Domino Printing Sciences has bought Swiss inkjet development company Graph-Tech AG. It has owned some 20% of the company for many years and the two have co-operated on several developments including the full colour narrow web label press, the N600i.
Graph-Tech has a good history in developing inkjet systems. At Drupa it was behind many inkjet systems, and interestingly the Landa ink ejectors employed in the digital nanography presses. The company also launched its first equipment under its own brand, the web-fed modular MonoCube systems that combine good performance at reasonable cost.
Graph-Tech is an important partner to Domino. It now supplies Domino’s K-Series product range and the new N600i full colour digital label press as well as production line controllers and other digital printing equipment.
The initial purchase price is CHF 18.63m (approximately £12.4m) with additional contingent consideration up to a maximum of CHF 10m (£6.7m). Payment will be satisfied from Domino’s cash resources. An amount of CHF 3.1m (£2.1m) has been withheld from the initial sum; payment of this is subject to the shareholders remaining employed in the business over a three year period. The additional contingent consideration is payable to the extent revenue and unit sales targets are met over a three year period.
Nigel Bond, Group Managing Director of Domino Printing Sciences plc commented, “Graph-Tech has been a long term partner of Domino. We have built a profitable digital printing business based on Graph-Tech’s technology. The timing of our acquisition of the remaining shares in the business coincides with the successful introduction of our new digital label press products. We believe these products combined with planned new developments will provide us with significant opportunity to capitalise on the growth in use of digital printing technology, in both printing and packaging applications.”
