Product category:
Inkjet, Laser, Digital, Thermal, Graphics, Wide Format Printing Systems
News Release from: Xaar
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 15 September 2005
86% Leap For Xaar's Profits - New UK
Plant Planned
Xaar has announced strong performance in its unaudited six-month results, with profits up by 86 per cent to £4.6m, compared to £2.5m for the same period in 2004.
Xaar has announced strong performance in its unaudited six-month results, with profits up by 86 per cent to £4.6m, compared to £2.5m for the same period in 2004 The pre-tax profit was £3.5m, an increase from 2004's £1.3m), whilst turnover was up 19 per cent to £19.8m, as against 2004's £16.6m
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 16 Apr 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Rigid Substrate Ink Approved For Xaar's Printheads
Toyo Ink's Liojet FV03 inks have now been approved for use with Xaar's 760 range of inkjet printheads.
Grayscale Printheads Go On Show At FESPA 2008
The Fespa Digital exhibition will see Xaar stage inkjet printing technology demonstrations that will show the potential of its latest 760 and 1001 grayscale printheads.
the margin from operations improved to 23 per cent, which compares with 14 per cent in 2004.
Earnings per share were 5.6p (2004 - 3.0p), whilst net cash and liquid resources at June 30 this year increased to £17.5m from £9.9m at the same time last year.
Cash generation in the period was again strong with cash at the half-year standing at £17.5m (2004 - £9.9m).
Further reading
Printhead Helps Coder's Print At Speed
Prodigit 18 is a high resolution drop on demand coding and marking printer for porous and non-porous substrates that features the Xaar 128 printhead with an 18mm print width.
Ligthfast Products Ink Approved For Xaar Printhead
Super Saver ink, which is manufactured by Aqua Tint in India has been approved by Xaar for use with the company's 128 printheads.
Xaar Printheads In Colour UV Inkjet Label Printers
Xaar's 1001 piezoelectric printheads are to be used in EFI-Jetrion's 4000 Series full-colour UV label printers.
That is after providing for capital investment in tangible assets of £1.3m, trade investments of £0.2m and an increase in working capital of £0.6m.
Outstanding liabilities under finance leases were £1.5m (2004 - £1.4m).
The company has announced that to provide for future sales growth and the launch of new products, it is to invest £10m in a new manufacturing plant to be established in the UK.
Xaar added that its increased sales were achieved in each of its principal territories and industry segments and although an interim dividend is not being paid (similar to last year), a final dividend for the year is expected to be declared.
In 2004, the final dividend was 1p.
Sales improved for all of the company's printhead products in all market sectors.
Xaar said that the XJ128 and XJ128 Plus printheads continue to dominate the wide format graphic arts market where they are primarily used to print outdoor advertising media and other outdoor signage.
The XJ500 continues to find success in the wide format graphics market and the secondary packaging market, where coding directly on to external packaging is eliminating the need for pre-printed barcode labels.
Sales of the Omnidot 318 (formerly Leopard) printhead also continued to grow.
Sales to Asia were up 20 per cent on the same period last year, with sales to Europe up by 16 per cent and sales to the USA increased by 25 per cent.
Xaar's new office in India, which opened in late 2004, is starting to develop direct sales to that market and the company has taken on its first full time sales person in South America, based in Sao Paulo (Brazil).
The major new product news from the first half of the year was the successful commercial launch of the greyscale Omnidot 760, which made its debut in a commercial printing product in May at the FESPA tradeshow in Munich (Germany).
The Omnidot was co-developed with Agfa, which demonstrated it at the show in the Anapurna 100 grand format graphics printer and a new digital press, the M-Press, which is claimed to be the most advanced product of its type yet built.
The M-Press generated great interest from potential end users and Agfa is due to begin deliveries later this year.
Xaar's own version of the Omnidot 760 printhead has been supplied in evaluation-kit form to both existing and new customers and the company said that it expects equipment based on the new printhead to be in the market towards the end of 2006.
The smaller and variable drop size offered by the Omnidot is claimed to allow much higher resolution printing which, in turn, opens up door to the advertising and fine art markets.
The company added that such new activities will add an incremental layer of sales to those generated by its existing products.
The Omnidot range will also include a binary version (the OM 380) which will fill the space between the XJ128 and XJ500 printheads in the wide format and coding markets.
Xaar has also shipped early test kits of its next printhead platform, currently referred to as the HSS.
That printhead has a patented recirculating ink system thaty is said to give it the ability to self-recover from blocked nozzles.
That makes it inherently much more reliable than conventional inkjet printheads, according to the company.
The recirculating principle also allows a wider range of fluids to be used in the printhead.
Xaar believes those features will not only open up new areas of traditional printing to inkjet but will also take inkjet in to new industrial processes, where patterns and images are today produced by wasteful subtractive processes rather than by direct printing.
The company said that its business development activities generated initial revenues during the period and continue to gather pace.
The company is actively involved in a range of projects covering printed electronics, packaging, electronic displays and biotech.
Those projects include the printing of etch masks for the manufacture of printed circuit boards, where Xaar expects to see commercial equipment released later in the year.
Also featured is the printing of aerosol and beverage cans, the repair of LCD screens and other deposition related processes within the manufacture of electronic displays and the use of inkjet in textile printing, for which Omnidot evaluation kits are on trial in the field.
In each of those areas, Xaar added that it works very closely with its approved integration partners, whose skill in applying Xaar's technology to each customer's particular application is very important.
Xaar also commented that it had just made a minority investment in Xennia Technology, one of those approved integration partners.
As a result, Xaar owns 10 per cent of the company, with an option to increase that to 12.5 per cent, which is intended to further strengthen Xaar's relationship with Xennia and it is not currently the intention to increase Xaar's stake beyond that of a minority shareholder.
In addition, Xaar said that it is its intention to make other small trade investments if they can speed adoption of Xaar's technology in existing and new markets.
With the launch of the Omnidot range, manufactured in Xaar's production facility in Sweden for itself and Agfa, it is likely that the Swedish plant will become fully utilised in the short to medium term, said the company.
To provide capacity for the introduction of the HSS product range, as well as to provide further capacity for existing products, Xaar has decided to add a second production facility near its Cambridge headquarters.
The company said that it has identified several possible leasehold buildings and it expects to finalise negotiations for one of them by the end of the year.
Initial equipment and fit-out costs for the new facility are expected to be around £7.0m and the total commitment, including working capital, is likely to be about £10.0m.
Commercial volume production of the first model in the HSS printhead range is scheduled to begin by the end of 2006.
The investment in the new facility will be met from the group's existing cash. Request free introductory details about products from Xaar ...
On the company's outlook, chairman, Arie Rosenfeld said: "All of our core markets met or exceeded expectations during the period and the board expects to achieve a satisfactory result for the year as a whole.".
• Xaar: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Printingtalk email newsletter
• Printingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
