EFI has already established a formidable market share with its Vutek, and wide-format printer brands, in addition to a large range of productivity software, and being the undisputed king in print server technology with its Fiery platform.

The firm has made a habit of buying up sector businesses in order to scale-up its operation, and now also has strong footprints in the label, ceramic tile printing, and packaging sectors.

Speaking about the purchase of Reggiani Macchine, chief executive officer Guy Gecht said: “This acquisition gives EFI an immediate leadership position in one of the world's largest industries undergoing the transformation from analogue printing to digital. The textile printing market is just beginning that transition, which will enable manufacturers to shift from long-run to on-demand manufacturing, responding to the increasing demands of short runs and customisations.”


He continued, commenting on the Matan acquisition: “This acquisition gives EFI an even broader range of products to help our customers capture important opportunities in superwide-format display graphics printing.

“Matan’s strong R and D capability will further accelerate EFI's inkjet innovation, while filling a key spot in EFI's portfolio for a lower-acquisition cost line of roll-to-roll production printers focused on signage, banners, billboards and fleet graphics.”

Impressive ambition

The announcement takes EFI another step towards its ultimate mission of being the overall dominant force in inkjet imaging technology, with these two latest acquisitions giving it one of the broadest product portfolios in the world.

Italian-based Reggiani has an impressive line-up of industrial inkjet printers utilising water-based inks in printing on fabric. These were recently identified as the industry’s ‘most exciting growth application’ by a new, global survey from industry association FESPA and analyst firm InfoTrends.

Reggiani's inkjet technologies, which will be rebranded as EFI Reggiani, cover the full scope of textile printing, with technology suitable for water-based dispersed, acid, pigment and reactive dye printing inks. This will importantly give EFI the products to take on sector specialists such as Hollanders Printing Systems and MTEX.


Looking to Israel-based Matan, EFI states that the, ‘company's digital industrial inkjet printers are designed to offer high productivity, quality and durability, while ensuring a low cost of ownership. Matan's focus on roll-to-roll workflow has resulted in one of the industry's strongest offerings of material-handling features such as in-line cutting and slitting’.

Matan's work force of approximately 70 employees has now joined EFI, with former Matan president and chief executive officer Hanan Yosefi now joining EFI as vice president and general manager, EFI Inkjet Israel.

Massive investment

A public release from EFI gives the details of the acquisition: “It was an all-cash transaction in which EFI paid the shareholders of Matan approximately $29m (£18.6m) to acquire all of Matan’s outstanding shares. Under the purchase agreement, EFI also assumed approximately $5m (£3.2m) of Matan’s debt, and deposited $14m (£8.96m) into escrow to serve as security for EFI’s benefit for the indemnification obligations of the Matan shareholders. Subject to EFI's claims against the escrow, portions of the escrow may be released to the sellers in 2017 and 2022.”

In regards to the Reggiani purchase, Ambrogio Caccia Dominioni, who will be managing director of EFI Reggiani, stated: “Customers recognise that inkjet is the most important technology of the future for the textile industry. But I wanted our company to be part of EFI not just because we will be joining a world-leading industrial inkjet technology company—but also because EFI is a leader in print industry workflow solutions and has a much larger sales and marketing platform around the world.

“Together, EFI Reggiani can further extend its position as a global leader in digital inkjet textile printing technology with leading-edge products that accelerate the analogue-to-digital transformation—all of which is vital to our customers’ future profitability.”

In regards to the financials of the deal, EFI released the following information: “To acquire all of Reggiani's outstanding shares, EFI will repay Reggiani debt of about €20.1m (£14.2m), pay the former Reggiani shareholders up to about €27.4m (£19.5m) of cash. We will also issue the former Reggiani shareholders up to about €27.4m of EFI stock, and will pay up to €50m (£35.4m) over as long as the next 30 months, based on the achievement of revenue and profitability targets by the EFI Reggiani business. Under certain circumstances, EFI is required to pay in cash some or all of the amount described above that is payable in EFI stock. Reggiani's work force of approximately 190 employees joins EFI, further expanding EFI's growing worldwide presence.”

Gecht has overseen a massive period of growth for EFI, and has implanted a global strategy that has seen it take on key competitors in each field it enters by buying up a highly-respected sector player and absorbing its technology and staff—rather than attempting to organically develop competitive products and divisions from within.

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