The reshaping of Xaar, the UK’s leading inkjet printhead provider, continues. The Huntingdon company, while suffering from supply chain disruption in China, where local lockdowns are having an effect on how it does business, has reported a rise in revenue for the first six months of the year to £26.3 million (£23.7 million), but with an increased pretax loss of £2.1 million (£1.3 million).
Within that, Ebitda from printheads alone increased to a profit of £800,000, having been running at a loss of £100,000 a year earlier.
“The Covid-19 pandemic continues to cause disruption for business, however we are determined to minimise interruption to the supply of printheads, and we are well positioned to withstand further volatility caused by the pandemic,” says chief executive John Mills.
This was seen in the 3D printing business where roll out and beta testing were affected by lockdown issues. The final sale of this business to Stratasys is expected to come soon, with Xaar continuing to provide the printheads.
The first head under the ImagineX rebrand, Nitrox, was announced in April, with a first OEM product expected to be announced in coming weeks. A second head, Irix, aimed the coding market with a 10mm throw, was announced to coincide with publication of the results.
The company has announced further details of its aqueous ink head, which will be ready for commercial launch at the end of next year. Early stage printheads have been supplied to a select group of partners for evaluation.
While competition in water based inkjet is intense, with Kyocera and Fujifilm heading the way, these are all about low viscosity fluids, says Mills. The Xaar head will fire a high viscosity ink, in short a water based ink with less water. The advantage is two-fold. First the ink dries faster and then the press can run faster. And it will print on more challenging substrates, like ceramics, where the pressure on sustainability will make a water based product very appealing.
The company is starting to recover lost ground in ceramics, says Mills. “Now we have a new business model, these companies are considering us again,” he says. However it is unlikely that Xaar will replace incumbents in existing print lines. Instead the opportunity is with new machines that ceramics companies are developing to print on glass, building materials and other surfaces. It is already making headway in printed circuit boards where an ability to print white has opened up a market to print legends on these boards. With the ability to fire high viscosity aqueous fluids, Xaar will be able to print with conductive inks for a new set of applications.
This is also where the Unique Developer Integrators comes in. In July, Xaar bought long term partner FFEI.
“We have been in a position where more than ten companies have come to us asking us to supply not only the printheads but a complete system, including electronics and ink supply. We have all the building blocks to provide a system, but did not have the bandwidth to do it,” says Mills.
FFEI provides that bandwidth and expertise to provide printers and other turnkey systems, including an ink that is matched to the application and performance of the head.
“We are offering these customers a complete package, including a range of Xaar branded inks. It is still early days.”
Mills is naturally optimistic. “We are pleased with our continued strong performance which, despite challenging market conditions, demonstrates the success of our strategy and underlying strength of the business. These results reflect the positive momentum we have generated across the business.”
