Clariant Significantly Increases Growth And Further Improves Profitability In 2017

MUTTENZ, Switzerland — February 14, 2018 — Clariant today announced full year 2017 sales of 6.377 billion Swiss francs compared to 5.847 billion Swiss francs in 2016. This corresponds to 9-percent growth in local currency driven by double-digit gains in Catalysis and Natural Resources. The strong organic growth amounted to 6 percent, driven by higher volume contributions by all Business Areas.

For the full year, sales growth in local currency was strongest in Asia, the Middle East & Africa and Europe. Sales in Asia rose by 12 percent, lifted by a remarkable sales development in China, Southeast Asia and Japan. Sales growth in the Middle East & Africa was 15 percent and in Europe 7 percent. Sales in North America also increased by 11 percent mainly driven by acquisitions. Latin American sales were flat, however, showing signs of improvement in the second half of the year in an ongoing challenging macroeconomic environment.

The improved sales performance for the full year resulted from growth in all Business Areas. Both Care Chemicals and Catalysis reported particularly strong expansion. Sales in Care Chemicals rose by 8 percent in local currency supported by vigorous Consumer Care and Industrial Applications businesses. Catalysis sales improved by an excellent 13 percent with positive contributions from all Business Lines.

Natural Resources sales accelerated by 14 percent, mainly lifted by the Kel-Tech and X-Chem acquisitions in North America. Organic sales in Natural Resources grew by 3 percent, driven by the solid growth in Functional Minerals and the beginning recovery of the Oil & Mining Services business. In Plastics & Coatings, sales rose by 5 percent with sales expansion in all three Business Units and particular strength in China.

EBITDA before exceptional items rose by 10 percent in Swiss francs and reached 974 million Swiss francs, compared to 887 million Swiss francs in the previous year. The absolute profitability improvement was attributable to the positive developments in all Business Areas.

The corresponding EBITDA margin before exceptional items advanced to 15.3 percent.

Net income climbed by 15 percent in Swiss francs to 302 million Swiss francs from 263 million Swiss francs in the previous year. This increase was supported by the improvement in absolute EBITDA before exceptional items as well as lower finance costs which could offset the one-off costs and higher tax expenses.

Operating cash flow declined to 428 million Swiss francs due to temporarily higher cash out for one-off costs and higher net working capital as a result of brisk demand late in the fourth quarter of 2017 and the anticipated strong demand in the first quarter of 2018, especially in Catalysis.

Net debt remained stable at 1.539 billion Swiss francs versus 1.540 billion Swiss francs recorded at year-end 2016.

The continued improvement in performance allows the Board of Directors to propose a dividend of 0.50 Swiss francs per share to the Annual General Meeting. This sum reflects an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous year. This distribution is proposed to be made from the capital contribution reserve which is exempt from Swiss withholding tax.

Fourth Quarter 2017 – Further expansion in sales and profitability

In the fourth quarter of 2017, sales rose by 6 percent in local currency to 1.679 billion Swiss francs. This expansion resulted from sales improvements in all Business Areas. Organic sales growth was 5 percent in local currency.

Almost all regions contributed to the growth. In Asia, sales in local currency grew by 10 percent with a continuous strong development in China. Sales in Europe increased by 6 percent in local currency and in the Middle East & Africa by 11 percent in local currency. In the Americas, the picture was mixed. Though North America was slightly negative, Latin America showed a notable recovery and rose by a solid 7 percent in local currency.

Sales in Care Chemicals climbed by 7 percent in local currency mainly as a result of higher volumes which were supported by some pricing improvements. Catalysis sales moved up by 1 percent due to forward product shifts from the fourth to the third quarter. Natural Resources sales increased by 5 percent in local currency with positive contributions from both Functional Minerals and the Oil & Mining Services businesses. Plastics & Coatings sales accelerated by a good 8 percent with all three Business Units contributing to the growth.

EBITDA before exceptional items climbed by 9 percent in Swiss francs to 257 million from 235 million Swiss francs in the previous year driven by the improvement in Care Chemicals and Natural Resources as well as by a continuing solid contribution from Plastics & Coatings. As a result, the EBITDA margin before exceptional items on Group level increased further to 15.3 percent from 15.2 percent in the previous year.

Outlook – Continued progression in growth, profitability improvement and operating cash flow generation

Clariant expects the good economic environment in mature markets, which represent a high comparable base, to continue. Emerging markets are expected to be supportive with Latin America showing signs of a recovery.

For 2018, Clariant is confident to be able to achieve growth in local currency, as well as progression in operating cash flow, absolute EBITDA and EBITDA margin before exceptional items.

Clariant confirms its mid-term target of reaching a position in the top tier of the specialty chemicals industry. This corresponds to an EBITDA margin before exceptional items in the range of 16 to 19 percent and a return on invested capital (ROIC) above the peer group average.

Posted February 14, 2018

Source: Clariant

Kayser-Roth Selects Huge As Agency Of Record For No nonsense™ Brand

ATLANTA — February 14, 2018 — Huge, a global experience agency and leader in unified brand experiences, today announced it has been selected by Kayser-Roth Corp. to serve as the agency of record for No nonsense™, a brand known in the legwear category. Huge will be responsible for the entirety of the brand’s marketing efforts spanning creative, strategy, communications and media. The partnership kicked off in January 2018, with the work being led by Huge’s Atlanta office.

“We’re at an inflection point, both in our society and in the role the No nonsense brand can play in the life of today’s modern woman, and we found the perfect partner in Huge who believes in innovation and in empowering people to drive meaningful action in our world as strongly as we do,” said Andrea Angelo, senior marketing director, Kayser-Roth. “Through our joint commitment to innovation, we’re determined to be bold this year and bring our No nonsense attitude to a group of consumers who might not have traditionally thought of our brand this way before.”

From inventing the first control top pantyhose in 1976 to introducing socks to food and drug retailers in 2003, No nonsense has been innovating the apparel and hosiery industry for decades. The brand has continued to evolve without losing their commitment to being stylish, high-quality, low-cost and eco-conscious. The organization plans to expand its brand beyond its loyal following to appeal to a new, younger audience through this partnership with Huge, reaching a digital demographic whose shopping habits differ from their original consumers.

“In a world where being a woman is more empowering than ever, having a brand whose name is ‘No nonsense’ is an amazing thing,” said Carrie Philpott, managing director of Huge Atlanta. “We felt an instant chemistry and connection with the No nonsense team, and we’re excited to partner with the pioneers in the women’s hosiery category to amplify their brand’s strong voice.”

Posted February 14, 2018

Source: Huge

Rice University Scientists Create Patterned Graphene On Food, Paper, Cloth, Cardboard

HOUSTON — February 13, 2018 — Rice University scientists who introduced laser-induced graphene (LIG) have enhanced their technique to produce what may become a new class of edible electronics.

The Rice lab of chemist James Tour, which once turned Girl Scout cookies into graphene, is investigating ways to write graphene patterns onto food and other materials to quickly embed conductive identification tags and sensors into the products themselves.

“This is not ink,” Tour said. “This is taking the material itself and converting it into graphene.”

The process is an extension of the Tour lab’s contention that anything with the proper carbon content can be turned into graphene. In recent years, the lab has developed and expanded upon its method to make graphene foam by using a commercial laser to transform the top layer of an inexpensive polymer film.

The foam consists of microscopic, cross-linked flakes of graphene, the two-dimensional form of carbon. LIG can be written into target materials in patterns and used as a supercapacitor, an electrocatalyst for fuel cells, radio-frequency identification (RFID) antennas and biological sensors, among other potential applications.

The new work reported in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano demonstrated that laser-induced graphene can be burned into paper, cardboard, cloth, coal and certain foods, even toast.

“Very often, we don’t see the advantage of something until we make it available,” Tour said. “Perhaps all food will have a tiny RFID tag that gives you information about where it’s been, how long it’s been stored, its country and city of origin and the path it took to get to your table.”

He said LIG tags could also be sensors that detect E. coli or other microorganisms on food. “They could light up and give you a signal that you don’t want to eat this,” Tour said. “All that could be placed not on a separate tag on the food, but on the food itself.”

Multiple laser passes with a defocused beam allowed the researchers to write LIG patterns into cloth, paper, potatoes, coconut shells and cork, as well as toast. The bread is toasted first to “carbonize” the surface. The process happens in air at ambient temperatures.

“In some cases, multiple lasing creates a two-step reaction,” Tour said. “First, the laser photothermally converts the target surface into amorphous carbon. Then on subsequent passes of the laser, the selective absorption of infrared light turns the amorphous carbon into LIG. We discovered that the wavelength clearly matters.”

The researchers turned to multiple lasing and defocusing when they discovered that simply turning up the laser’s power didn’t make better graphene on a coconut or other organic materials. But adjusting the process allowed them to make a micro supercapacitor in the shape of a Rice “R” on their twice-lased coconut skin.

Defocusing the laser sped the process for many materials as the wider beam allowed each spot on a target to be lased many times in a single raster scan. That also allowed for fine control over the product, Tour said. Defocusing allowed them to turn previously unsuitable polyetherimide into LIG.

“We also found we could take bread or paper or cloth and add fire retardant to them to promote the formation of amorphous carbon,” said Rice graduate student Yieu Chyan, co-lead author of the paper. “Now we’re able to take all these materials and convert them directly in air without requiring a controlled atmosphere box or more complicated methods.”

The common element of all the targeted materials appears to be lignin, Tour said. An earlier study relied on lignin, a complex organic polymer that forms rigid cell walls, as a carbon precursor to burn LIG in oven-dried wood. Cork, coconut shells and potato skins have even higher lignin content, which made it easier to convert them to graphene.

Tour said flexible, wearable electronics may be an early market for the technique. “This has applications to put conductive traces on clothing, whether you want to heat the clothing or add a sensor or conductive pattern,” he said.

Rice alumnus Ruquan Ye is co-lead author of the study. Co-authors are Rice graduate student Yilun Li and postdoctoral fellow Swatantra Pratap Singh and Professor Christopher Arnusch of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of computer science and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research supported the research.

Posted February 13, 2018

Source: Rice University’s Office of Public Affairs

Columbus McKinnon Names Bert A. Brant Vice President Of Global Manufacturing Operations

AMHERST, N.Y. — February 12, 2018 — Columbus McKinnon Corp. — a designer, manufacturer and marketer of motion control products, technologies and services for material handling — announced today the appointment of Bert A. Brant for its newly created role of vice president, Global Manufacturing Operations.

Mark D. Morelli, Columbus McKinnon’s president and CEO, noted: “Bert brings over 35 years experience in building world class operations and enhancing customer experience through on time deliveries and value-focused manufacturing. He has excelled at reducing lead times and improving profitability through value engineering, supply chain management and by driving operational efficiencies. Bert is an integral component to the execution of Blueprint 2021, our strategy to build a better business model and drive stronger earnings power. I am excited to welcome Bert to our executive team.”

Prior to joining Columbus McKinnon, Brant was senior vice president of Global Operations for Colfax Fluid Handling where he was responsible for global plants and distribution centers in the U.S., EMEA and India since 2014. Prior to that he was vice president of North American Operations for Apex Tool Group, a $1.6 billion global manufacturer and distributor of industrial hand and power tools. He held other manufacturing and operational leadership roles at Pergo LLC, Rexnord Corp. and Denso Manufacturing in Maryville, Tenn., where he was trained by Toyota in Japan on the Toyota Production System. He began his career at Texas Instruments. Brant is a graduate of Georgia Southern University where he earned his Bachelor of Science in technology.

Posted February 13, 2018

Source: Columbus McKinnon

HanesBrands Completes Acquisition Of Australian Intimate Apparel Seller Bras N Things

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — February 13, 2018 — HanesBrands — a worldwide marketer of underwear, intimate apparel and activewear — today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Bras N Things, a leading specialty retailer and online seller of intimate apparel in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Bras N Things, which had net sales of approximately A$180 million ($144 million) in 2017, will be managed as part of the Hanes Australasia business, which also includes the iconic Bonds basic apparel and underwear brand and Berlei bras.

Hanes Australasia now holds the number one market positions in Australia for bras, sports bras, panties, socks, babywear and men’s underwear. Bras N Things sells proprietary bras, panties and lingerie sets through a retail network of approximately 170 stores and a fast-growing ecommerce platform www.brasNthings.com.

“We are very excited to add Bras N Things to our strong Hanes Australasia business unit,” said Hanes CEO Gerald W. Evans, Jr. “With its highly effective 100 percent consumer-direct business model and strong millennial following, Bras N Things is a strategic and complementary addition to our business portfolio. In addition, we are adding seasoned management depth to our already outstanding Hanes Australasia management team.”

The all-cash transaction valued at A$500 million (approximately $400 million) on an enterprise-value basis closed Feb. 12, 2018. The purchase price is approximately 10 times 2017 EBITDA and is expected to be less than 8 times EBITDA after cost and revenue synergies. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings in 2018.

Bras N Things attracts millennial consumers with on-target core products supplemented by seasonal product offerings. Bras N Things CEO George Wahby will continue to run the business and will join the Hanes Australasia management team led by President and Managing Director David Bortolussi.

Bras N Things operates 154 stores in Australia, 10 stores in New Zealand and 7 stores in South Africa and has a growing online e-commerce platform. Hanes believes the Bras N Things business model has the potential to be expanded to additional geographies.

Hanes created its Hanes Australasia business unit with the acquisition of Pacific Brands in 2016. The acquisition featured Bonds, Australia’s top brand of underwear, babywear and socks, and Berlei, the country’s No. 1 sports bra brand and leading seller of premium bras in department stores. Hanes Australasia also sells Bonds basic apparel, Playtex intimate apparel and Champion activewear in Australia.

Hanes supports its commercial business units around the world with the company’s global low-cost supply chain and manufacturing network, which primarily consists of company-owned and operated production facilities.

Hanes has made nine commercial acquisitions in the past eight years. The company now holds the No. 1 or No. 2 market share position for underwear, intimate apparel or hosiery in a dozen countries, including the United States, Australia, France, Japan, Canada, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, and New Zealand.

Posted February 13, 2018

Source: HanesBrands

Hollar Deploys inVia Robotics Mobile Robots To Modernize And Automate Warehouse Operations

LOS ANGELES — February 13, 2018 — inVia Robotics, the provider of the next generation of robotics warehouse automation solutions for e-commerce fulfillment centers, today announced Hollar has deployed its inVia Picker robots and cloud-based Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) management system to streamline e-commerce fulfillment in its Los Angeles warehouse.

As the online destination for cool products at incredible deals starting at $1, Hollar needed a cost-effective, collaborative mobile robotics platform to automate the goods-to-person fulfillment process. inVia Robotics’ patented robots and subscription-based pricing empowers Hollar to boost warehouse productivity and fulfillment, without disrupting warehouse operations. Hollar will initially deploy 100 inVia Picker robots and scale as needed to address seasonal shopping and company growth.

“As an online shopping destination for thrifty shoppers, we are always looking for ways to improve productivity, decrease operational costs and maximize efficiency so that we can offer our customers the best deals,” said David Yeom, co-founder and CEO of Hollar. “Implementing inVia’s cutting-edge warehouse robotics technology frees up our employees’ time, enabling them to focus on projects to grow the business and ensuring they can provide the best possible customer experience for our shoppers.”

The inVia Picker works collaboratively alongside Hollar’s human operators to skillfully pick and move items, automating the storage and retrieval process and minimizing operator risk exposure. Unlike other robotics automation providers, inVia offers a subscription-based model that allows companies of any size to implement robotic automation without the hefty price tag. inVia’s holistic RaaS platform seamlessly integrates with any existing layout and software. As a part of inVia’s discovery process, which includes thousands of simulations conducted by the engineering team, Hollar is expected to increase order fulfillment more than 300 percent.

“Warehouse automation is critical for e-commerce companies competing against behemoths like Amazon, but the overhead cost of purchasing a fleet of robots to streamline efficiency can be crippling,” said Lior Elazary, founder and CEO of inVia Robotics. “inVia’s innovative RaaS technology eliminates this challenge for our customers. We’re excited to support an industry disruptor such as Hollar in deploying our mobile warehouse robots and management system to streamline the company’s logistics workflow without impacting its existing ecosystem.”

inVia Robotics’ systems are deployed nationally across warehouses and distribution centers of all sizes.

Posted February 13, 2018

Source: inVia Robotics

Lenzing Enters New Phase With Launch Of TENCEL™ As Lenzing’s Flagship Brand For Textile

PARIS — February 13, 2018 — The Lenzing Group today redefined TENCEL™, as its textile premium brand at Première Vision Paris. The redefining of the Tencel brand is a key milestone of Lenzing’s new brand strategy to enhance product brand offerings, foster connection with customers and consumers, and drive consumer demand. Tencel is well positioned to be a major growth engine in the textile sector, with a brand portfolio that caters for distinctive usage — Tencel Active, Tencel Denim, Tencel Home, Tencel Intimate, and Tencel Luxe, all enabled by two versatile and highly compatible fibers, Tencel Modal and Tencel Lyocell.

Designed and based on the findings and insights of an extensive market research, the brand architecture is an important step for Lenzing to transform from a business-to-business (B2B) fiber producer to a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) brand. The brand architecture not only addresses the growing trend amongst retail brands and consumers to seek out for products that make them look good and feel good, but also do good via sustainable and transparent production processes, like the processes used for producing Tencel Modal and Tencel Lyocell fibers. According to research findings, while LENZING™ Modal is known as a fiber with good quality and long-lasting exquisite softness, Tencel is a well-recognized and appreciated brand name among stakeholders, customers and consumers in key target regions of Lenzing. Hence, Tencel is adopted as Lenzing’s textile specialty brand for apparel and home applications, and is aimed to help create a unique and differentiating brand in the Modal and Lyocell fiber markets. The redefined Tencel product brand, along with the tagline “Feels so right”, will enable Lenzing to embark on communication around messages that move beyond fiber types and characteristics towards everyday use and benefits that brands and consumers value.

“With a longer-term strategy to enhance connection with customers and consumers, 2018 will be a game changer year for Lenzing,” said Robert van de Kerkhof, Chief Commercial Officer of Lenzing Group. “Since rolling out our sCore TEN business strategy in 2015, Lenzing has been migrating into a specialty fiber business with a strong focus on innovation, quality and sustainability. The redefined Tencel brand underlines our core principles of trust, transparency, reliability and amicability, and by leading technology innovation in the textile sector, we will continue to enable our industry partners and consumers to feel good, look good and do good.”

Under the new brand strategy, Tencel Modal and Tencel Lyocell fibers will be key ingredients in the Tencel branded product portfolio. Derived from certified and controlled wood sources, both Tencel Modal and Tencel Lyocell standard fibers are produced via responsible production processes and are compostable and biodegradable under industrial, home, soil and marine conditions. Enabled by industry innovations, including REFIBRA™ technology, Eco Soft technology, Eco filament technology and Micro technology, textiles produced under the Tencel brand offer premium standards of sustainability and natural comfort to meet evolving consumer demand.

“We are charting a bold new course to simplify our product portfolio and elevate our brand to bring more value to consumers and industry partners,” said Harold Weghorst, director of Global Brand Management. “As Lenzing’s flagship brand in the textile sector, Tencel will grow beyond fiber types and functional characteristics, it will become a true consumer-focused brand with a promise of something more functional and emotional. By elevating Tencel to a promise to the consumer rather than a product message to the value chain, we can start to excite consumers, retailers and brands about the holistic benefits of botanic fibers. Guided by the brand promise of ‘Feels so right’, Tencel brings greater degree of comfort and higher performance to consumers while making them feel good about the choices they make. We hope to create a stronger connection with the industry value chain and consumers through our expertise around sustainability, especially in Tencel Modal and Tencel Lyocell fibers. In the long run, we plan to build Tencel not only into a trusted B2B brand, but also a preferred consumer brand, which provides B2B customers with ease to maximize marketing effectiveness and enables consumers to identify ‘feel-good’ products made with sustainable materials.”

Moving beyond fiber to distinctive everyday usage or application in consumer-focused-branded offer, Tencel Active, Tencel Denim, Tencel Home, Tencel Intimate and Tencel Luxe have been created under the Tencel portfolio. New swing tags and marketing materials will be launched on a retail level to provide clarity on product benefit claims containing Tencel branded fibers. The swing tags, along with more detailed guidelines on B2B and B2C usage, are now available on Lenzing’s new e-branding service platform, which caters to B2B customers and retail partners, offering faster, more sustainable and more user-friendly solutions for certification and licensing.

“By applying the new brand strategy, we will take a more personalized and targeted approach to reflect the Tencel brand essence of ‘softness’ and ‘feeling good with a natural touch’ with B2B customers, retail partners and consumers,” added Amit Gautam, vice president of Global Business Management in Textile. “We will work closely with the industry value chain and retail brands to educate consumers about Tencel featured value propositions like product quality, functional benefits and sustainability. Co-branding programs such as swing tags or packaging, and co-marketing campaigns with retail brands will enable us to reach out to consumers directly. With more brand exposure and ongoing consumer education from this year onwards, consumers will see more of us through the Tencel brand in apparel and home textiles and/or in our partners’ retail outlets in different regions.”

The redefining of Tencel as Lenzing’s textile flagship brand will be effective from today onwards. This will be the first step of Lenzing’s new brand exercise, where the same approach will also apply to nonwoven and industrial applications, which will be announced at a later stage.

Posted February 13, 2018

Source: Lenzing Group

The Indian Minister Of State For Textile Visited KARL MAYER

OBERTSHAUSEN, Germany — February 12, 2018 — On February 9, 2018, KARL MAYER welcomed the Indian Minister of State for Textiles, Ajay Tamta, at its Development Center in Obertshausen. The government representative was accompanied by Anant Kumar Singh, Secretary Government of India, Ministry of Textiles, and by other delegates from the Ministry and Consulate General. The Indian Minister took the opportunity of a business trip to Germany to learn more about the products of the company that has successful business activities in India.

India‘s textile and clothing industry is on a clear growth course. The sector shows annual growth of 12 percent.

Karl Mayer has been working with Indian textile companies for many years. “India is an important market for us,” explained Dr. Helmut Preßl, Karl Mayer’s CFO, when he welcomed the guests. In 2014 Karl Mayer opened its own plant in Ahmedabad, and started its own value creation in the Indian market. Today, Karl Mayer with roughly 80 highly qualified staff members and with its longstanding, experienced regional agent A.T.E. is successfully operating on site. For its business planning until 2023, the enterprise expects a continuing, above-average growth rate. The desired success should especially be ensured by new technologies, which do not only support improvements in productivity but also the change of the textile industry to sustainability.

All these new and innovative aspects could be shown to the government delegation during a presentation of machines and end-uses at Karl Mayer’s headquarters. The visitors were impressed by the high output of the machines and by the top quality of the fabrics. Some of the highlights were, among other things, solutions for sustainability such as the Low Energy Option (LEO), which ensures significant energy savings during machine operation, and the innovative sizing machine PROSIZE®, which requires considerably less sizing agent than conventional equivalent types. But Karl Mayer does not only offer innovative machines but also textile developments ensuring success on the market. The innovative textiles, for example elastic and rigid lingery articles or fabrics for activewear and clothing, can be produced on the Karl Mayer machines in a most efficient way and in wide-ranging designs.

The secret behind this unique performance could be shown to the guests on a tour of the new assembly hall that was set up in 2017.

Learning from each other and cooperating with each other are important factors for the upcoming Indian textile and clothing industry, this was the unanimous opinion during the final discussion. Karl Mayer as world market leader is a strong partner in this respect.

Posted February 13, 2018

Source: Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik GmbH

IMPRIMA Strenghtens Its Operations In The United States, Acquires City Prints And Premier Fabrics

MILAN — February 14, 2018 — IMPRIMA S.p.A., the holding company of the multinational group dedicated to textile printing and finishing, has announced the acquisition of City Prints and its twin company Premier Fabrics, both U.S.-based companies specialized in printed textiles.

Imprima, controlled by Wise SGR through the Italian private equity fund Wisequity, now strengthens its strategic positioning, consolidating its global presence as a leading player in the field of printing and textile finishing for international retailers and fashion brands.

City Prints and Premier Fabrics, founded in 1997 and headquartered in New York and Los Angeles respectively, are specialized in textile printing for the programmed collection market. The companies supply printed fabrics, based on proprietary design, to major American retailers such as Walmart, Target and Macy’s; to fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger; and to online retailers such as Amazon. The companies serve retailers and brands through leading private label intermediaries, currently sourcing prints and garments mainly from China.

As in the case of the previous acquisitions, the brothers Jason and Ryan Borg, co-founders of City Prints and Premier Fabrics, will maintain a leadership role in the management of the companies and become shareholders of Imprima.

“Our entry into the Imprima group is an excellent opportunity to consolidate and increase our commercial positioning in the market, through the introduction of Imprima Group’s brands in the U.S. market and the opening of a digital production facility within the U.S. territory, relying on the technology know-how in digital printing and the financial support that Imprima provides,” said Jason and Ryan Borg co-owners of City Prints and Premier Fabrics, which currently show a consolidated turnover of over $23 million.

“With this acquisition, Imprima deals with the U.S. market with the goal of becoming the first textile converter with full digital printing capability in this local market,” said President Valentina Franceschini, and Executive Vice President Gianluca Boni. “The current deep crisis of American apparel retailers is pushing the industry to reshape its current supply chain strategy, mainly based on sourcing from Far East, towards a European-like fast fashion model. Imprima, through City Prints and Premier Fabrics, will allow local retailers to leverage the “Made in USA” banner to deliver a great creative experience through a local, reliable partner.”

This acquisition of the U.S. companies follows the recent acquisition of the Italy-based print converters SET, Guarisco and B-Blossom and Germany-based print converter KBC.

Posted February 13, 2018

Source: IMPRIMA S.p.A.

Durst Launches P5 Next-Generation Technology Platform

LIENZ, Austria — February 14, 2018 — Durst, a manufacturer of  digital printing and production technologies, has launched a new printing platform — the P5 series. The first member of  the family is the large format printing flagship, P5 250 HS, with shipping starting from April.

The P5 250 HS is targeted towards high volume industrial production, as well as one-offs in offset quality. P5 relates to five core features at the heart of this technology: productivity, reliability, workflow, versatility and print quality.

The P5 technology consists of a series of new generation printers along with newly, in-house developed software and workflow solutions. The family also has state of the art, touch operation based userinterfaces and leading-edge remote service capabilities. Everything is aimed and streamlined to maximize performance and uptime of the printing family, along with unparalleled flexibility in media and job handling.

Durst’s iconic industrial design, which was originally developed by the famous Ottl Eicher, has gone a further step with the P5. A design studio from Munich canvassed opinions from many customers and operators with a view to integrating their wishes into a new concept. This has been achieved for the P5 — and feedback will be incorporated into many Durst product lines in the future.

When compared to the industry benchmark — Durst P10 250 HS — the new P5 is 70 percent more productive. Featuring latest MEMS nozzle plates powered by Durst proprietary data-path and electronics, the result is a high-speed printing system with ultra precise drop placement and industrial level reliability.

Durst P5 technology features:

  • Print volume capability in two-pass mode up to 240 sqm/h and high resolution modes of 1200 dpi;
  • Offset printing quality with a drop-size of 5 pcl;
  • Durst Analytics information platform for pre-emptive maintenance and detailed machine and consumption data to guarantee maximum uptime; and
  • Durst Workflow, which provides an in-house developed suite of applications custom tailored for Durst printers and with unique features beyond ripping.

Christoph Gamper, chief executive, Durst Group, said: “The new P5 platform, including workflow software and advanced service tools, represents our key strategy to further invest into large format printing technology and further afield. We believe that there is a lot to explore in this market space and the P5 250 HS is our first statement. In an integrated world, printers need to change as well. With the P5 family we provide tools for change and profit – and our firm commitment to continue to lead the innovation in the large format market.”

Posted February 13, 2018

Source: Durst

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