Sydney-based Mailroom Express, Victoria's
Data Print and Mail, and SmartComm from Queensland
are now trading as a one company under the iGroup Australia
brand. Eddy Abboud from Mailroom Express becomes group general manager.

The new company has around 150 employees, and is now, after
Salmat, one of the three biggest mailing houses in the country, joining QM and
Security Mail in the mailing premier league. Salmat with its new HPA business
now has around 46 per cent of the Australian market. The remainder is shared
between around 200 mailing houses, with iGroup, QM and Security a league ahead
of the rest.

The managing director of iGroup Paul Tannous says, "The
motivation came when Salmat bought HPA, because we recognised that many
customers would not be entirely happy with that situation, so there was
opportunity to join together and provide a level of service that they require."

Tannous says the recent purchases by super-printers Geon and
Blue Star of mailing houses played no part in their decision to establish
iGroup

The owners of the three merging companies have all taken
equity in iGroup Australia.
Tannous was the owner of Mail Express, Lane Proud owned Melbourne's
Data Print and Mail while SmartComm, which is only two years old, was owned by
Rod Pierce.

Turnover of iGroup will start around the $35m mark. Tannous
says, "The first six months of the new company our focus will be on
consolidating the merger and implementing a common production platform. Already
we are moving to a web enabled job management system, which will effectively
put all three operations on one network."

Tannous says iGroup Australia
will be .looking at moving into Perth
and Adelaide next year.

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