Wadjet America Begins Operations

Wadjet AG, an international manufacturer of wide-format digital printers based in Switzerland, has announced the start of operations of its North American subsidiary, Wadjet America, Inc. Earlier this year, Mantel Digital AG spun off its wide format digital printer manufacturing business into Wadjet AG, a separate, standalone company.

“We have been evaluating how to grow our highly innovative, wide-format printing businesses for several years now,” says Jon-Andri Mantel, CEO of Mantel Digital. “We believe that the combination of the business that we have built so far, with new investment and additional management expertise, into a new company is the best way to ensure the success of these products.”

John Harwell has been appointed CEO of both Wadjet AG and Wadjet America, Inc. The Wadjet America offices will be located at the same location as the former Mantel Digital, Inc., in Laguna Niguel, California.

“The spinoff will give both businesses the ability to focus on and pursue their respective growth strategies,” says Harwell. In terms of timing and positioning of the new company, says Harwell: “It comes at a very good moment as we begin to roll out the next generation of DuralPrint (formerly DataPrint) and DataScreen products with much higher resolution.”

The Wadjet corporate website highlights two products:

• The DuralPrint, which it describes as a 4-color flatbed with a working surface measuring 71 x 116 inches, specifically engineered for direct photorealistic printing onto anodized aluminum.

• The DataScreen, which is a piezo printing unit that is designed to produce screen stencils directly from Adobe, QuarkXPress, and CorelDraw files, using a light-impervious, water-based ink.

Mantel Digital will continue to be the exclusive distributor for Wadjet products in most of Europe, while Wadjet AG will develop the other markets, including the US, South America, and Asia. Both Mantel Digital and Wadjet are private enterprises headquartered in Wädenswil, Switzerland.

WADJET AMERICA
www.wadjet.com