Colortrac appoints Malcolm Lane as President of Colortrac Inc.

Experienced large format scanner professional will strengthen Colortrac's American and Japanese wide format scanner distribution.

Colortrac, the leading innovator in cost-effective color and monochrome large format scanners and scanning software solutions, has announced the appointment of Malcolm Lane as President of Colortrac Inc., its wholly-owned US subsidiary, effective 2nd January 2009.

The appointment of Malcolm, a US-based business leader with 20 years wide format experience, follows Colortrac's recruitment throughout 2008 of experienced specialist technical staff and quality assurance professionals to enhance its large format scanner manufacturing and support infrastructure. Now, with a new generation of SmartLF wide format scanners starting to ship, Malcolm's expertise in large format scanner distribution in the Americas and Japan will help Colortrac penetrate the markets further with their affordably priced SmartLF wide format scanners and software products.

Malcolm is a well-respected and much-liked wide format scanner marketing professional whose appointment strengthens Colortrac's American marketing at a time when confidence in the US and world economy is low. However, he is optimistic that the outstanding specifications, engineering quality and value-for-money which Colortrac's new CIS and CCD-based SmartLF large format scanners offer will assist him and his US distributors and resellers in increasing Colortrac's market share in what will be a highly competitive and challenging US and Japanese market in 2009.

Malcolm says "I am excited to have this opportunity to join Colortrac. I look forward to help our Colortrac partners further develop the wide format scanner business with an ever stronger SmartLF product line and support commitment to customers, resellers, distributors and OEMs".

Colortrac Inc. was formed in 1997 and acquired the assets of Tangent Imaging Systems, SCANGRAPHICS and ANA Tech in 1999. Since then, its main function has been to provide a US support center for these and Colortrac products. With no US-based sales and marketing department, these functions have been run from the UK with sales driven through US distributors like GEI Wide Format and Canon USA. Malcolm's appointment shows that Colortrac now has a new determination to assert itself forcefully in the North American market with not only increased sales of SmartLF large format scanners but also with rapid support and technical assistance to its customers.

"Having made key appointments in 2008 to improve the quality and professionalism of our manufacturing and support operations, Colortrac is confident that it now has an innovative range of best-of-breed, fully supported scanners which we now need to bring more effectively to the market" said Peter de Winter-Brown, Colortrac's Sales and Marketing Director. "I am very happy with the appointment of Malcolm Lane as President of Colortrac Inc. Malcolm is a proven sales and marketing professional with an outstanding career in the wide format industry. He knows this industry as well as anyone. We look forward to working with him to achieve the greater market share which we believe our new SmartLF products deserve."

Born and educated in Surrey, England, Malcolm first worked for BAC (British Aircraft Corporation) after graduating in Engineering. He next worked for Sperry Gyroscope and other R&D companies before joining Rank Xerox, (later Xerox Corporation) in various positions including International Service Operations, Business Planning, Forecasting, and Product Marketing for over 23 years.

Within Xerox, in 1989, Malcolm transferred to XES's (Xerox Engineering Systems) European HQ at Marlow, UK, as Product Marketing Manager supporting Europe, MEA, (Middle East Africa) and Asia for many of their wide format digital products. Then, in 1997, he transferred to XES HQ in Rochester, New York, USA as Worldwide Product Launch & Marketing Manager. In 2001 he joined a US based large format scanner vendor in Herndon VA as worldwide VP Sales and Marketing responsible for developing the distribution channels for their wide format color scanners. This company was acquired in 2002, and he was appointed as VP Sales and Marketing with a brief to set up a new distribution office in Japan. In 2004 he returned to the USA as VP Sales and Marketing, managing distribution channels for the Americas and Canada, later becoming General Manager.