High-speed continuous-feed colour inkjet has emerged as the most significant digital print market in the past few years. Yet having been a leader in the development of digital print, Xerox was notable for its absence. That changed in February when the company acquired French inkjet developer Impika.
“Xerox did the right thing by acquiring Impika,” says Jeff Hayes, chief executive of consultancy InfoTrends.
“Xerox has a major hole related to production inkjet printing. It has been lapped and risked being shut out from this market given the limitations of solid ink technology.”
Behind these strong words are the hard facts. IT Strategies, another research firm, says the continuous-feed inkjet printer market was worth nearly US$900 million ($873 million) at the end of 2012, having growing from nothing in less than five years. InfoTrends estimates that more than 90 billion pages were printed on high-volume continuous-feed colour digital presses in 2012 and that is set to exceed 500 billion pages in 2017. It’s the fastest growing sector of digital print.
Xerox excluded itself from this growth. While other vendors went down the route of aqueous inkjet, it went out on a limb, unsuccessfully, with two alternative technologies. First, the toner-based 490/980, and then the “waterless” inkjet CiPress. The 490/980 was dropped, while the CiPress is having limited success.
Xerox’s reasons for eschewing the aqueous inkjet technology that everyone else had adopted were technological and environmental. In justifying itself, Xerox talked up the inkjet paradox: inkjet printheads’ tiny nozzles need runny inks to work, so to get enough colour on the paper, plenty of liquid is required, which in turn can lead to cockling, bleeding, washed-out colour and the need to dry that water. It has a point.
The green angle
Other vendors have handled those factors. Xerox instead based its marketing on another potential pitfall of aqueous inkjet – de-inkability. By taking sides with the association of de-inkers, Ingede, Xerox found itself arguing against every other vendor, bar Xeikon.
While being green is a laudable aim, the de-inking argument isn’t black and white, and the market has not been swayed. By trying to take the high ground, Xerox lost market share, with only a small number of units installed globally to the tens and hundreds of its rivals.
Xerox itself acknowledges that its previous approach was unsuccessful. “Clients have said that if we had the technology, they would buy aqueous inkjet from us,” says vice-president and inkjet business general manager Dustin Graupman.
In 2011, Xerox Europe started selling Impika. Meanwhile Fuji Xerox, the Asia-Pacific joint venture, of which Xerox owns 25%, launched the 2800 Inkjet Color Continuous Feed Printing System.
In February, at the Hunkeler Innovation Days 2013, Xerox remained committed to waterless technology, but a fortnight later came the about-turn. The roots lay with Jeff Jacobson’s arrival as president of Xerox’s Global Graphic Communications last year; soon after discussions with Impika began.
“It has been clear for a number of years that the next big technology in our industry is production inkjet,” says Jacobson. “It’s where our customers need to be, so we need to be there too.
“No one can discount the importance that inkjet will have in next two decades, and we have to be as strong in inkjet as we are in Xerography. Acquiring Impika is the first step.”
Rolling it out
Now the focus is rolling out the Impika portfolio via Xerox’s global sales channel. According to Graupman, the applications that the Impika iPrint range of presses will enable include transac-tional, newspaper, DM, catalogues, commercial print, offset replacement and books. As for the CiPress, it will continue in markets for lightweight stocks and low-cost paper.
There is more to the Impika deal than continuous-feed; it offers technology platforms in B2 and imprinting. “We need to be in the B2 market,” says Jacobson. “B2 was in our plan as part of the acquisition.”
That future may come more quickly now that Impika has the backing of Xerox. It has B2 concepts that have never reached the market. “We have a plan in B2, yes, but I can’t share any detail,” says Impika chief executive Paul Moravi.
Impika’s iEngine addresses imprinting (digital printing components that fit onto existing print and finishing kit), which is emerging as the best-of-both worlds of analogue and digital. “I see a tremendous opportunity in imprinting, though it’s not been in our portfolio to date,” says Graupman. “Impika has had success with little marketing. People actively sought it out. The potential is huge with Xerox bringing it to a broader market.”
Buying Impika plugs the gaping hole in Xerox’s portfolio and adds technologies to address two emerging markets. And that goes a long way to help Jacobson meet his stated goal “to earn the right that customers will want to do 100% of their business with Xerox”.
30-second briefing
• Xerox Global Graphic Communications (GGC) acquired French inkjet technology specialist Impika for an undisclosed sum
• It enables Xerox to play a role in high-speed continuous-flow inkjet (CFIJ), the fastest-growing digital print market, worth almost $1 billion last year, according to IT Strategies. Page growth is set to rise from 90 billion in 2012 to 500 billion in 2017, according to InfoTrends
• In addition to CFIJ, Xerox gains access to two emerging digital print markets, B2 cutsheet and imprinting
• The move is a reversal of Xerox’s previous opposition to aqueous inkjet on technological and environmental grounds
• Central to the change of heart is the arrival of Jeff Jacobson (right) as president of GGC, who has decided to focus on providing customers with what they want
• The move was anticipated by industry commentators and customers, and welcomed as a confirm-ation that GGC remains committed to print production following its focus on business services
Opinion: Xerox makes a sound move with acquisition of Impika
The news that Xerox has acquired French inkjet supplier Impika should not come as a surprise, particularly to those people who closely watch this industry.
Xerox has been selling the Impika presses through a number of its operations for some time. Although Xerox is a player in the high-speed inkjet market with its waterless inkjet (phase-change ink) CiPress presses, it has largely missed out on the areas of rapid growth in the market that have allowed HP, Ricoh Infoprint, Kodak, Océ and Screen to establish strong positions using the dominant aqueous inkjet technology. In my mind, the only issue that stood in the way of Xerox acquiring Impika was whether it would extend its relationship with Fujifilm to sell the Fuji Xerox 2800 Inkjet Color Continuous Feed Printing System. Acquiring Impika was a sound move as it means Xerox owns its inkjet technology rather than licensing Fuji Xerox and, in reality, Miyakoshi technology.
Xerox had until this move missed the high-speed inkjet wave that really started at Drupa 2008. At that time, the firm was betting its continuous-feed future on the colour toner technology that it introduced with the Xerox 490/980 press. That failed to succeed in the market and is no longer sold. The CiPress, first previewed at Ipex 2010, has been late coming on to the market, has limitations as to what it can do, and has only recently started to be installed. It also presents quality issues for certain markets and has failed as yet to challenge the aqueous inkjet presses from the rival companies mentioned above.
Impika is technologically one of the most impressive companies in the market, with a level of expertise and experience in the inkjet area that is a match for any of its competitors. What it has lacked in the past has been a good distribution and marketing partner. Becoming a part of Xerox could be ideal for the company to increase sales of its iPrint presses and iEngine imprinting systems. I just hope that Xerox leaves the firm to develop those products without trying to impose a heavy hand on it. Impika’s team are inkjet experts. Putting the iPress range alongside the CiPress provides a very strong product portfolio and should allow Xerox to become one of the major suppliers in the market.
I would also say I am delighted to see Xerox investing in the production colour space. Most of its recent investments have been in the services industry and I was concerned that the company was moving its emphasis into the business services area and away from print production. I believe that we may be seeing the influence of Jeff Jacobson, president of Xerox Global Graphic Communications, who joined the company last year. Finally, Xerox has a senior executive who understands this market, unlike those who ran graphic communications in Xerox before him, and who appears to be able to influence the future direction of the company.
Andrew Tribute, prior to his retirement last year, was chief executive of Attributes Associates, a consultancy for the printing industry specialising in technology evaluation, marketing strategies and due diligence, with 40 years’ experience.
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