EFI to Acquire Jetrion

EFI has signed an agreement to acquire Jetrion LLC for approximately $40 million. Currently a subsidiary of Flint Group Inc. — the holding company created by the merger of European-based XSYS Print Solutions and American-owned Flint Ink Corporation — Jetrion is a producer of inkjet printers, inks, and custom printing systems for the label and packaging industries. The transaction is expected to close later this year.

“Jetrion”?s advanced technology and very talented team are great additions to our inkjet business and are a key element in fulfilling our strategy to expand our presence in the industrial inkjet market,”? said Guy Gecht, EFI”?s CEO. “We are especially impressed with Jetrion”?s packaging and label printing expertise, and we see this as an emerging market opportunity for digital printing given the increasing demand for short-runs, variable content and fast turn-around in these segments.

“In addition, the Jetrion and Vutek development capabilities complement each other quite nicely. Combining EFI”?s leadership in precision color and intelligent, high speed RIP technology with the market-leading innovation of the Vutek and Jetrion product lines will give us multiple opportunities to share expertise, benefiting all of our products,”? says Gecht.

Jetrion, headquartered in Ypsilanti, MI, has 50 employees and expects to post revenues of approximately $16-18 million in 2006. Flint Ink launched Jetrion in early 2003; the company recently announced plans for a full color UV inkjet label press.

Two weeks after the announced acquisition, Jetrion and Crown Holdings”?the Philadelphia-based supplier of packaging products to consumer marketing companies–announced that they had launched a full-scale production system prototype to produce high-resolution, full-color UV inkjet printed cans. Jetrion”?s initial prototype is a single-pass drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet system that produces high quality full-color images on a coated metal substrate; the full-scale prototype capable of production speeds will be built by Jetrion in the US and delivered to a Crown manufacturing facility in 2007.

“We”?re on the threshold of offering our customers the advantages of a breakthrough technology that enables new consumer marketing strategies by providing cost-effective short runs, tighter lead times, faster turnaround, and targeted promotions with versioned messaging and personalization,”? says Daniel Abramowicz, executive vice president, Technology and Regulatory Affairs of Crown Holdings., and president of Crown Packaging Technology.

EFI

www.efi.com

JETRION

www.jetrion.com