Sales to double, and acquisitions17 Mar 2016 13:40
Good to see the share price has recovered all of yesterdays early kneejerk markdown - and more, since it's up today.
Great interview with the CEO here - an acquisition would get things going nicely:
Http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1156451/xaar-plans-to-more-than-double-sales
"Xaar plans to more than double sales
By Jo Francis, Thursday 17 March 2016
Xaar boss Doug Edwards has laid out ambitious plans for the inkjet manufacturer to more than double turnover by 2020....
....Edwards has conducted an in-depth review since taking the top job and has already made a number of changes to the business, with new executives joining and a key appointment made in the 3D printing area. He said it had been an “encouraging” year.
He said the firm’s ambitious growth plans to increase sales to £220m by 2020 would come from four areas, each producing sales of at least £50m: maintaining Xaar’s market leading position in ceramic tile decoration; packaging (including coding and marking, labels and direct-to-shape printing); new applications such as textiles and wide-format for its upcoming Thin Film printhead; and lastly 3D printing, partnerships and acquisitions.
“We are sitting on £70m right now and we are looking at acquisitions and have been for a while,” Edwards said. “We’re looking at areas such as integration that make life easier for our customers and cut down their development time. We also want to accelerate the adoption of direct-to-shape printing, which at the moment is a very fragmented market with lots of little players.”
Edwards, who is a former Kodak executive, said Kodak’s up-for-sale Prosper inkjet business was “interesting technology but not for us.”
He is also targeting growth in the Americas, where Xaar’s sales are currently just £6.5m.
Xaar’s current business split is 66% industrial printing, 17% packaging, and 10% graphic arts with the remainder coming from its legacy royalties business....
...In ceramics, the firm’s new GS40 head is allowing the polished tile market – typically used in heavy footfall areas – to convert to digital production because the heads can jet fluids deeper into the tile.
Xaar will launch its 1003 head next week, replacing the existing 1002 model for ceramic tile printing applications. Edwards said it was “maintenance free and delivers the greatest production uptime in the industry”.
In packaging, he cited the Xaar Print Bar as an example of the type of product development the group planned to do more of, in what it described as “beyond printhead” applications.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm for the Print Bar. We’ve just shipped the first one and will do a pretty significant number this year. They’re all going into labels for special effects such as under-white, or for jetting glues for col