A NEW merger has been announced by document services company, DocQwise Business Services Ltd, as further progress towards establishing a national network and boosting its turnover and jobs.

The business, which has its headquarters in York, works for a series of national accounts including KPMG, Learndirect, Network Rail, The Department for Work and Pensions and the DTI, has merged with Derby-based specialist litho and digital-print company, Spectromedia, founded four years ago.

The merger increases DocQwise's annual turnover by more than £500,000 and extends its staff by three, one of whom is managing the company's litho print operation in York and the two former directors, Paul Romney and Mark Alcock, who are running a new DocQwise sales office in Derby. DocQwise is preparing to further expand its workforce this spring.

The merger with Spectromedia, which has a national client base featuring a wide range of small to medium enterprises and blue-chip businesses including Electrolux, Zanussi and Derby City Council, follows DocQwise' acquisition of copy shops from The Color Company in Leeds and Leicester last year

Part of Spectromedia's litho printing equipment has been moved up to York to extend the company's head office litho printing facility.

Jan Eskildsen, DocQwise founder and managing director, who in 1998 started the business with a management buy-in, said: "We are delighted to have extended our network again by merging with Spectromedia which we have known for some time and which has an excellent reputation and a strong national client base.

"The new Derby sales office enhances DocQwise presence in the Midlands and enables local businesses to access the wide range of document management services we offer through our national network."

Former Spectromedia director Mark Alcock, said: "This merger is good news all round, enhancing the range of services to our existing and new customers and offering an important new platform to DocQwise at the heart of a thriving business community."

DocQwise which now has 35 staff covering York, Leeds, Leicester and Derby, is a sophisticated concept-to-completion document management and supply company offering a wide range of document and digital-print related services.

These include print-on-demand from electronic files or hard copies, conversion from hard copies to CD-Rom as well as distribution from its own mailroom and security shredding.

Updated: 09:56 Tuesday, February 03, 2004