Staines, Middlesex-based Newbury Data Recording Ltd, the company that has trailed from parent to parent, including a spell in the maw of the late unlamented National Enterprise Board, and most recently was part of FKI Plc until Wellman Plc bought the Data Recording Instruments group in July (CI NO 2461), says its move into the Wellman fold will improve synergy between it and other members of the group. When the group was part of FKI Plc it made up just 3% of FKI; as part of Wellman it consitutes 25%. Bill Kirby, general manager of Newbury says he believes that Wellman has a more corporate attitude that will work in Newbury’s favour. So far, only the overall group’s name has been changed and no staff have been made redundant. The company makes system printers and hopes to expand manufacturing and design elements within it, using expertise built up over a number of years in printer development in other fields. Before its move to Wellman it was working with Thorn Transit Systems International to build coin systems for the rapid transit system in Seoul, South Korea. The deal is worth UKP2m to Newbury but around UKP80m to Thorn. Newbury is also a dealer and value added reseller for other companies’ printers and peripherals. Next month it will begin distributing TeleVideo Systems Inc’s latest terminals with AlphaWindows which enables dumb character terminals to put up windows. The other parts of Wellman Data Recording are a German division of Newbury Data, Data Recording Heads, which also has a division in France.
