Durst is strengthening its position in the graphics industry by acquiring a majority stake in US printer manufacturer, Vanguard Digital Printing and has future plans in place to bring the latter’s solutions into the A/NZ market.
Durst Oceania managing director Matt Ashman told Sprinter that Vanguard Digital Printing’s solutions will most likely be made available in the local market early next year.
“At the moment, we’ll be concentrating on Vanguard Digital Printing’s home market. The business has not sold outside of the US market yet,” Ashman said.
“But certainly, the plans are, once we’ve aligned our sales structures worldwide, for Durst Oceania to bring Vanguard Digital Printing’s solutions into the region. It’s an indication that Durst, as an organisation, is constantly looking for new opportunities and that opportunities within wide format are still large and present.
“Vanguard Digital Printing has some great technology that will be of interest to Durst and Durst customers. Vanguard Digital Printing is a young, vibrant company that has only been in existence for five years. Ultimately, Durst taking a majority stake in Vanguard Digital Printing is only going to feed the Durst family of devices.”
Headquartered in Lawrenceville, Georgia in the US, Vanguard Digital is one of the leading manufacturers of printing systems for the signage, decoration, corporate, industrial and packaging sectors.
With the acquisition, Durst said not only has that it added new printer classes to its large format portfolio, but that Vanguard too has a global distribution and service network and technical resources to continue developing robust solutions.
“Vanguard Digital Printing Systems is a rapidly growing and very successful company in a customer segment in which we are currently not active,” Durst North America president Tim Saur said.
“Through the combination of high-quality products, a strong management team and absolute customer orientation, both companies are a perfect match.”
Durst Group CEO and co-owner Christoph Gamper said Vanguard’s printing systems have achieved rapid growth and high customer acceptance in the North American market, positioning Durst for further growth in the country.
“Despite the global pandemic, we are positioning ourselves for the long term and are determined to invest in the large-format graphics market. In addition, with our technical expertise, Vanguard will continue to ensure that its products and services are industry-leading and a wider customer base will understand what it is like to be part of the Durst family,” he said.
As part of the agreement, Vanguard Digital Printing will operate as Vanguard Durst Digital Printing Systems as of 1 October. David Cich will remain as the company’s CEO while Jim Peterson will continue to serve as its vice-president of sales.
“It is with great humbleness and excitement that Vanguard Digital will now be a part of the world class industry leading Durst Group,” Cich said.
“Becoming part of the Durst Group family provides Vanguard Digital the opportunity to expand its portfolio of innovative market leading UV printers to the entire world.”
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