Epson to Acquire Italian Textile Printer Manufacturing Company Robustelli

Epson Group ("Epson", TSE:6724) company Epson Italia S.p.A. has agreed with the Robustelli family to acquire 100% of the capital of Fratelli Robustelli S.r.l. ("Robustelli"), a leader in the textile printing industry. The agreement aims to drive synergies and further increase customer value by expanding the scope of the two companies’ longstanding collaboration in digital inkjet textile printing.

Monna Lisa digital inkjet textile printer

The entry of Robustelli into the Epson Group will allow it to leverage Epson’s manufacturing capability to bring the advantages of its digital inkjet textile printers to more customers around the world. The move will assist Epson in using Robustelli’s expertise to accelerate the development of digital inkjet textile printers that further enhance the companies’ abilities to meet customer needs with a wider lineup of products. As part of the enhanced acceleration, the two companies plan to focus on joint R&D efforts to achieve this goal.

The digital textile printing market worldwide is expected to grow at an annual rate of approximately 25% ¹. In addition to using its manufacturing network to meet this growing demand, Epson will deploy its worldwide sales and service network to provide Monna Lisa² to more countries and regions around the world.

Sunao Murata, COO of Epson’s Professional Printing Operations Division, is scheduled to be appointed as president of Robustelli. Murata commented, “This is a very exciting development for the Epson Group. As the market for high-quality digital textile printing expands, I believe that formalizing our partnership with Robustelli in this way puts us in a great place to meet the needs of the growing numbers of customers who are seeking to leverage the advantages of advanced digital solutions that will help drive their businesses forward. We will work closely with our colleagues at Robustelli to take Monna Lisa to the next level and remain leaders in the field.”

“We are happy and proud to become members of the Epson Group,” said Valerio Robustelli, one of the proprietors of F.lli Robustelli. “Our cooperation with Epson led to the development of Monna Lisa, an industrial digital textile printer that is today a market benchmark for high-quality textile printing. The combination of our respective skills is the natural conclusion of a process of innovation to satisfy customers in Italy and the rest of the world.”

Located in Como, the heart of the Italian and European high-quality printing textile industry, Robustelli specializes in the development, manufacture, and sale of digital inkjet textile printers, notably the Monna Lisa series, which it began developing with Epson in 2003. This product has established a strong brand image by providing beautiful gradations and color reproduction, winning plaudits from customers.

Robustelli outline

* As of December 31, 2015.

See here for more information about Robustelli.

About Epson

Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to connecting people, things and information with its original efficient, compact and precision technologies. With a lineup that ranges from inkjet printers and digital printing systems to 3LCD projectors, smart glasses, sensing systems and industrial robots, the company is focused on driving innovations and exceeding customer expectations in inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics.

Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the Epson Group comprises more than 67,000 employees in 90 companies around the world, and is proud of its contributions to the communities in which it operates and its ongoing efforts to reduce environmental impacts. http://global.epson.com/

About Epson Italy

Epson Italy, national sales company, for fiscal year 2015 registered over 215 million Euros of sales with a workforce of about 175 employees. Epson Italy owned 100% of For.Tex, leading company in the production of dyes, thickeners, and products for fabric pre and post treatment company located in Fino Mornasco (Como, Italy), partner of Monna Lisa project with F.lli Robustelli. http://www.epson.it

About F.lli Robustelli

Operating in Villa Guardia (Como, Italy) since the 1950s, F.LLI ROBUSTELLI s.r.l. has always designed and produced photogravure and textile printing machinery and systems. Thanks to an ongoing relationship with its clients and the ability to blend textile and mechanical knowhow with new digital technologies, F.lli. Robustelli has developed partnerships across the world. Over 15 years ago, F.lli Robustelli developed an important partnership with SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION that resulted in the MONNA LISA® project. For this project, the company product engineered the first digital textile printing machine on Epson print technology resulting in a product that is known in the textile industry as the best digital textile printer in the world and making of F.lli Robustelli one of the major players in the digital textile printing revolution.www.monnalisatdp.com

Information on digital inkjet textile printing

Digital textile printing involves the use of printing systems to print out digital data. It is different from traditional analog printing in which dedicated plates are pressed directly onto the fabric. Digital printing has the following characteristics:

1. Faithful reproduction of fine gradations and subtle color tones
2. Suitable for small lot production runs at low cost and high speed, without the need for the plates that are indispensable for analog printing
3. Minimize the environmental impact in comparison with analog printing

Comparison of analog and digital textile printing processes

¹  Annual growth rate till 2019 (source WTiN Intelligence)

² Monna Lisa is a registered trademark of Robustelli.