Xaar is on course to release its aqueous inkjet printhead in November, with anticipated benefits for packaging and textile printing and with a profile that overcomes some of the reliability issues that other aqueous inkjet heads have encountered according to the UK manufacturer.
Even before the impact of the new head, the company has reported a 39% increase in sales at the six month stage. These have been helped by a £6.1 million contribution from FFEI which was not part of the business at this point in 2021. Without FFEI, revenue rose 14%.
More importantly the business reached a milestone in reporting a pretax profit for continuing operations of £1.4 million compared to a £1.6 million pretax loss at the same point in 2021. This came despite an increase in R&D spend to £3.3 million, due mostly to development costs of the ImagineX platform that Xaar expects to be the bedrock of its next generation products.
The company is planning to invest in its Huntingdon factory for two months in order to upgrade facilities and to become more productive at the site. It will require the plant to close during the process. It has spent £3.2 million to increase inventory of finished goods to overcome any supply chain issues and meet customer demand. Inventory now stands at £5.8 million.
It reports that customer engagement, both from OEM and User Development Integrators, is increasing from existing and new customers. The UDI customers, which implement inkjet in existing production lines, are being helped by Versatex, a modular product that has emerged from the FFEI acquisition.
The growth in revenue has been led by US and European customers which compensates for a slowdown in China where Covid restrictions are continuing to impact business.
Chief executive John Mills says: “As we move into the next stage of our strategy with the aim of, achieving sustainable profitable growth, we continue to make significant progress and remain on track to deliver a full year profit for 2022 in line with market expectations.
“There is positive momentum across the group and, while remaining vigilant to macro economic conditions, principally of cost inflation and the ongoing impact of Covid-19 related ‘lockdowns’ in China, we are confident in and excited by our future and look forward to the launch of our aqueous printhead later in the year.”
