EFI acquires BDR in textiles inks move

EFI has acquired BDR Boya Kimya, a Turkish manufacturer of reactive inkjet inks for industrial digital textiles printing.

Following the completion of the deal today (3 May), Bursa-based BDR, which will be integrated into EFI Reggiani, will continue to develop inks, working closely with and supporting its clients while expanding and growing its capabilities.

BDR’s 19 employees, which include the company’s co-founders Serra Saatçioglu Yildiz and Ibrahim Demir, are joining EFI and all will remain based at their current sites in Turkey.

While financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, they are not expected to be material to EFI’s Q2 or full-year 2019 results.

EFI Reggiani vice-president and general manager Adele Genoni told PrintWeek: “We are very excited. This is an important announcement in the history of textiles for us, and we are looking with a lot of enthusiasm into the next quarter and the next year.

“Turkey is an important hub for textiles that is growing more and more so the fact that BDR is based there makes a lot of sense for us. We already have a legal entity in Turkey and also local people engaged to service our customers, so the geography is important but the proximity with customers is also important.”

Founded in 2016, BDR has built a significant presence in Turkey and Pakistan and, increasingly, across Europe, the Middle East and India as well.

“BDR has always been very focused on the growing worldwide opportunity with digital to increase sustainability in the textile industry using high-performance and quality inks,” said Saatçioglu Yildiz and Demir, who will become worldwide sales director for ink and director for technical ink and development respectively at EFI Reggiani.

“EFI's global, best-in-class Reggiani portfolio fits exactly with our own key goals for innovation and growth. We are excited to be joining EFI to work together on advancing the industry's analogue-to-digital printing transformation.”

Genoni added: “BDR’s co-founders have done an amazing job in growing the business in terms of technology and knowledge of other markets. It is very respected in the textiles space.

“At EFI Reggiani we have a product development roadmap for the next two to three years, for printers, chemistry and ink, and BDR will be entered into this. The drivers of this roadmap are strongly connected to eco-friendly solutions and productivity and reliability.”

EFI Reggiani, which now has nearly 300 staff in total, unveiled a new ultra-high-speed digital single-pass textiles printer, the Reggiani Bolt, late last year. The 1.8m-wide machine prints directly onto textiles at speeds up to 90m/min or 8,000sqm/hr.