US single-width press maker Tensor has been bought by management and the company behind Swedish graphic arts automation specialist DCOS.
A new company, Tensor International LLC has been formed to acquire the assets and intellectual property of Tensor Group, Inc., which had been owned by the Hozjan family. Shareholders are Automation House (owner of DCOS Sweden AB) and Michael Pavone, Christopher Dalu and John Bonk who worked in the old business.
Mattias Andersson – one of the original partners of DCOS – becomes cief executive.
Andersson says the synergy and combination of resources will provide “extreme benefits” to customers: “DCOS’s automation solutions are in the forefront today in any press segment and it is one of the few companies specialising in printing press automation, while the Tensor semicommercial, insert and newspaper press equipment is valued for incomparable durability, quality and user-friendliness,” he says.
“This combination of strengths makes Tensor International unique in the single-wide, single-round press market and allows us to offer a press package that provides outstanding ROI and reliability throughout the expected life cycle of the press.”
The company will exhibit on the DCOS stand at DRUPA next month, and Andersson says manufacture of equipment and parts in continuing in the USA. A worldwide network of dealers support sales, service and marketing.
It is understood that Martin Hozjan had wanted to retire for some time, and had already been in touch with DCOS when the distribution relationship with manroland collapsed.
Tensor is one of the world’s leading makers of single-width press equipment. Installations in the Asia Pacific region include two lines at contract printer MPD in Sydney, which print a variety of work including Australian editions of the ‘Financial Times’. Dogan Offset, printer of Turkey’s ‘Hurriyet’ newspaper, has the world’s largest Tensor print sites, with 95 units at Adana and 34 at Antalya, following a substatial upgrade in 2007.
Tensor had most recently been owned by the Hozjan family, which founded Illinois machine shop MAH Machine Co in 1977. It is based in Woodbridge, Illinois.
DCOS was established in 2004, when four colleagues – Mattias Andersson, Tomi Söderbacka, Johan Börjesson and Johan Andersson – resigned from their jobs to pursue a passion for automation.
"We had, and still have, a strong determination to make everyday work better for our customers by being innovative. Basically we’re a team of technicians with a vision. We´re simply convinced that things can be done a little smarter all the time", says Anderson on the company’s website.
Simon Munday of Australasian distributor National Printing Equipment says his company will continue to represent Tensor under the new arrangement. "It's pretty tough out there at the moment, but they agree that we have probably done as good a job in the world selling presses as anyone else," he says.