Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet portfolios with VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Reggiani, Nozomi, Cubik and Cretaprint printers and presses. The company is also a market leader in UV LED digital inkjet inks for the superwide- and, wide-format (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.) printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for wide/superwide format and industrial inkjet printing, including UV and UV LED inks, ceramic inks and water-based inks for direct to textile and transfer printing. EFI also makes reactive, pigment and water-based acid inks for industrial textile printing.

Number of Employees: Approximately 3,300 (Ink World estimate)

Operating Facilities: 49 worldwide offices

Comments: For Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI), 2019 was a year of massive changes, beginning in April 2019 when EFI announced it entered into a definitive agreement with an affiliate of Siris Capital Group, LLC to be acquired for approximately $1.7 billion. The acquisition was completed in July.

“EFI’s portfolio of best-in-class solutions presents an exciting opportunity to drive further growth in high-quality inkjet and integrated, digital workflows,” said Jeff Jacobson, Siris executive partner and EFI executive chairman and CEO. “I look forward to working closely with management and know Siris is committed to providing the guidance and support needed to help EFI continue accelerating the transformation of industries where colorful images matter.”

“Last year was a year like no other at EFI – one of the most significant years in our three decades of existence,” said Mark Goodearl, senior ink product manager, EFI Display Graphics. “After over 25 years as a public company, EFI was acquired in July by an affiliate of the private equity company Siris Capital LLC. And in August 2019 we welcomed Jeff Jacobson – the former CEO of Xerox and one of the most experienced leaders in the digital print technology field – as our CEO and chairman.”

In terms of its global ink operations, EFI’s EFI Reggiani textile business made a significant move in May of last year, acquiring the Turkish company BDR Boya Kimya, a leading supplier of reactive inks for industrial textile printing.

Goodearl reported that in 2019, EFI continued to see steady, healthy volumes in ink across a wide variety of applications. He sees strong growth potential in display graphics, corrugated and textile printing.

“Display graphics continue to be a growth market and we are looking forward to the opportunities that come with the portfolio of solutions we will be sharing with the industry at drupa,” he said. “We are placing a lot of effort in helping display graphics customers be even more efficient and productive, not only with our inks and printers, but with the services and software workflows needed to help customers get the most out of their investments. We also are experiencing growth in demand for clear ink for a broader range of premium applications, including the wallcovering market.”

Outside of display graphics, EFI’s ink operations had some important growth trends.

“Our Nozomi C18000 LED inkjet digital corrugated printer established a leading share of the market for digital corrugated production, which led to high ink volumes,” Goodearl reported. “EFI is also a leader in digital inkjet decoration for the ceramic tile market. While it is a mature segment in terms of transformation from analog to digital production, it was once a market with lower attach rates for ink usage. For the past few years, including in 2019, those attach rates have continued to rise.”

“Corrugated and industrial textile printing continues to accelerate as well, remaining among the fastest-growing markets for EFI,” Goodearl added. “And, in 2020 and beyond, we also expect expansion – albeit from a smaller base – in a new building materials market segment we are addressing with an EFI Cubik series of inkjet printers that does printing and staining for wood, as well as printing for concrete and polymer materials such as shower panels.”

Goodearl noted that coronavirus is a challenge facing the industry.

“At the moment, coronavirus (COVID 19) is something that is essential for monitoring and action, for most industries, including ink,” Goodearl said. “EFI has increased inventory levels and we do not see an immediate impact on our operations or product availability.”

Overall, Goodearl is optimistic about further growth in EFI’s ink operations in the coming year.

“EFI expects to see a strong market for our inks in 2020,” Goodearl said. “We see a continuing trend where the business case and the sustainability case for adopting LED inkjet can support and enhance each other.

“Similarly, with soft signage display textile production on our FabriVU printers, we expect to continue seeing transformations in a market that is eager to adopt high-quality reusable graphics that require less expense, and fewer natural resources, to ship and store. In industrial textile printing, new EFI Reggiani TERRA pigment ink technologies eliminate washing and steaming steps – a welcome development in the textile industry,” Goodearl added.

“Single-pass is perhaps an even bigger contributor to a strong outlook for the future. Inkjet productivity has already taken a leap forward with a high-volume single pass on our new EFI Reggiani BOLT industrial textile printer and on our Nozomi C18000 corrugated printer – including some early applications in the field with Nozomi technology running on non-corrugated media. As single-pass proliferates in its capabilities and applications, inkjet will become an even more important technology platform for the future and an important driver in the global ink industry. Those trends are part of our positive outlook for 2020 and beyond, and we will continue to make our inks and processes greener, with greater versatility for production applications, in the future,” Goodearl concluded.

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet portfolios with VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Quantum, Reggiani and Cretaprint printers and presses. That portfolio has also made EFI a market leader in UV digital inkjet inks for the superwide- and, wide-format (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.) and narrow web label printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for wide/superwide format and industrial inkjet markets, including UV, UV LED and water-based inks for direct to textile and transfer printing.

Number of Employees: Approximately 3,600

Operating Facilities: 50+ worldwide offices

Comments: Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) is a leader in the digital printing and ink fields, integrating its presses, software and inks into a single solution. Notably, the company broke through the billion-dollar sales mark in 2018, and the company is poised to grow further in textile, corrugated and industrial printing.

For 2018, EFI recorded sales of $1.02 billion, up 2% from 2017. Cash flow from operating activities for the year ended Dec. 31, 2018, was $83.5 million, 101% of non-GAAP net income compared to $51.3 million in 2017.

“After spending last week at our Connect User Conference meeting passionate customers who shared how critical our products are in enabling their businesses, my enthusiasm regarding EFI’s opportunity has only increased,” EFI CEO Bill Muir said. “At the same time, these conversations reinforce the need to improve execution, evolve our go-to-market strategy and accelerate innovation to help drive our customers’ success.”

“EFI saw growth in 2018 and our increase in sales over 2017 put us past the $1 billion annual revenue mark for the first time,” said Stephen Emery, VP, ink business and new business development, EFI. “Our portfolio of inkjet products reached a 6% increase in revenues compared with 2017. While display graphics imaging accounts for the largest segment of our ink sales, some of the fastest growth for EFI in terms of ink came in single-pass corrugated printing – a new, emerging market that we’ve successfully addressed with the EFI Nozomi C18000 LED inkjet press. Our ceramics decoration business, with EFI Cretaprint printers, also saw growth in ink thanks to higher attach rates.”

In major personnel news, Muir was named EFI’s CEO after longtime CEO Guy Gecht announced he was stepping down in July.

“Stepping down as the leader of a great company is never an easy decision. With vast market opportunities, loyal customers and a robust product roadmap, reinforced by the unprecedented interest in Nozomi, EFI has never been better positioned for continued growth and success,” said Gecht. “I think this makes it the right time, after 19 years as CEO of this unique company, for me to hand the reins to the next leader.”

Muir joined EFI from Jabil, where he was most recently COO. Before that, he was CEO, global manufacturing services, which at the time was a $14 billion division of the company, and president of Jabil Asia, where the business tripled in less than four years under his leadership.

“Bill is going to take EFI to the next level,” said Gecht. “At Jabil, his experience and track record included scaling multi-billion dollar businesses, driving execution and setting the firm’s strategic direction. This background uniquely prepares him to be the next CEO of EFI.”

“We are excited to have Bill leading us, and it is clear that he is focused on driving an even stronger company culture and commitment to customers to make EFI an even better company,” Emery said.

EFI’s ink business continues to grow along with the company’s key digital printing segments, beginning with its EFI Nozomi C18000 corrugated printing system, which continues to earn industry honors and is making inroads among traditional converters. In terms of ink, the Nozomi C18000 press now includes a white ink option to go with its previous six colors (CMYK, orange and violet).

“We continuously research and improve our inks to better meet customers’ needs,” Emery said. “EFI also finalized our development of white ink for the Nozomi corrugated press. We have our first users in the field with white ink and the results they are getting are phenomenal. White is especially important in that market because of the ability it gives users to print high-quality color on kraft brown board.” 

On the textile side, EFI developed its new EFI Reggiani TERRA pigment ink technology. The new ink allows for a more environmentally friendly production process, using less water, less energy and less processing time, with no washing or steaming, the company reported.

Raw materials were a challenge throughout the ink industry, and Emery said that EFI is working hard to maintain its supply and costs.

“This year saw more volatility in raw materials which we worked hard to manage,” he noted. “EFI’s global team put a tremendous amount of effort in helping ensure availability by testing and using alternative materials, improving manufacturing efficiencies, leveraging EFI’s  buying power, and reducing costs wherever possible. EFI continues to seek alternative materials and suppliers to control costs and to help protect our precious environment.”

Emery sees opportunities ahead for EFI htroughout its product portfolio.

“EFI has a remarkable new high-end hybrid flatbed/roll platform, the VUTEk h series, and we will see some growth and expansion in that market for premium-quality, high-volume display graphics work,” said Emery. “Likewise, we will see additional growth in high-volume display graphics printing with our VUTEk HS125 F4, which runs two CMYK inkjets for higher-speed printing. Plus, the continued growth we have in roll to roll with our VUTEk 3r+ and 5r+ printers, as well as a new Pro 32r wide-format printer we launched in 2018, show how our portfolio has grown and improved to drive better, more efficient printing for our customers. We will begin selling single-pass textile printers and inks this year, so starting from zero, that will clearly be fastest-growing area for us in 2019. But single-pass corrugated inks and printers will continue to be a strong growth area as well.

“Digital UV ink suppliers, such as EFI, will continue to see new growth in industrial markets like single-pass corrugated and especially in the textile market, which will have its big quadrennial tradeshow – ITMA – in Spain in June,” added Emery. “In the display graphics/signage and graphics space, there will be continued momentum in the roll-out of our new technologies like the VUTEk h series platform, the Pro 32r roll-to-roll printer and our EFI Pro dedicated flatbed LED printer technology. We have some exciting new developments on the horizon as well, with a lot of emphasis on technologies scheduled for launch at the next drupa tradeshow in 2020.”

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet portfolios with VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Quantum, Reggiani and Cretaprint printers and presses. That portfolio has also made EFI the market leader in UV digital inkjet inks for the superwide- and, wide-format (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.) and narrow web label printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for wide/superwide format and industrial inkjet markets, including UV, UV LED and water-based inks for direct to textile and transfer printing.

Number of Employees: Approximately 3,000

Operating Facilities: 50+ worldwide offices

Comments: As a leader in the burgeoning digital printing and ink market, Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) has been enjoying strong growth in recent years. While EFI’s sales were relatively flat in 2017, the company sees opportunities ahead in numerous markets, particularly in industrial and textile printing.

For 2017, EFI reported revenue of $993.3 million, an increase of 0.1% over 2016.  Cash flow from operating activities was $51.3 million, a decrease of 58% from 2016.

“The performance of our direct business drove record quarterly and full year revenue for EFI. We look for this growth from inkjet and software to accelerate in the first quarter,” EFI CEO Guy Gecht said. “Having just finished a very exciting Connect Users’ Conference, the EFI team is energized as we enter 2018, with a year full of new product introductions across the company and Nozomi on track for a strong first year in the corrugated market.”

Stephen Emery, VP, ink business and new business development, EFI, said that EFI’s ink operations remained strong.

“There were significant changes in the market but our customers remain busy using our digital inkjet printing technology,” Emery said. “One of the biggest changes is we are moving into higher-volume applications such as our ultra-high-speed single-pass corrugated packaging press, the EFI Nozomi C18000. There are now several installations worldwide and that technology will only grow as a source of ink volumes. Demand for ink in that market is significantly higher than the traditional display graphics market we serve.

“We also entered a partnership with Xeikon to have Xeikon take over sales and marketing for our Jetrion narrow-web press technology, but EFI remains the source for all the inks used on those presses,” Emery added. “Our company financials overall at EFI were close to flat for 2017 while our ink business continues to grow. We expect further growth as we fine-tune our product mix, including the growth in corrugated we’re seeing in the market, along with continued growth in textile inks.”

With the 2015 acquisition of Reggiani, a digital textile press specialist, EFI has developed a strong position in the digital textile space. During FESPA 2017, EFI received the EDP Award for the Best Roll-to-Roll Textile Print technology for the EFI VUTEk FabriVU 180/340 soft signage printer.

Industrial inkjet printing is also an area of growth for the digital printing industry, and EFI has developed systems for this area as well. EFI Cretaprint is an industry leader in ceramic tiles, and for wood decoration, the company has developed the EFI Cubik 700.

“EFI sees this as an important growth opportunity, and we will continue to share innovations with the wood industry around the analog-to-digital transformation,” said José Luis Ramón Moreno, VP and GM of EFI Industrial Printing.

Emery said that EFI is facing challenges with raw materials, but its supply chain remains strong.

“Since the 1970s, many of the chemical intermediaries have shifted manufacturing from the USA and Europe to China,” Emery noted. “In those early years many of these new companies were not concerned with environmental impact, and now China is putting into place strong regulations to protect the environment. When effluent violations are identified, companies and sometimes multiple companies in an area are being shut down. And this may be for a few days or several weeks. This impacts the supply and pricing in the market.

“We are working closely with our suppliers to ensure we have sufficient supply and ensuring we have alternate suppliers to handle our continued growth,” Emery added. “We continue to be the world’s largest developer of industrial UV and LED inkjet inks and rely on a strong supply chain to support those volumes.”

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet portfolios with VUTEk, Jetrion, EFI Wide Format, Quantum, Reggiani and Cretaprint printers and presses. That portfolio has also made EFI the market leader in UV digital inkjet inks for the superwide- and, wide-format (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.) and narrow web label printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for wide/superwide format and industrial inkjet markets, including UV, UV LED and water-based inks for direct to textile and transfer printing.

Number of Employees: Approximately 3,000

Operating Facilities: 50+ worldwide offices

Comments: Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) had an excellent year in 2016, as the company neared the billion-dollar mark in sales. For 2016, EFI reported revenue of $992.1 million up 12% year-over-year from 2015. Cash flow from operating activities was $121.1 million, up 77% compared to 2015.

“EFI delivered another record revenue quarter and our team’s execution drove significant improvements in margins, cash flow, and earnings per share, despite the negative impact of foreign currency,” said Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI. “As we start the new year, we are even more excited about the road ahead, especially with our upcoming introduction of the Nozomi platform targeted at digital printing for packaging.”

Meanwhile, the company’s ink operations continued to flourish.

Stephen Emery, VP of EFI’s Ink and New Business Development operations, noted that EFI put a lot of time and effort in showing the value of its inks, and it worked out well in 2016.

“While we were excited to grow our overall inkjet business with many of the advanced new printers we have brought to market, one of the brightest spots for the company was in the growth of our ink volumes,” Emery said. “We had record volumes of ink sold in 2016, and in the ceramics space – a market that does not typically have the printer/ink attach rates seen in other verticals – we outperformed our own aggressive expectations in terms of ink revenues.”

Emery said that the growth in ceramic inks was certainly a highlight, as is the development of inks for the new Nozomi C18000 corrugated inkjet press..

“We were pleased as well that the Cretaprint ceramic business received one of that industry’s highest honors, the Alfa De Oro Award, at the Cevisama trade show in April,” Emery reported. “I’m also proud of the work our global ink teams put into developing ink for our newest production product, the Nozomi C18000 single-pass corrugated board LED inkjet press. EFI called on all of its global R&D expertise for Nozomi, in inks, in single-pass inkjet transport systems, in workflow and more. On the ink end, we were able to meet aggressive deadlines with an ink that performs exceptionally well on corrugated board, which can be difficult surface to print, especially at high speeds.

“Corrugated inkjet production printing was the big story at drupa last year, from EFI and from our competitors, and it is great to know that, less then a year removed from drupa, we will have the first Nozomi presses installed at customer sites,” he added. “That’s not typical when print technology companies enter a new market.”

Emery reported that the progress made in the market with the Armor coatings line was another high point as well.

“Not only did our customers have a lot of success with the products, but the Armor line also won a Must See Ems Award, a Must See Ems best of category award, and a European Digital Press Award,” he added. “It was the only EFI product in 2016 to win all three of those honors.”

The company’s expertise in inkjet press manufacturing and inks is leading to new opportunities in packaging, including low migration digital ink technology.

“We are very fortunate to have world-class expertise both in inkjet ink development and single-pass inkjet at our Ypsilanti, MI operations,” said Emery. “That is vital to the successful launch of our Nozomi C18000 platform for corrugated packaging. We also put a lot of effort – in Ypsilanti and at our ink facilities worldwide – into developing low-migration and water-based LED-curable features for new and future ink platforms. Both features will be important for growing digital inkjet printing in the packaging space. We launched our first low-migration ink on the new Jetrion 4950LXe narrow web label press at Labelexpo last year.”

One key for EFI is to develop the technology customers want to continue to move away from print products that are commoditized to those that are maintaining or increasing in value.

“If you look at how the company is structured, we are walking that path along with our customers. We don’t have a large ink presence in the document/page printing technologies and our customers continue to tell us they get comparatively better margins in markets like signage and display and packaging,” Emery said.

Emery noted that one of the biggest opportunities for customers appears to be in more “industrial” printing spaces, where the imaging is meant as a decoration of some other functional product.

“Printing on the doors that Ikea sells is one good example,” he observed. “Those are printed using EFI printers and inks by a customer in Germany. Packaging is another good example, as is thermoforming, where customers can produce not only display signage, but also functional products for automotive and marine parts, for example.”

With the continued growth in digital, EFI is well positioned for the future.

“I am positive about 2017,” said Emery. “We launched three new printers at our Connect users’ conference in January, which was a first for us, and they are already performing very well at customer sites. So we are starting the year with the momentum in ink volumes that goes along with any successful printer launch.

“Plus, there’s a lot of pent-up demand for corrugated, where we know we can be a big help to customers,” he added. “If you calculate the volumes associated with the number of Nozomi presses we are going to start installing as if Q1 of this year, that will be another good sign for positive growth.

“On the product development side, our customers will see some important innovations from us at the shows we regularly exhibit at, such as Fespa, ISA and SGIA,” Emery concluded. “Plus we have even more of a focus on industrial verticals like the ceramics, wood, textile and flooring industries where there is a great deal of room to grow in digital inkjet technology.”

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet portfolios with VUTEk, Jetrion, EFI Wide Format, Matan, Reggiani and Cretaprint printers and presses. That portfolio has also made EFI the market leader in UV inkjet inks for the superwide format, wide format (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.) and narrow web label printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for wide/superwide format and industrial inkjet markets, including UV, UV LED and water-based dye disperse inks.

Number of Employees: Approximately 2,800

Operating Facilities: 29 worldwide offices

Comments: Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) had a tremendous year in 2015, with the company’s organic sales growing substantially while adding new markets through acquisitions, particularly the addition of Reggiani Macchine, an inkjet textile specialist, and a second company in the super wide format space, Matan Digital Printers.

EFI reported revenue of $882.5 million in 2015, up 12% year-over-year compared to 2014. Meanwhile, non-GAAP net income was $97.9 million, compared to non-GAAP net income of $87.1 million in 2014.

In a huge move, EFI acquired Reggiani Macchine, Bergamo, Italy, in mid-2015. EFI Reggiani is a leader in the field of industrial inkjet printers for the fast-growing digital textile market for fashion and home furnishings. Its printers run the gamut of water-based dispersed, acid, pigment and reactive dye printing inks.

Stephen Emery, VP ink and Jetrion industrial inkjet businesses, said that 2015 was another excellent year for EFI.

“EFI did well in 2015,” Emery said. “From an ink perspective, we had continued strong growth in LED inkjet and a number of customers started benefitting from using EFI – 3M co-branded SuperFlex ink – a unique formulation that provides durability for outdoor graphics in wraps, with the option of 3M MCS Warranty coverage for some applications.

“Globally, we also did well despite continued headwinds related to the strength of the US dollar,” Emery added. “Overseas markets become more important to EFI’s ink business than ever before in 2015. We had continued growth of our Cretacolor ink products for ceramic decoration, and that is a market where the vast majority of the customer base is in Asia and Europe.”

The Reggiani acquisition not only gives EFI a new market in the textile space, but it also creates new opportunities for the company’s signage and graphics customer base with the rapid growth of fabric graphic soft signage work.

“In July, EFI entered the textile printing market in a big way with the acquisition of a leading textile printer manufacturer, Reggiani Macchine, and that has opened up new market opportunities for EFI on the ink side with water-based inks for a textile market that is even larger than the graphic arts market we traditionally serve,” Emery noted.

In another highlight, EFI received numerous awards during the past year.

“While the biggest award for me as leader of the ink business is seeing growth in usage for our products, we also received some important industry awards for products we launched last year,” Emery noted. “Our clear ink for the VUTEk H2000 Pro inkjet printer and our thermoformable EFI SuperDraw Ink won Must See ’Ems Awards this year. Near the end of 2015, we launched a new EFI Armor line of UV inkjet coatings, and it won a Product of the Year Award from SGIA.”

Textile is a huge opportunity for digital printing, and EFI is capitalizing on its strengths to make gains in this segment.

“Textile has amazing growth potential,” said Emery. “It is a market that is motivated to go from analog to digital print not just for economic reasons, but for environmental and market demand reasons. The major industrial textile centers of the world are very eager to adopt greener methods, and retail trends like fast fashion are making quick-turnaround, high-quality digital textile imaging more popular than ever before. Obviously the acquisition of Reggiani shows how serious we are about this market opportunity.”

Another area of opportunity is thermoforming, or creating 3D plastic parts and signs.

“We are also seeing rapid growth in thermoforming applications using ink technology EFI acquired in 2014 that enables digital printing of plastic parts and signage that are formed in to 3D shapes,” added Emery. “Inkjet inks traditionally could not withstand the heat, pressure and stretching required in the forming process, so that is a new market for EFI where we could not participate before.

We are winning new customers – including some businesses that did not print before and used manual decorating methods – as well as creating opportunity for existing customers to provide a new business service in thermoformable graphics.”

Regulatory issues impact inkjet printing as well, and not only in packaging. The debate between LED and UV curing is also an area that is under investigation, and Emery reported that EFI’s emphasis on LED curing gives it a head start in that area.

“In food packaging, in particular, we recognize the need for low-migration inkjet inks and that is an area where we have focused some of our R&D efforts,” Emery noted. “But managing in the regulatory environment goes well beyond packaging. In Europe, for example, there are regulatory issues that may one day really demand the use of LED inkjet as opposed to traditional UV, and our high-productivity platform for LED addresses that concern. EFI’s environmental heath and safety team is constantly reviewing the changes and ensuring that our inks comply with all the latest regulations and prepare for forthcoming changes.”

Emery said that EFI is successfully navigating the challenges caused by raw material supply and currency fluctuations.

“We are fortunate that our scale with ink manufacturing has helped us maintain consistency and quality in our raw materials supply,” he said. “Currency trends, as mentioned earlier, are a headwind for EFI and other US companies in the ink business.

“EFI diversified somewhat in 2015 where, company-wide, a little more of our revenue was not based in US dollars, which helped a bit with currency issues,” Emery added. “But our ink manufacturing operations are largely US-based, so we cannot control how the currency situation impacts us there – we just focus on serving our customers around the world to continue driving growth.”

Understandably, EFI is optimistic about the future of digital printing.

“A few years ago, our CEO, Guy Gecht, set a prediction of EFI reaching $1 billion in total revenues in 2016, and we are focused on reaching that goal,” Emery said. “I’m optimistic because, on the ink side of things, we are seeing strong growth from our existing customers in the signage and graphics space, and we have the opportunity to continue making an impact in additional markets like packaging, textile and ceramics that have a lot of room to grow in the analog to digital transformation. Beyond 2016, I think we want to continue the momentum we’ve started helping customers grow, and we’re excited about the opportunities to develop new innovations that help customers do more with digital print.”

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet portfolios with VUTEk, Jetrion and EFI Wide Format printers and presses. That portfolio has also made EFI the market leader in UV inkjet inks for the superwide format, wide format (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.) and narrow web label printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for wide /superwide format and industrial inkjet markets, including UV, UV LED and solvent inks.

Number of Employees: Approximately 2,500

Operating Facilities: 23 worldwide offices

Comments: Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) is a global leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, with strong positions in digital printers (VUTEk and Jetrion printers), digital workflow systems (Fiery front end products) and inks. EFI had another strong year in 2014, with overall sales increasing 9% to $790 million. On the ink side, EFI shipped out more than a million liters of ink for the third year in a row.

Stephen Emery, VP, Ink and Jetrion Industrial Inkjet businesses for EFI, said that EFI had a strong 2014, and, even though print in the U.S. is a more mature market domestically compared to some other countries, EFI saw remarkable growth.

“We also fared well internationally, although we faced some significant challenges that come from being a U.S.-based company operating on a global basis,” Emery added. “EFI’s total revenues for 2014 were up 9%, but even that growth came despite the impact that a stronger U.S. dollar had on our business.

“The strong dollar limited our overall sales growth numbers – even in instances where we had high unit sales for the year – because of negative currency effects,” Emery added. “Still, we stayed extremely focused on delivering great solutions for our customers last year, and I think that’s the number one reason we were able to meet analyst expectations for company performance even in the face of the currency issue.”

EFI’s VUTEk, wide format and Jetrion inkjet product lines, and the ink consumables business that supports them, were some of the best-performing parts of the company in 2014.

“Their performance last year made up for the weakness EFI saw in a fourth inkjet product line, Cretaprint – a ceramics/tile printing technology that has been effected by a slowdown in construction, especially in key markets like China,” Emery reported. “Cretaprint was primarily a hardware business for us in 2014 – we are just now bringing our own ink for that segment to market – so as construction demand turns around in the future, we will have a compelling ink product to grow with that market.”

Emery said that there are large numbers of traditional offset, flexo and screenprinting firms that are investing in inkjet print technologies.

“Among the industry segments we target, we absolutely saw improvement,” Emery noted. “Both as a leading UV and LED printer manufacturer and as the industry’s leading provider of workflow systems, we are building more automation and efficiencies into our product offering, so our customers are printing more because they have a lower total cost of operation for their inkjet production lines.”

One of these growth areas is LED curing.

“LED inkjet was the fastest-growing ink technology for the business and, in terms of vertical market segments, our Jetrion business continued to outpace our aggressive expectations,” Emery reported. “That said, our wide and superwide format inkjet products did exceptionally well. That market has expended well beyond the traditional customer – screenprint signage shops – into print operations of all types, so there is a proliferation and demand there that deserves and will receive EFI’s dedicated attention.

“We continue to see the trend where customers can print more, and do so profitably, when they switch from traditional UV inkjet to ‘cool cure’ LED inkjet,” Emery added. “Our LED inkjet printers have an incredible range in the types of jobs they can produce, and we can tell from the continued annual growth in LED inkjet ink volumes that our customers are moving more work to LED and winning new business that they did not have before.”

To support the LED market, EFI brought LED inkjet into the entry-level segment of the graphics production market with the 64-inch, hybrid roll/flatbed EFI H1625 LED printer. It launched at the ISA International Sign Expo last April with a list price of about $125,000, and it immediately became EFI’s top-selling printer.

In September, EFI hit two important milestones. First, EFI passed the 200-installation mark in its installed base of EFI Jetrion narrow web presses. Second, EFI launched its ceramic inkjet inks.

“Narrow web inkjet is a competitive market with lots of digital and analog technology providers trying to make an impact in the field, but the milestone we reached last year underscores the success we’ve had with Jetrion as the clear leader in inkjet narrow web space,” Emery observed. “Also in September, we introduced our new ceramic inkjet inks, which will of course be an important part to our future growth strategy with our Cretaprint business.”

The acquisition of key intellectual property assets for digital inkjet printing of thermoformed products from Polymeric Imaging, a specialist provider of UV and LED inks for industrial and graphic arts applications, was also an important move for EFI.

“One of the biggest highlights of the year specific to our ink operations was the October 2014 intellectual property acquisition deal EFI completed with Polymeric Imaging,” Emery said. “We acquired some unique and patented technology that we were licensing before. The deal gives us more leeway to continue developing digitally printed inkjet thermoforming applications that will differentiate EFI. It is the type of technology that creates new business for printing companies in product manufacturing niches where printing does not play right now, so it is an exciting opportunity for us and for the companies we serve.”

Regulatory pressures are reaching the digital printing segment, and EFI is taking steps to meet these regulatory changes.

“Over the last few years, we have seen an increase in regulations and changes by organizations such as REACH and the new GHS (Global Harmonization System),” said Emery. “Our Environmental Health and Safety team constantly monitors these changes and ensures we comply with the new regulations.”

For EFI, Emery reported that the raw materials situation is good, as the company has strong relationships with its raw materials suppliers, who see the potential for EFI’s continued growth.

“They do a tremendous job supporting our Ypsilanti, MI, inkjet ink operations,” said Emery. “Many of them are excited about the future opportunities they have working with EFI because of the increased volume of ink we are manufacturing for existing customers, and because of the promising new markets we are entering with formulations for thermoforming and ceramic decoration.”

Emery said that EFI is optimistic about 2015 based on the success its customers continue to see with EFI’s inkjet products.

“The movement in the market we have seen in entry-level production LED inkjet with our H1625 product in particular is a very positive sign for continuing growth,” he said. “A few years ago, our CEO, Guy Gecht, set an ambitious goal for EFI to reach $1 billion in revenues by the end of 2016, and as of our most recent fiscal year, we are on pace to meet that goal. It will take a lot of focused and dedicated work helping our customers, but I’m confident we have the teams in place to get us past the finish line.”

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet portfolios with VUTEk, Jetrion and EFI wide format printers and presses. That portfolio has also made EFI the market leader in UV inkjet inks for the superwide-format, wide-format (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.) and narrow-web label-printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for wide-/superwide-format and industrial inkjet markets, including UV, UV LED and solvent inks.

Number of Employees: Approximately 2,500

Operating Facilities: 23 worldwide offices

Comments: A global leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) had an excellent year in 2013. The company’s sales rose 11.6% to $728 million, and on the ink side, EFI shipped out more than a million liters of ink for the second year in a row.

“EFI had a phenomenal 2013 – our second consecutive year of more than 1 million liters of ink sold,” said Stephen Emery, vice president, ink business and Jetrion Industrial Inkjet, EFI. “In addition to far exceeding the 1 million liter mark again in 2013, we brought several new inks to market that help our customers expand into new markets.

“The emphasis continues to be finding the key markets and applications in the print industry where digital inkjet enables short- to medium-runs with variable data and providing the absolute best products and services for those markets,” Emery added. “It is an approach that extends beyond the ink we sell, to the inkjet hardware we make, as well as to our print workflow and Fiery digital front end products.”

EFI has a number of leading product lines, including its VUTEk and Jetrion printers and Fiery front end products. The company’s increasing inkjet ink sales confirm that the digital printing market is growing into new fields, with LED one area of emphasis.

“We consider our increased ink volumes to be a leading indicator, and as a result, we experienced increased inkjet printer sales in 2013,” Emery said. “But it was also significant news for us that the number of LED placements keeps increasing. Our LED printers and inks showed the highest growth in the display and graphics markets. The strong growth in LED enables our customers to print a wider range of media and is spread across the markets we serve. EFI VUTEk LED printers tend to produce more square footage compared to UV machines of the same size and speed. LED lamps last significantly longer than UV arc lamps, and they don’t gradually degrade they way arc lamps do, so the printed output can be that much more consistent over the life of the lamp. Without the extra energy generated by UV arc lamp curing, VUTEk LED printers also handle a broader range of substrates. All of those advantages translate into more jobs per shift for our customers.

“Beyond LED, inkjet continues to improve on its essential value proposition as a digital production process that removes much of the waste and set-up of analog screen, offset and flexo print processes,” Emery added. “We are seeing more customers move into the analog replacement phase of inkjet with our highest-volume press, the VUTEk HS100 Pro. At 100 boards per hour, it has found its home into several screen-printing shops as a system that provides analog quality and the productivity to compete on longer-run jobs.”

EFI has developed a reputation for its R&D operations, and 2013 saw more new presses and inks come into the marketplace. One highlight is the new EFI VUTEk GS Pro-TF system, an ink and printer system that allows for inkjet printing on thermoformable media, which creates new opportunities in 3-D thermoformed product decoration. It was named Product of the Year for digital ink at last year’s SGIA tradeshow. EFI also continued expanding in LED, and Emery said it will be an important factor in the role digital plays in the packaging space.

“We launched the first all-LED EFI Jetrion narrow web press last year, and it provides customers a new opportunity to expand beyond digital inkjet label converting to include flexible packaging work,” Emery added. “Our growth in LED also included the launch of our first dedicated roll-to-roll LED printer, which extends our product line more into the vehicle and fleet wrap market. We also invested in the ink technology for the roll-to-roll LED printer to reach that market, developing a new, EFI VUTEk GSLXr 3M SuperFlex UV that can be used to create 3M MCS Warranty jobs.”

EFI had an excellent fourth quarter of 2013 in terms of sales, which bodes well for the company as it continues into 2014.

“In Q4 of 2013, EFI witnessed double-digit growth across every business and in every region so, more than anything, that indicates to me that we are focused more than ever before on catering to our customers’ needs,” Emery concluded. “Our outlook is for continued growth in a matter that reflects the industry-wide transition from analog to digital print. We are seeing it not only in signage, label and packaging markets, but also in industrial applications like ceramic tile decoration.”

Major Products: Through its VUTEk, Jetrion and EFI Wide Format product lines, EFI is the market leader in inkjet inks and printing systems for the superwide, (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.), wide format UV, label, packaging, direct mail and commercial printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the superwide format and industrial inkjet markets, including UV-based, solvent, and eco/bio-solvent inks.

Number of Employees: Approximately 1,900.

Operating Facilities: 23 worldwide offices.

Comments: A world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) had another strong year in 2012, with sales up more than 8% year-over-year to $652 million. In terms of inks, EFI reached a major milestone when it shipped out more than a million liters of ink during 2012.

“We had another record year for ink sales in 2012,” said Stephen Emery, vice president, ink business, EFI. “EFI had a milestone when, for the first time, the company shipped more than a million liters of ink in less than 12 months. This represents a significant amount of the total market for ink in the industries we serve.”

EFI enjoys excellent success with its UV inks for its VUTEk, Jetrion and EFI Wide Format press lines, and UV LED curing is an area of particular opportunity for EFI.

“The success we are having with LED inks is phenomenal,” Mr. Emery said. “We addressed a new market by creating an LED platform for the superwide format space, and it has grown substantially.

“We have been partners with 3M for more than two decades and, in 2012, we started working with 3M on a new UV ink,” Mr. Emery added. “Working with 3M helps us create great ink sets in a fast time frame. And, we also know many customers are interested in having inks that can be included under a 3M MCS Warranty.”

Inkjet printing of ceramic tiles has become a good business, and EFI made a key acquisition in 2012. “Early in the year last year, we announced the acquisition of Cretaprint, a leading developer of inkjet printers for ceramic tile printing,” Mr. Emery noted. “It is an acquisition that supports the momentum we see in industrial inkjet printing applications. The ceramic tile market specifically represents a growth opportunity for EFI.”

Digital printing continues to grow, and with it, the inkjet markets EFI serves. “We saw a major growth trend around increasing ink usage among our VUTEk GS and GSr superwide-format printer customers, which indicates our users are busy,” Mr. Emery said. “It is a trend that has continued into the new year. EFI follows those trends closely because ink is actually a leading indicator for our business. When the economy slowed a few years ago, for example, ink volume was the first place where we could see it happening. Our ink business for the label segment, with EFI Jetrion digital presses, is also growing at a substantial rate as narrow web printers adopt digital printing technologies.”

Mr. Emery added that he anticipates that EFI will continue to enjoy growth in the coming years.

“I have had some very recent conversations with both small and large EFI customers, as well as with distributors,” he said. “The continued feedback I am receiving from those customers and others is that 2013 will bring still more growth in inkjet ink.

“For EFI, many of the expectations for 2013 mirror the trends we are seeing: Increased usage in UV ink for superwide-format, wide-format, label printing and industrial markets,” Mr. Emery added. “We also anticipate more growth in inkjet from high-end, high-volume printing with new solutions like the VUTEk HS100 Pro Inkjet Press coming to market as a digital solution that competes in the analog screen-printing world.”

Major Products: Through its VUTEk, Jetrion and Rastek product lines, EFI is the market leader in inkjet inks and printing systems for the superwide, (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.), wide format UV, label, packaging, direct mail and commercial printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the superwide format and industrial inkjet markets, including UV-based, solvent, and eco/bio-solvent inks.

Number of Employees: Approximately 1,900

Operating Facilities: 23 worldwide offices

Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI), a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, recorded an excellent year in 2011, with sales up 17% year-over-year to $591.6 million.

“Our eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth, which reflects records for both our Inkjet and APPS segments, completes a very successful year for EFI on many levels. Our team delivered 17% revenue growth in 2011, an approximate 90% increase in non-GAAP net income growth, strong cash flow from operations, and a record level of recurring revenue,” said Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI. “We are excited about the opportunities ahead and plan to accelerate our innovation while continuing to execute on our strategy enabling customers to profit from the transition of analog print to digital technology while driving efficiencies in their businesses.”

On the inkjet side of its business, EFI features its VUTEk, Rastek and Jetrion printers and inks. At the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) Expo, EFI’s VUTEk GS3250LX LED UV-curing printer received the Product of the Year award in the Flat-Bed-Rigid Substrate UV category. At Labelexpo 2011, EFI introduced the Jetrion 4900, an innovative UV inkjet digital printing system that combines high-quality digital printing with in-line laser finishing for label converters.

In January 2012, EFI moved into the ceramic tile market by acquiring Cretaprint S.L., Castellón, Spain, a leading developer of inkjet printers for ceramic tiles.

“As evidenced by our record revenues, we are benefitting from strong traction in our industrial inkjet segment and are excited about expanding into the ceramic tile market, which represents a tremendous growth opportunity for EFI,” said Mr. Gecht. “We have been tracking the swift transformation from analog to digital technology in tile imaging for quite some time, and have been deeply impressed with the fast growth and global leadership position of Cretaprint.”

Major Products: Through its VUTEk, Jetrion and Rastek product lines, EFI is the market leader in inkjet inks and printing systems for the superwide, (e.g., billboards, signage, POP, etc.), wide format UV, label, packaging, direct mail and commercial printing markets. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the superwide format and industrial inkjet markets, including UV-based, solvent, and eco/bio-solvent inks.

Number of Employees: Approximately 1,900

Operating Facilities: 23 worldwide offices

Comments: The digital printing market has recovered nicely from the global recession, and EFI enjoyed good growth, with the company’s overall inkjet sales increasing from $159 million in 2009 to more than $207 million in 2010.

EFI remains well positioned to grow further due to its wide range of industry-leading brands, and its ink division will grow right with it.

“After a slow start, we had consistent growth, ending up the year 2010 over 14 percent ahead of 2009,” said Stephen J. Emery, director, ink sales and marketing for EFI VUTEk. “We clearly realized consistent improvement, with September being a clear turning point and a record month for the EFI ink business. Europe continues to have a sluggish recovery, but we saw notable improvements in Q4.”

One of the keys to EFI’s success is its rapid innovation. The EFI VUTEk GS5000r 5-meter roll-to-roll UV printer is enjoying success. The EFI VUTEk GS3200 3.2 meter wide flatbed and roll-to-roll UV printer and the EFI VUTEk GS2000 2-meter wide, roll-to-roll and flatbed printer are also gaining strength in the market.

“Our GS and GSr high speed digital UV inkjet printers and inks were very well received in the marketplace,” Mr. Emery said.

Jetrion has also been active, developing its EFI Jetrion 4830 LED UV Inkjet system and flexible ink set and EFI Jetrion 4830 UV Inkjet system.

Higher raw material costs are a serious issue throughout the ink industry, and digital ink manufacturers are also feeling the impact.

“Increased raw material costs are a major concern,” Mr. Emery said. “The biggest concern is where there are limited vendors offering a component. We continue to work with our vendor/partners to find ways to keep costs under control and have components qualified from multiple vendors.”

Mr. Emery said that EFI anticipates further growth in numerous markets in 2011, most notably in UV.

“UV and new UV curing technologies will continue to grow,” he said. “Textile will also continue to grow.

“EFI is unique in that we offer end to end solutions for the print industry,” Mr. Emery concluded. “We help our customers increase profits and expand applications, whether it is with our software-printers-inks. We expect strong growth in the next few years.”