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May 2000

Cambridge Consultants announces Inca Digital Printers to be next spin-out

New spin-off from Cambridge Consultants is to seize industrial digital print market

Inca Digital Printers Limited is to be the next company to be spun out of Cambridge Consultants Limited (CCL), the European technology and innovation arm of global consulting firm Arthur D. Little.

Backed by £2.6 million of investment from Advent Venture Partners, Inca is to build photo-quality piezo-based inkjet printers for a wide range of industrial applications, including packaging, publishing and textiles. The new company is to maintain close ties with CCL, which will own 15 per cent of Inca. CCL will also be represented on Inca's board.

Inca's technology enables industry to benefit from the digital technologies that have revolutionised desktop printing. Until now, this has been difficult due to the size, scale and complexity of industrial printing needs, combined with a need not to slow production lines.

Without delaying production lines, Inca's systems enable a broad range of sheet, or reel-fed, materials of almost any texture to be individually printed using photo-quality digital printers. Industrial users will continue to enjoy the economies of scale that come from bulk processes, but will now be able to alter the print that goes onto each production unit, eliminating the need to stockpile pre-printed variants.

Immediate applications for Inca's printers include displays; magazines, which can be printed with specific articles, selected for individual readers; flags, banners and personalised furnishing fabrics in addition to wall and floor coverings for domestic and commercial uses. Standard packaging can be custom printed, enabling packs to be printed in different languages and with different designs for different countries. Pack promotions can be printed without having to consider special print runs or slowing the production line.

The industrial printer market is expected to reach $5bn by 2005 and to continue that growth through 2010. Some experts predict that half the $500bn printing industry will go digital by 2020.

Howard Biddle, CCL's Managing Director said, "I'm delighted to announce that CCL is spinning-off Inca. This is one of a series of companies we are incubating with the objective of enhancing value creation. As with Cambridge Silicon Radio, a company that was spun off a year ago, we intend to maintain a strong strategic alliance. This approach means that, in partnership, we can meet the demand for new products without CCL losing access to the skills and technologies that are so essential to our traditional client base."

Bill Baxter, Inca's Managing Director, said "Our printers will enable industry to customise the print that goes onto everyday materials, such as paper, plastics, and textiles, while printing at high speed in continuous runs. Industry can now be flexible enough to target individual customers, while retaining the advantages of mass production and process lines."

Inca has developed two systems that can be integrated into existing production processes: a flatbed printer, capable of printing on sheet materials measuring up to 2.4m by 1.6m, and a reel-to-reel printer for flexible reel-fed material. Inca will invest heavily in R&D, and expects to bring out a new product every nine months.

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