Rivalry between German colour companies gets personnel

Naturally CGS is claiming the defection as a coup, quoting Müller as saying the presence of a complete colour workflow at his new company, where he is executive sales director, was the deciding factor. “Today’s customers are not looking for isolated proofing products any more, but for a complete colour workflow solution, automating all aspects of colour management,” he said.

Although generating a deal of interest in the home countries it is unlikely Müller’s defection will have any impact in the region. He is responsible for overseeing business development and sales within CGS’ network of ORIS resellers and system integrators throughout Europe and the Middle East.

“We are delighted to welcome Heiner to the CGS organization,” said Andreas Kämmerer, President and COO. “His extensive industry knowledge, and his rapport with resellers and customers, will further fuel our rapid growth in the proofing and colour managed workflow markets. We are happy he has chosen CGS to strengthen his vision for the future of colour imaging.”

Closer to home CGS is represented in Australia by CyraChrome, which trail-blazed the digital proofing revolution here and has a large installed base of ORIS Color Tuner systems throughout the advertising, prepress and publishing industries. New industry entrant Kayell introduced GMG ColorProof to the market just before PacPrint this year.

The two German companies share a history of development competition and poaching of staff. Founded within a year of one another in the 1980s they have continued to extend an unlikely German dominance in colour management.