“This friendly acquisition will give us an opportunity to more closely manage our Cartridge World locations throughout Europe,” said Burt Yarkin, CEO of Cartridge World North America.  “Both these markets will continue to grow rapidly and our consolidation will help to further strengthen the Cartridge World brand internationally.”  

In addition to locations in the UK and France, Cartridge World also has operating stores in most parts of Europe including Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain.  

As part of Cartridge World’s tremendous growth internationally, the company also recently awarded the Master franchise rights to the Caribbean to Dr. Jose Vazquez, which encompasses 26 countries.  Vazquez, who has been a multi-unit franchise owner with Subway for the past 10 years in Puerto Rico, will be opening the first Cartridge World location in Puerto Rico this June.  Vazquez has plans to open a total of four to six stores by 2007 and a total of 30 locations throughout the Caribbean by 2011.

“We are excited to welcome Jose to the team and look forward to utilizing his experience and knowledge of franchising to increase Cartridge World’s visibility throughout the Caribbean,” added Yarkin. 

Cartridge World, which opened its first franchise location in Adelaide, Australia in 1997, is the first retail cartridge refilling concept to take on manufacturing giants such as HP, Lexmark and Canon while offering cost-saving solutions for consumers and businesses on the traditionally inflated costs of printer cartridges.  

The company provides consumers and small to mid-sized businesses with a retail cartridge refilling service that allows customers to refill their ink and toner printer cartridges with as much ease as they refill the gas tanks of their cars.  More importantly, customers receive up to a 50 percent savings, a money-back service guarantee on all refilled cartridges and are helping the environment at the same time.  Cartridge World estimates that it will keep nine million cartridges out of landfills this year.