
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 12, 1995                   TAG: 9504130023
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GRAPHICS FIRMS JOIN FORCES

Image Center Inc., a Roanoke graphic arts company, has agreed to sell a portion of its stock to a Maryland outfit in the same business, forming an alliance that is expected to share services and clients.

Image Center said it will form a "strategic alliance" with EPI Communications of Rockville, Md. The two companies will continue operating independently but with EPI holding an equity stake in Image Center.

Business transactions such as a strategic alliance are not unusual for the graphic arts industry, said Richmond-based Anderson & Strudwick analyst Blair Frantzen, who follows a graphic arts company in Atlanta.

Many graphic arts companies' "successes come from acquisitions and consolidations by offering customers the availability of services that are not already available at their offices," Frantzen said.

"EPI has recently taken an equity interest in the Image Center, which will afford businesses in Western Virginia seamless access to our capabilities and services," EPI President Ethan Assal said Tuesday.

Image Center, which has operated in Roanoke for 16 years, serves businesses in the United States, France and Canada. The company serves about 3,000 clients, including Chase Manhattan Corp., Exxon Corp. and Yale University, said Image Center President Bill Poff.

Both Image Center and EPI provide graphic arts services such as business presentation packages, but the production facilities at EPI are more advanced, Poff said.

"We do not have a lot of the high-tech toys that EPI has," he said. "EPI has the equipment and we have the customers."

While Image Center deals mostly with 35mm slides, color laser prints and desktop publishing, EPI has more advanced facilities for multimedia and video production, a photo processing lab and digital pre-press. Multimedia is the integration of sound, video, graphics and text into a presentation. Digital pre-press deals with scanning and color separations. EPI also is an authorized reseller of computer hardware and software.

With the acquisition, Image Center will have the chance to offer its clients the same services available at EPI, Assal said. A representative from Image Center would make all transactions with the customer, while services are performed at EPI's Maryland office.

"These services will carry no additional costs," said EPI's director of marketing, Joe Criscuoli.

Assal said that both EPI and Image Center will continue to expand their servicing capabilities. The companies have a combined employee total of about 100, with about 10 at Image Center and 90 at EPI.

by CNB