INK FIRM HEWLETT PACKARD announced that it would expand its investment in printer production in Israel.

HP said it would invest 15 million Shekels ($4.1 million) to build a new factory that would manufacture wide-format printers in the Caesarea industrial zone. The new factory would also create 100 new jobs as factory employees.

HP said that the factory would start out with 4,000 square meters of production space, which could later be expanded on. Overall, the factory buildings will take up 13,000 square meters. Most of HP's R&D and manufacturing of digital printers, including wide-format printers, is currently based in Israel.

Yariv Avishar, vice president and general manager of Large Format Printing Industrial Solutions, at HP Imaging and Printing Group Israel, reckons, "The purpose of the new factory is to support the rapidly accelerating growth of the wide-format printing business in HP and to provide key solutions for the production of new and core products to be launched in the future. With the acquisition of Nur Macroprinters, the production infrastructure in Israel will be able to support double or more of the present rate of printing production."

He claimed the industrial area in Caesarea was chosen for its "green" factor, "and also because the land reserves in the area, will enable us to expand further in the future."

HP has already got two printer factories in Israel, in Ness Ziona and in Kiryat Gat. HP Israel currently employs 4,000 people and has also, to date, invested $5.7 billion in the country, including their acquisitions of Indigo, Scitex Vision, Mercury, and Nur Macroprinters Ltd. µ