EFI’s $140m move into digital textile printing

EFI has targeted the expanding digital textile printing market with a $140 million acquisition of Italian industrial inkjet provider Reggiani Macchine.

"This acquisition gives EFI an immediate leadership position in one of the world's largest industries undergoing the transformation from analog printing to digital,” said Guy Gecht, CEO of Electronics For Imaging (EFI). “The textile printing market is just beginning that transition, which will enable manufacturers to shift from long-run to on-demand manufacturing, responding to increasing demands for short runs and customizations. The addition of Reggiani's innovative team and their renowned technology will drive continued growth in industrial textile and also enable EFI's customers to expand into soft signage-based display graphics using Reggiani's water-based industrial inkjet printers.”

Reggiani - to be rebranded EFI Reggiani - offers a range of solutions for textile manufacturing, including printers for fashion and home furnishing textiles, with a portfolio spanning the company's original rotary screen technologies to advanced inkjet textile printers and inks. Reggiani’s technology uses water-based inks in printing on fabric.

"Reggiani's customers recognize that inkjet is the most important technology of the future for the textile industry," said former Reggiani shareholder Ambrogio Caccia Dominioni, who will be MD of EFI Reggiani. "Together, EFI Reggiani can extend its position as a global leader in digital inkjet textile printing technology with leading-edge products that accelerate the analog-to-digital transformation.” Reggiani has a distribution network in more than 40 countries, including Australia, and serves customers in 120 countries.

EFI last week acquired Israel-based Matan Digital Printers, a provider of technologies for superwide-format display graphics.

The Reggiani deal follows a recent FESPA/InfoTrends survey that found textile print growth - in graphics, garment, décor and industrial markets – was the dominant growth application amongst respondents.

“A dramatic growth is being experienced in textiles for garments, textiles for décor and packaging samples, with close to 80% of respondents reporting an increase in demand for these applications,” said FESPA CEO Neil Felton. “Digital is a key enabler here, with over half of respondents expecting digitally produced garments to become an important alternative to traditional screen printing in the next two years.”

Last week, US-based Aurora Specialty Textiles Group (ASTG) opened a new plant in Illinois as part of a multi-million dollar investment in what it called ‘the growing demand for digitally printable textiles.’

Epson strengthened its digital textile printing business last month by completing the buyout of Italian company For.Tex, a leader in textile printing that specializes in sales of textile printing inks and the manufacture and sale of treatment agents used in textile printing processes.