Cambridge-based inkjet head manufacturer Xaar enjoyed a great 2012 as sales of its platform 3 (P3) 1001 head really took off, and this is accelerating this year. Its share price has been powering forward from under £3 at the start of the year to £5 at close of trading on April 19, well over double the price a year earlier.
Annual sales revenue has also more than doubled in three years to £86.3 million, up by 26% on 2011, with profit before tax at £15.7 million, and £28.9 million net cash in the bank at the end of the year (up to £41.7 million as it reported a strong start to 2013 in an April trading update). Much of this growth is from ceramic tile decoration that is rapidly transitioning from analogue to digital printing but labels and packaging remain central.
The packaging sector is slower in adopting inkjet, although momentum is building. According to the company chairman, Phil Lawler, ‘Sales into the packaging segment continue to grow at a modest rate and we remain confident that we can increase our share of primary label printing.’
This view is shared by chief executive, Ian Dinwoodie, who commented, ‘Some years ago coding and marking was the only significant segment of the packaging market addressed by our technology. Following the successful introduction of P3 products, growth in labels and other packaging applications now means that 45% of packaging revenue comes from non-outer case coding segments.’
This revenue means many more heads are being manufactured at the Huntingdon facility that benefitted from a £22 million investment programme to expand capacity ten-fold. Performance and reliability is now excellent and one of its major customers, EFI, released very strong first quarter earnings with industrial inkjet the fastest growing sector of the business. The Jetrion label press family that features the Xaar 1001 is doing well with over 200 systems currently in operation and a continuing steady stream of new press sales.
