Konica Minolta Acquires Verga in Italy: Establishing Sales Subsidiary in Italy, the Growth Driver Country of Inkjet Textile Printing, and Accelerating Global Business Development

Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) (TOKYO: 4902) (ISIN: JP3300600008) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Verga IT S.r.l., an Italian inkjet textile printer sales company (Verga), under which Konica Minolta acquires Verga. Through the acquisition, Konica Minolta has established Konica Minolta IJ Textile Europe S.r.l. (Headquarters: Bregnano, Como, Italy; President: Akiyoshi Ohno), its first overseas sales subsidiary for industrial inkjet business, aiming to enhance the sales and services organization in the inkjet textile printer markets in Europe and within its proximity, with a great growth potential.

The worldwide textile printing market has been going digital rapidly, as digital inkjet technology has better responded to market requirements of the apparel industry. The current requirements include printing highly detailed and precise designs which was difficult to produce through traditional analog printing, and also printing with excellent quality through production of small quantities of many different designs. Inkjet technology has realized them all. In addition, as inkjet textile printing uses significantly less water than analog printing, more and more factories have become interested in adopting digital technology to transform themselves into more environmentally-considerate businesses.

While Europe accounts for majority of the global digital textile printing market, most of the European digital textile printers are located in Italy. In the Como region, long renowned as a cluster of high-grade apparel manufacturing within Italy, textile printers have noticed the advantages of inkjet technology at an early stage and started to install inkjet textile printers. Though their initial demands were for low-to-mid-speed printers primarily for sample production, the recent trend shows there is a greater demand for higher-speed printers suitable for mass production. Furthermore, along with the increasing adoption of digital printing in Italy, inkjet printing has come to the textile print market in Turkey, considered manufacturing base for Europe. On top of that, in China, accounting for about 30 percent of the global textile print market, further growth has been expected for inkjet printing that helps enhance productivity and reduce environmental impact.

With a broad range of its product line from low-to-mid-speed models to high-speed mass production printer, Konica Minolta launched an office for industrial inkjet business in Shanghai, China, in the summer of 2014 and has been vigorously driving its business initiatives in China. Through the acquisition of Verga, Konica Minolta established IJIT, its first overseas sales subsidiary dedicated for industrial inkjet business, in the high-class apparel cluster region in the world’s fashion leading country, Italy. The new efforts in Italy will strengthen the company’s sales and services capabilities through customer-focused initiatives. With the establishment of IJIT, Konica Minolta will offer solutions that meet market needs and further improve customer satisfaction through high-quality and speedy services. The company will also keep an eye on the Turkish market, with a good growth potential in the future, and accelerate global development of the industrial inkjet business.

Method of Acquisition

Konica Minolta has acquired all stocks of Verga. The parties entered into a definitive agreement on October 1, 2014.

About Konica Minolta

With its philosophy “The Creation of New Value,” Konica Minolta, Inc. is a leading technology company of creative minds that provides innovative solutions to businesses and the broader society. www.konicaminolta.com/inkjethead/

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