On May 2nd, Electronics for Imaging (EFI) announced it had reached a deal to acquire privately-owned Turkish company BDR Boya Kimya (BDR). BDR is a worldwide supplier of textile inks and will be incorporated into EFI Reggiani, expanding the company’s digital textile solutions. EFI has stated that BDR’s Turkish operations will remain as they are, with all BDR employees joining the EFI team and continuing product support and development.
“We are excited to have the BDR team on board and to fully support their industry-leading customers,” said EFI Reggiani Vice President and General Manager Adele Genoni. “The synergies arising with BDR and the world-class portfolio of EFI Reggiani textile printers will be a key point of emphasis for us to continue providing high-quality products and innovation. EFI Reggiani is also significantly strengthening its presence in Turkey with this acquisition, which brings us to the heart of an important and growing textile hub.”
BDR was founded in 2016 but has expanded considerably since then. Its primary product is its Diamond HD series of reactive inks, which are used for industrial textile printing, and support a range of printheads – among which are the Kyocera heads used on EFI Reggiani machines. According to Textilequence magazine, BDR was actually the first Turkish company to create digital textile reactive inks.
The Diamond HD-R series was developed to support the production of natural fabrics, such as cotton, wool, and linen, while producing professional grade quality that met industry standards for fastness and saturation. In addition to its reactive inks, BDR also makes Diamond HD-S sublimation inks, which have also been designed with large industrial printers in mind. BDR can produce between 1,000 and 1,500 tons of material per year – meeting ISO standards outlined in a 2018 article in Turkish media. The company is also working with the European REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) as well as GOTS (Global Organic Textile) standards to quality their inks. BDR works with clients across the globe including China, India, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Pakistan, and Russia enabling EFI to serve a broad base of customers.
Figure 1: The Recently Acquired BDR Staff Outside their Headquarters in Bursa, Turkey
Image Source: EFI
BDR’s acquisition bodes well with EFI’s strategy to envelop its products and solutions with branded supplies, which represent a significant stream of annuities. EFI has made many headlines recently (including its own acquisition by Siris Capital Group), but this buyout is aimed largely at securing its presence as an ink manufacturer. EFI has already acquired Rialco Limited, a UK-based supplier of ink powders and color products that worked with the textile and woodworking applications. Another notable acquisition before BDR was Polymeric Imaging, which allowed EFI to increase its ink development capabilities across the board in a wide range of industrial applications.
With this latest purchase, the company fortifies its line of branded digital textile inks inks, including EFI Reggiani AQUA Ink (reactive inks), EFI Reggiani IRIS Ink (sublimation inks), EFI Reggiani ARIA Ins for (direct disperse – high energy sublimation), and EFI Reggiani TERRA Ink (pigment inks). These moves have strengthened EFI’s position in the textile industry at a time when new entrants – as well as established suppliers – are ramping up competitive pressure (see InfoTrends’ article on the HP Stitch).
EFI is taking steps to remain a leader in the industrial digital textile space. Now offering a range of solutions including design and process automation with EFI Optitex, EFI DesignPro, file preparation with Fiery proServer, and a range of EFI Reggiani digital as well as rotary screen textile printers and related pre-treatment fixation solutions by Mezzera.
With these steps, EFI is positioning itself as a one-stop-shop for industrial textile needs, addressing not only the fundamentals of the business with equipment supplies and service but also demonstrating a vision for an evolving supply chain. EFI is taking steps to become an enabler for brands that are looking to compress their supply chain while reducing waste, over production, environmental impact and remain timely, creative, and innovative.