Kornit hits record sales as digital textiles boom
Digital textiles printing solutions developer Kornit Digital saw sales shoot up by 39 per cent in 2019, achieving record figures, as the move to digital fabric printing gathers pace.
Results in the Asia Pacific, which includes Australia where well-known industry identity Ashley Playford-Browne is now its country manager, were even better. And in more good news for Kornit the sales growth increased as the year went on, with the fourth quarter the best of all.
Andy Yarrow, president of Asia Pacific for Kornit said, “This week marks my first anniversary at Kornit Digital, amazing how time flies when you’re having fun. Today we announced our 2019 earnings and the business has grown incredibly.
“I am proud to have led Asia Pacific to 42 per cent growth from 2018. Thanks to the Kornit Asia Pacific team, our partners around the region and of course our amazing customers.”
Digital textile printing is seen as huge opportunity for not just for specialised textile print factories but for all kinds of commercial printers, ranging from the franchise stores to commercial printers, with digital t-shirt printers now available for less than five figures. The Kornit printers are in a league above this, offering high productivity on both cotton and on polyester.
Sales revenue for the year for Kornit was US$179.9m, up from US$142.4m in 2018. Net margin also rose, up to 10.9 per cent from 9.2 per cent. Revenue in the final quarter was US$48.7m up by 30 per cent from US$37.8m the year before, with net margin up to 14.5 per cent from 7.8 per cent on the prior corresponding period.
“The fourth quarter of 2019 capped off another year of exciting growth and progress for Kornit. We are proud of our strong performance in 2019 and believe that our leadership position in the market continues to widen,” said Ronen Samuel, Kornit Digital’s CEO.
“Our 2019 results provide a robust foundation for continued growth and execution in 2020 as we are seeing the exceptionally strong momentum in the business continue in the first quarter. We believe Kornit is best positioned to lead the textile industry in its shift to on-demand manufacturing in a sustainable way.”
Kornit has set itself ambitious targets, it is looking to treble its sales in the next four years to $500m, believing the enormous textile printing market is ripe for digital, for much the same reasons as other segments have gone that way – on-demand, instant turnaround, short-run, ease of operation. It says at present less than one per cent of textile printing is digital, meaning huge growth opportunities.
Playford-Browne said, "This is a booming market thanks to massive growth in online shopping and the consumer's demand for everything personalised. Commercial printers already possess most of the skills for digital textile. Textile is the next digital revolution, printers have already embraced the change in wide format from analogue screen to digital. The next step is into textile."