At this week’s Drupa International Media Conference, EFI revealed some major product announcements, including wide-format inkjet equipment expected to put pressure on screen printing, as well as turbocharged Fiery technology, although further details are under lock and key until April.
EFI also talked up its financial strength as “the fastest growing company in the printing industry”.
It posted sales of US$592 million and net income of $27 million for the 2010/11 year.
Chief executive Guy Gecht said: “By 2016, we will be over a billion-dollar company.”
He said these results were good news for customers as EFI continued to pour a substantial 20% of revenue into R&D.
Gecht drew favourable comparison between the firm and fellow Silicon Valley success stories.
EFI’s 17% year-on-year growth is ahead of IT juggernauts such as HP, Adobe and Symantec.
Within EFI, the fastest growth was being experienced in its software division, such as MIS and web-to-print systems.
Previously the vendor had restricted its MIS ambitions to the US market but it is now thinking globally.
Gecht said EFI would make around five acquisitions per year, with buyouts largely on the software side, but added that EFI remained picky about acquisition targets. “We look at 100 companies per year and if we buy five, it means we passed on 95.”
He that in the past, there was a theory that “the printing industry doesn’t like to spend on software. They will spend $2 million on offset but won’t spend $10,000 on software.”
But Gecht said this mind frame was changing. This is clear in Australia, where some forward-thinking printers have plunged hundreds of thousands of dollars into custom development of web-to-print, MIS and workflow software in the search of greater automation.
This was central to the backlash over the Prism buyout., where EFI copped flak from users who were worried about having to ditch their expensive investments in custom development.
“We learned from the Prism acquisition. The reaction was too unfavourable. We sent our key guys out to Australia and I think customers are now much happier,” said Gecht.
But he remained steadfast that software acquisitions would be rolled into the existing EFI portfolio or ultimately phased out. “Every time we buy a software product, there is a question what we will do with the product. We can’t have 20 MIS systems worldwide.”
Gecht also said that with products such as Prism, EFI preferred “plug and play” approach that didn’t require costly custom development.
“We are working to make it a lot more integrated. We are no longer doing a lot of improvements to Prism because the future is EFI. If customers don’t want to do lots of custom integration, I can tell you EFI wants plug and play.”
He added that ultimately, users would benefit from better support thanks to EFI’s global presence and solid financial base.
Another barometer of growth – both for EFI and its customers – can be seen in ink sales. “In the last quarter, we sold 34% more ink than we sold in the same quarter a year ago,” said Gecht.
On the hardware side, EFI is aiming markets for inkjet printing such as textiles and ceramics, which are not under threat from overcapacity or electronic media.
EFI entered the ceramics printing market in January with the acquisition of Spanish company Cretaprint.
Drupa takes place in Düsseldorf, Germany on 3-16 May 2012.
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