The Big Picture - Wide Format Printing

(June 2005) posted on Mon Jun 06, 2005

Three major market developments hit the graphic arts.

By Gregory Sharpless

What will this acquisition mean to current
Vutek users, as well as prospective
buyers? For one, "Vutek will now be able
to differentiate itself in other ways
beyond print quality and speed," says
Scott Schinlever, Vutek's vice president of
marketing. "As our customers install multiple
machines and begin driving a lot of
volume through their shops, workflow
becomes more and more key"?especially
as turnaround times keep shrinking. We'll
now have more of an end-to-end solution
that customers will be able to use to run
their entire business, and not just produce
output."

Plus, says Art Cleary, Vutek's cofounder,
Vutek customers will "benefit
from EFI's culture of innovation, allowing
us to remain on the leading edge. Their
worldwide reputation, deep industry relationships,
and financial stability will allow
us to gain greater market reach and provide
our valued customers with an even
higher quality of service."

EFI is apparently looking to further
migrate the Vutek brand and hardware
into the commercial side of the marketplace,
a strategy Vutek has already had
some success with. "Commercial printers
have customers who buy this output from
someone else"?they're looking to grow
their business," says Schinlever. "One of
our fastest growing segments comprises
the folks that traditionally have not been
in superwide printing and are looking to
grow into new applications. It's very good
to have the companies come together,
especially with EFI's footprint and reach
into the commercial-print sector."

Headquartered in Foster City, CA, EFI
employs more than 1,400 people and
maintains 25 offices worldwide (US,
Europe, Japan, China, Latin America, and
the Pacific Rim). OEM partners include
Canon, Encad, Epson, Hewlett-Packard,
Konica-Minolta, Oce, Xerox, and others.
Some of the company's more recent
acquisitions include: Splash Technology
(color servers, 2000), Best GmbH (preprint,
prepress, and inkjet proofing solutions,
2002), Printcafe (software solutions
for the printing supply chain, 2003),
and T/R Systems (software for print-ondemand,
2003).

Vutek is located in Meredith, NH, and
has more than 300 employees worldwide.
In 2004, it reported revenues of approximately
$130 million. At this spring's ISA
show in Las Vegas, the company
announced two new wide-format printers:
the UltraVu 260 and the UltraVu II 5330
(see May issue, p. 19).