Canon has bought British label press developer Edale, the company that already produces Canon’s LabelStream 4000 inkjet press.
The deal was prefigured by Canon chairman and CEO Fujio Mitarai in the address to the company’s 2022 corporate strategy conference. He outlined plans to accelerate growth in commercial and industrial printing, meaning labels and packaging print.
Explaining the acquisition, the deal will “strengthen Canon’s label and packaging business, and creating opportunities for future developments”.
Edale has extensive experience in narrow web and mid web presses, the majority using flexo technology. But it has built the chassis and web transport for other digital presses, the FFEI Graphium which has evolved into the LabelStream and the Agfa Dotrix, an early attempt at producing a UV inkjet press for packaging applications.
Likewise Canon has prior form in pitching at the packaging market with digital technology. It got to the beta testing stage with the Infinistream, a web press built in Poing and using a liquid electrophotographic technology. The programme was subsequently cancelled.
The timing is now better with broad interest in digital print for labels and other parts of the packaging sector.
The deal will be good news for Edale. It will retain its brand and location, though with greater input from Canon. Edale owner and chairman Grahame Barker says: “We’ve experienced a period of exciting growth, and I believe that the support of a strong global player is vital to enable us to continue that trajectory in the future.”
He will retire from the business, leaving managing director James Boughton to report to VP Digital Packaging Printing at Canon Production Printing Walter Vogelsberger.
It is likely to be good news too for Xaar, which supplies the 2001 printhead for the LabelStream 4000. It has also identified growth opportunities in packaging, particularly for an aqueous inks version of its latest printhead, currently under development, and for a future high speed version of the same.
