishing platforms in the region before.

The regional initiatives are going ahead against the back ground of Quark’s search for a new CEO in the wake of the surprise resignation of Kamar Aulakh, who was reputed to be the individual behind the company’s new more ‘user friendly’ approach.