Ricoh has reached an agreement to buy US-based direct to garment (DTG) printer manufacturer AnaJet and make it a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh Printing Systems America. This acquisition is the latest strategic investment by Ricoh to strengthen its industrial inkjet business while enabling its customers to move forward new ideas and drive imaginative thinking.
Founded in 2006, AnaJet was one of the first companies in the world to mass produce DTG printers. Today, the company is a global market leader in the DTG industry. The majority of AnaJet products available today leverage Ricoh’s market-leading inkjet printheads.
Ricoh’s experience has focused on office and commercial print technologies. According to the company, the addition of the AnaJet portfolio will help Ricoh further its position in the industrial inkjet market, a market where Ricoh maintains global leadership in inkjet printhead development. With AnaJet’s solutions combined with the broad Ricoh portfolio, customers will now have the ability to more effectively deliver a broader solution set to their end users.
“Ricoh has a long history of successful, strategic acquisitions that have helped our customers and partners around the world find new, effective ways to better serve their end users,” said Junichi Matsuno, General Manager, Inkjet Business Division, Ricoh Company, Ltd. “With the addition of AnaJet, our collective customers benefit from a larger support team, added innovation and access to a services-led portfolio of solutions to ultimately help them grow their business. AnaJet already possesses a proven reputation as a leader in DTG printing and as such, it is a great complement to Ricoh’s broad portfolio.”
“At AnaJet, we have led the industry in establishing the trend of direct to garment printing,” said Karl Tipre, CEO of AnaJet. “Today we are very pleased to announce that this acquisition will provide our expanding customer base with the services of yet another global leader in Ricoh.
We are extremely excited for what lies ahead for the AnaJet brand and our customers.”
AnaJet, headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, will continue to operate under its current name, management team and capabilities, which currently include more than 50 employees.
