Following disappointing third quarter results, EFI has announced a refocus of its strategy to boost growth. This includes exiting the label market and equipment sales to focus on the growing markets of digital textile and corrugated printing. The company is in talks to sell the Jetrion product line to another party, but will retain the IP and inks.
‘We are clearly disappointed in the third quarter results, which fell below our expectations largely due to delayed deals in our direct business,’ said CEO Guy Gecht. ‘To reaccelerate growth, we are reallocating budget and talent toward our largest opportunities, in textile and packaging, along with making organisational changes and adding senior positions to improve focus and execution.’
Describing the inkjet label market as ‘a crowded landscape’, he said that EFI is in the late stages of negotiations with ‘a strong industry player’ to take over the manufacturing of Jetrion presses as well as sales and support, while EFI retains the ink manufacturing for the product line.
Mr Gecht emphasised the success that EFI is experiencing with the Nozomi C18000 press for corrugated. The first customer, Rafael Hinojosa in Spain, is predicted to have produced 1 million square metres in October, and the second, McGowans in Ireland, has ‘expressed its excitement to be up and running and producing output for their clients.’ The third press is about to be shipped to Complete Design & Packaging (CDP), in North Carolina, while a fourth press is going into an un-named customer site in Asia-Pacific and the fifth to one in the US.
‘We are particularly gratified to finally see the results of our investment in this great new opportunity. We had the foresight to begin investing in the corrugated segment three years ago, because we were confident that it will be the next and potentially the most significant opportunity for industrial inkjet,’ said Mr Gecht.
The company will be producing two Nozomi presses per month in 2018 to generate a $60 million in revenue from sales of machines and ink.
