SINGAPORE, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) will supply printheads and ink for a new printer being launched by Venture Corp (SES:VENM.SI - News), the chief executive of the Singapore electronics manufacturer said on Saturday.

 

The U.S. computer and printer giant is currently a key customer of Venture, with the Singapore firm deriving a quarter of its revenues from making printers under contract for HP.

Venture will manufacture the "VP2020" digital colour label printer for the industrial printing and packaging industries.

"This is very much synergistic. There's no competition here because HP has obviously decided they do not want to enter into this particular area," Wong Ngit Liong, who is also president of Venture, told a news conference called to launch the printer.

Wong said the printer, which will be marketed by its subsidiary, VIPColor Technologies Pte, was developed at a cost of about $10 million. Group officials said the high-speed printer will carry a list price of about $6,000 a piece.

They declined to say how many printers the group aimed to sell in the current year or how much revenue it was targeting from their sales.

But Sean Marske, chief executive of VIPColor, said business units were ordering the printers "in the hundreds".

"In the next 12 months, we expect to produce, I would say in the thousands," he said.

Shares of Venture, which is releasing its first-half results next week, gained 2.4 percent to close at S$12.90 on Friday.