The machines can print two sides of a sheet at the same time and are 70 per cent faster than offset and analogue printing machines. The VP6250 can print 250 A4-sized sheets and 132 A3-sized sheets in a minute, which should help printing houses save on operating costs.

The Thai unit expects the new model, priced at Bt10 million, to capture a fifth of the overall printing market, which consists of annual sales of 150-200 machines, mostly offset and analogue systems.

Oce executive Jan Dix told Dow Jones Newswires that the company had targeted 30-per-cent annual sales growth in Asia.

"There's a trend from traditional offset towards digital printing in Asian markets of which Oce will benefit," said Dix, who leads Oce's digital document systems unit, which contributes about 70 per cent of company sales.

Oce currently achieves annual sales of more than ¤100 million (Bt4.54 billion) in Asia and employs 1,000 people throughout the region.

Dix said he "looks for partnerships with local distributors" to support the company's growth ambitions, although he does not exclude acquisitions. "We always look for strategic buys, but partnerships seem more likely."

He said the Asian market for copying and printing machines grew 5-10 per cent annually.

Oce's Asian revenues "mostly come from machine sales and hardly from services" like they do in other markets where the company operates, he said.

The targeted sales growth should help Oce in its effort to meet its 2010 target of organic annual sales growth of at least 5 per cent. Oce's organic sales growth, excluding acquisition and exchange rate effects, was 0.3 per cent in fiscal 2006, the company reported on Monday.