Agfa have recently announced their acquisition of Inca Digital, the Cambridge (UK) based leaders in the design, development and manufacture of inkjet printers. The businesses have been shedding some light on the motivations behind the deal, with senior figures from both organisations set to speak at the FuturePrint Leaders Summit in Geneva next month.

Agfa have confirmed that Inca’s Cambridge base will remain, as Vincent Wille, President of Digital Printing Chemicals at Agfa, explains that the acquisition is “all about the people”, but understands that new production facilities will also need to be built to support growth and future expansion, although it’s not clear at this point where those additional facilities will be located. 

A mutually beneficial collaboration

Frazer Chesterman spoke to Vincent about the acquisition who said it was “exciting for both the Agfa and Inca teams, and for customers as well.” When asked what drove interest in acquiring Inca, Vincent explained that Agfa have been wanting to make a move into the packaging sector for some time, and Inca’s knowledge, expertise and workforce make it the ideal partner to achieve this with.

Inca also recognises that packaging, and the development of digital printing within packaging, is set to become a huge market. Frazer also recently spoke to Stephen Wilson, CEO of Inca, who believes packaging is going to become “all about the presentation, which we see a lot with e-commerce already.” 

To support this move, Agfa believes Inca is the perfect add-on to their existing wide-format portfolio and acknowledges Inca’s innovation in high-speed solutions. In particular Agfa were impressed with Inca’s Speedset, which is a single pass inkjet 11,000sph B1 sheetfed press used for folding carton packaging applications using water-based inks. As part of the deal, Agfa has gained late stage development access to Inca’s single-pass technology, a sector that Vincent believes will grow rapidly in the future. 

Agfa is not concerned by the growing amount of competition in the digital print sector, rather they see this as an opportunity to stay smart and learn from others to make sure their customers are receiving the best solutions possible. Both companies already have a significant global presence, and this partnership ensures that they are able to capitalise on the combined market share.

Synergy and opportunity

The two organisations have fantastic technology platforms and share a great drive for innovation. Inca CEO Stephen Wilson explains that the acquisition means that they are now able to deliver complete solutions, describing a ‘one-stop shop’ that can provide everything the customer wants. Wilson confirms that Inca’s flagship Onset press will be rebranded under the Agfa name, and praises the cultural fit between the two businesses as well as the technological compatibility.

FuturePrint looks forward to keeping an eye on the progress of our partners Agfa and Inca, and look forward to hearing more about the acquisition at the FuturePrint Leaders Summit in Geneva, from 29th - 30th June 2022 where both Vincent Wille from Agfa and Stephen Wilson from Inca will be speaking.