History

Xaar was formed to acquire, develop and commercially exploit a new digital inkjet printing technology arising out of work done by Cambridge Consultants Ltd. At the time, the IPR consisted of 4 granted patents and 84 patent applications in various jurisdictions. Xaar's business concentrated on licensing these patents and know-how to printer manufacturers primarily for use in office applications. Typical Xaar licensees are multinational corporations who manufacture large volumes of inkjet printheads for use in their own products, or for sale to OEM customers. Xaar has nine printhead licensees including Brother, Konica, Sharp and Toshiba TEC, and two ink licensees, Avecia and Toyo Ink. As a result of further development of the technology by Xaar there are now over 700 patents and patent applications in the Xaar IPR portfolio and the company continues to improve and expand this portfolio.

Xaar completed a successful listing on the London Stock Exchange. The flotation raised a total of £15 million after expenses. Of this, £10 million represented new capital for the company to accelerate development of the group.

Xaar acquired MIT, an existing licensee, from Pelikan Productions AG and its immediate holding company, Nu-Kote Holding. The MIT licence had originally been taken out by IBM, who used it to make a successful printhead for use in its range of line printers produced at that time. A strategic decision to exit the printer business saw IBM sell its printer operation to Nu-Kote Holding. MIT was integrated into Xaar and now forms XaarJet AB, Xaar's dedicated manufacturing facility near Stockholm, Sweden. Xaar's product portfolio expanded considerably since this acquisition. In order to support this augmented product portfolio and the increased demand for its products, Xaar expanded its sales operations beyond Europe into Asia and the Americas, with offices in Shanghai, China, New Delhi, India, Marietta, Georgia and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Xaar increased its focus on manufacturing its own range of digital inkjet printheads. As a result of this decision, Xaar relocated all of its manufacturing capability to its Swedish facility, leaving its Cambridge location to concentrate on research and development.

Xaar introduced its first full production printhead incorporating its unique, patented greyscale technology. The "Xaar 318" is manufactured in Japan by Xaar licensee Toshiba TEC and offers photographic-quality printing with no compromise in speed.

Further greyscale developments led to the launch of the Xaar 760, a user-definable printhead delivering a choice of binary or dynamic variable drop-sizes to provide the ultimate in flexibility, reliability and speed.

Xaar launches the new revolutionary Xaar 1001 printhead and invests £10 million in a new manufacturing plant in Huntindgon, UK. This product marks the next significant step forward for the industry and confirms Xaar as a market-leader in the innovation of digital inkjet printing.

Xaar launches two new printheads, the entry-level Xaar Electron and the premium-level Xaar Proton, which set new standards in performance in the production of indoor and outdoor graphics.