Fremont, CA 94555
Phone: 650-357-3500
www.efi.com
Sales: $1.02 billion for EFI at the corporate level; Ink World estimates $150 million in ink and consumables.
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.
Key Personnel: Bill Muir, CEO; Marc Olin, CFO; Ghilad Dziesietnik, CTO; Frank Mallozzi, chief revenue officer; Tim Haynes, SVP for EFI’s Display Graphics business; Stephen Emery, VP for EFI’s Ink and New Business Development operations.
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.”
“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.
"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."
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.”
