303 Velocity Way
Foster City, CA 94404
Phone: (650) 357-3500
Fax: (650) 357-3907
Sales: $652M for EFI at the corporate level; Ink World estimates $95 million in ink and consumables.
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.
Key Personnel: Guy Gecht, CEO; Vincent Pilette, CFO; Ghilad Dziesietnik, CTO; Frank Mallozzi, SVP, worldwide sales and marketing; Scott Schinlever, SVP/GM, EFI’s Inkjet Solutions.
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.”