Kornit sees huge opportunity in megatrends

Kornit Digital believes its new Avalanche Poly Pro has the potential to “change the market” as the garment and textile printing specialist ramps up its product portfolio to address industry megatrends.

Kornit Digital believes its new Avalanche Poly Pro has the potential to “change the market” as the garment and textile printing specialist ramps up its product portfolio to address industry megatrends.

Ronen Samuel, CEO at the fast-growing Israeli manufacturer, said there was currently a “perfect storm” underway in apparel and textiles, with four industry megatrends changing the market: personal expression; social media influencers; the boom in e-commerce; and sustainability.

“Kornit is creating the tools to connect brands and customers. The markets we address are huge,” he stated. “Brands can product what the customer wants just-in-time, and consumers can create what they want.”

Samuel said that with the Avalanche Poly Pro Kornit had “invented a new way of printing onto polyester”.

The Poly Pro uses a new process – NeoPoly – and inkset designed for low temperature curing, with a “very thin” high quality image that maintains the fabric’s characteristics. Pricing starts at €440,000.

“For the first time this is superior to any other solution on the market, not just for short-run but also for long runs,” he stated.

The Poly Pro is on show for the first time in Europe, as is the Kornit Atlas high-volume garment decoration printer, which has an annual production capacity of 350,000 impressions. The Atlas was introduced at the beginning of the year, and Samuel said it was “the smoothest product introduction I’ve experienced.”

It uses Kornit’s water-based NeoPigment Eco-Rapid inks.

Kornit is targeting its Presto direct-to-fabric device at the home décor market and has just announced a new ink that makes the Presto “much faster and more productive”, with samples available on the firm’s booth.

Separately, Chris Govier has joined Kornit as managing director for EMEA. He previously worked at Xerox for over 20 years, most recently as general manager of Xerox Emirates. Govier said it was “an incredibly exciting time” to be joining Kornit.

Govier takes over from Eyal Manzoor, who joined Massivit 3D as vice president of global sales last month.

Kornit is exhibiting on stand B6-A13 at Fespa.