07.21.21
6453 Kaiser Drive
Fremont, CA 94555
Phone: 650-357-3500
www.efi.com
Sales: $1 billion for EFI at the corporate level (Ink World estimate); Ink World estimates $150 million in ink and consumables.
Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet printer portfolios, including VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Reggiani, Nozomi, Cubik and Cretaprint printers and presses. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the wide/superwide format sign and display graphics and industrial inkjet printing, including UV and UV LED inks, ceramic and mineral 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.
Key Personnel: Jeff Jacobson, CEO; Frank Mallozzi, CRO; Grant Fitz, CFO; Doug Edwards, CTO; Scott Schinlever, COO, Inkjet Business
No. of Employees: Approximately 3,300 (Ink World estimate).
Operating Facilities: 34 worldwide offices.
Comments: The printing industry faced many challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the digital printing segment was no exception. Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) is one of the top inkjet equipment and ink manufacturers, and the company saw many of the challenges.
Mark Goodearl, senior ink product manager for EFI, said that EFI weathered the same setbacks seen across the graphic arts digital print and industrial print markets, but also had some key gains, particularly in packaging.
“The closures that came with lockdowns in 2020 reduced demand for inks used in signage and graphics printing, such as retail POP signage as well as tradeshow and event signage,” Goodearl noted.
“Packaging ink volume for our single-pass inkjet UV LED corrugated packaging printer, the EFI Nozomi C18000 Plus, grew throughout 2020,” he added. “The pandemic accelerated consumer e-commerce shopping and products such as subscription boxes kept packaging ink demand high. And by the end of the 2020, we saw some improvements in ink volumes in the Asia Pacific region as that part of the world moved toward pandemic recovery. Ink volumes for industrial digital print applications that are prevalent in Asia, such as ceramic tile decoration and industrial textile manufacturing, started recovering in the fourth quarter of the year, creating some momentum in ink business that we are working to build on in 2021.
“EFI had the first commercial implementations of its Cubik digital wood staining technology in 2020, opening a new market for industrial production using mineral inks to create a high volume, single-pass digital staining option for wood flooring and other wood products,” he added. “EFI Cubik printers can use a mineral ink that offers a significant improvement in sustainability, health and safety compared with traditional wood staining.”
EFI had one of its most significant years for change in 2019, becoming a privately owned company with a new CEO from the digital print industry, Jeff Jacobson.
“In 2020, additional high-level executives joined who are critical to our future development with ink innovation and digital printing in general,” Goodearl said. “Former Xaar CEO Doug Edwards joined as EFI’s CTO in January and, in June, Scott Schinlever, an executive who previously helped us reach a leadership position in UV and later UV LED superwide-format inkjet, returned to EFI as our COO of Inkjet, a role where he directs all of our inkjet operations across our display graphics, textile, corrugated packaging, ceramic tile and building materials product lines.”
In May, EFI brought in Todd Zimmerman, a new senior executive who will be instrumental in driving the company’s ink strategy forward.
“He has extensive print experience and, as the vice president and general manager of our Display Graphics business – EFI’s single-largest inkjet business segment – he will be enacting some strategic plans that can position our ink operations for longer-term growth,” Goodearl said.
Two of EFI’s inkjet technologies earned top awards for their respective markets in 2020. The EFI Cretaprint Hybrid product – a digital ceramic tile printer – won the tile decoration industry’s top technology award, the Alfa de Oro.
“That product is somewhat revolutionary from an ink perspective as the Cretaprint Hybrid printer is the first digital tile decoration printer that will enable users to run solvent-based ceramic inks but then switch to greener water-based inks,” Goodearl said.
“The other big honor EFI had in 2020 was receiving one of the top accolades for printing technology – an InterTech Award for the EFI Reggiani BOLT single-pass inkjet textile printer,” he continued. “The BOLT is the world’s fastest digital textile printer, operating at speeds up to 295 linear feet (90 linear meters) per minute.”
COVID-19 had a major impact on raw material pricing and availability.
“We worked very hard on strategies that helped us minimize the issues every ink manufacturer faced in rising ink component, chemical and freight costs,” reported Goodearl. “While it is too early to say the situation has improved, we remain optimistic that the factors that have impacted ink manufacturing will indeed become more stable as the pandemic subsides globally.”
EFI is constantly developing new markets, with wallcoverings a promising new opportunity.
“Earlier this year, we tested prints produced on our roll-to-roll printers with our UV LED inks on DreamScape material, and they earned Type II certification for wallcoverings,” Goodearl said. “It is a key advancement in terms of quality, safety – including fire safety – and durability of digital print.”
Goodearl said that while the ink business at EFI has not returned to normal, demand is up across the board compared with 2020.
“In the future, our ink offering will look different than it did pre-pandemic based on shifts in customer demand, with corrugated packaging inkjet ink, for example, continuing the growth it has had all through the pandemic, and ink products such as dye-sublimation ink for soft signage graphics and UV LED display graphics inks moving back towards pre-pandemic volumes,” Goodearl said.
Fremont, CA 94555
Phone: 650-357-3500
www.efi.com
Sales: $1 billion for EFI at the corporate level (Ink World estimate); Ink World estimates $150 million in ink and consumables.
Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet printer portfolios, including VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Reggiani, Nozomi, Cubik and Cretaprint printers and presses. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the wide/superwide format sign and display graphics and industrial inkjet printing, including UV and UV LED inks, ceramic and mineral 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.
Key Personnel: Jeff Jacobson, CEO; Frank Mallozzi, CRO; Grant Fitz, CFO; Doug Edwards, CTO; Scott Schinlever, COO, Inkjet Business
No. of Employees: Approximately 3,300 (Ink World estimate).
Operating Facilities: 34 worldwide offices.
Comments: The printing industry faced many challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the digital printing segment was no exception. Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) is one of the top inkjet equipment and ink manufacturers, and the company saw many of the challenges.
Mark Goodearl, senior ink product manager for EFI, said that EFI weathered the same setbacks seen across the graphic arts digital print and industrial print markets, but also had some key gains, particularly in packaging.
“The closures that came with lockdowns in 2020 reduced demand for inks used in signage and graphics printing, such as retail POP signage as well as tradeshow and event signage,” Goodearl noted.
“Packaging ink volume for our single-pass inkjet UV LED corrugated packaging printer, the EFI Nozomi C18000 Plus, grew throughout 2020,” he added. “The pandemic accelerated consumer e-commerce shopping and products such as subscription boxes kept packaging ink demand high. And by the end of the 2020, we saw some improvements in ink volumes in the Asia Pacific region as that part of the world moved toward pandemic recovery. Ink volumes for industrial digital print applications that are prevalent in Asia, such as ceramic tile decoration and industrial textile manufacturing, started recovering in the fourth quarter of the year, creating some momentum in ink business that we are working to build on in 2021.
“EFI had the first commercial implementations of its Cubik digital wood staining technology in 2020, opening a new market for industrial production using mineral inks to create a high volume, single-pass digital staining option for wood flooring and other wood products,” he added. “EFI Cubik printers can use a mineral ink that offers a significant improvement in sustainability, health and safety compared with traditional wood staining.”
EFI had one of its most significant years for change in 2019, becoming a privately owned company with a new CEO from the digital print industry, Jeff Jacobson.
“In 2020, additional high-level executives joined who are critical to our future development with ink innovation and digital printing in general,” Goodearl said. “Former Xaar CEO Doug Edwards joined as EFI’s CTO in January and, in June, Scott Schinlever, an executive who previously helped us reach a leadership position in UV and later UV LED superwide-format inkjet, returned to EFI as our COO of Inkjet, a role where he directs all of our inkjet operations across our display graphics, textile, corrugated packaging, ceramic tile and building materials product lines.”
In May, EFI brought in Todd Zimmerman, a new senior executive who will be instrumental in driving the company’s ink strategy forward.
“He has extensive print experience and, as the vice president and general manager of our Display Graphics business – EFI’s single-largest inkjet business segment – he will be enacting some strategic plans that can position our ink operations for longer-term growth,” Goodearl said.
Two of EFI’s inkjet technologies earned top awards for their respective markets in 2020. The EFI Cretaprint Hybrid product – a digital ceramic tile printer – won the tile decoration industry’s top technology award, the Alfa de Oro.
“That product is somewhat revolutionary from an ink perspective as the Cretaprint Hybrid printer is the first digital tile decoration printer that will enable users to run solvent-based ceramic inks but then switch to greener water-based inks,” Goodearl said.
“The other big honor EFI had in 2020 was receiving one of the top accolades for printing technology – an InterTech Award for the EFI Reggiani BOLT single-pass inkjet textile printer,” he continued. “The BOLT is the world’s fastest digital textile printer, operating at speeds up to 295 linear feet (90 linear meters) per minute.”
COVID-19 had a major impact on raw material pricing and availability.
“We worked very hard on strategies that helped us minimize the issues every ink manufacturer faced in rising ink component, chemical and freight costs,” reported Goodearl. “While it is too early to say the situation has improved, we remain optimistic that the factors that have impacted ink manufacturing will indeed become more stable as the pandemic subsides globally.”
EFI is constantly developing new markets, with wallcoverings a promising new opportunity.
“Earlier this year, we tested prints produced on our roll-to-roll printers with our UV LED inks on DreamScape material, and they earned Type II certification for wallcoverings,” Goodearl said. “It is a key advancement in terms of quality, safety – including fire safety – and durability of digital print.”
Goodearl said that while the ink business at EFI has not returned to normal, demand is up across the board compared with 2020.
“In the future, our ink offering will look different than it did pre-pandemic based on shifts in customer demand, with corrugated packaging inkjet ink, for example, continuing the growth it has had all through the pandemic, and ink products such as dye-sublimation ink for soft signage graphics and UV LED display graphics inks moving back towards pre-pandemic volumes,” Goodearl said.