Epson Italia is buying Italian textile printer company Fratelli Robustelli, the family owned company with which it began developing the Monna Lisa printer in 2003.
Sunao Murata, COO of Epson’s Professional Printing Operations Division, will become president of Robustelli, and Epson has said it will deploy its worldwide sales/service network to provide Robustelli’s Monna Lisa large-format textile printer to more countries and regions around the world.
The digital textile printing market worldwide is expected to grow at an annual rate of approximately 25% (source WTiN Intelligence) to 2019 and Epson hopes the acquisition will strengthen its hand in the market.
Murata said of the buyout: “As the market for high-quality digital textile printing expands, I believe that formalising 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,” added Valerio Robustelli, one of its owners. “Our cooperation with Epson led to the development of Monna Lisa, an industrial digital textile printer. 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.”