Kornit aims to become $500 mn firm within two years

Rosh Haayin (Israel) headquartered Kornit Digital develops, manufactures and markets industrial and commercial printing solutions for the garment, apparel and textile industries. The company focuses on enabling the mass customization of printed textile products. In this interview, Robert Zoch, Global Content Manager, Kornit Digital, explains the advantages of digital printing and how Kornit is helping the textile industry to gear up for the digital future.

How is Kornit Digital pursuing the developments in digital textile printing? Could you please share with us some of your recent launches in digital printing for textiles & their key features?

Our latest technology incorporates 3D, embroidery, dye sublimation, and vinyl heat transfer effects, using the same eco-friendly, single-step, pigment-based print process as our legacy digital production systems.

As a result of last year’s acquisition of Custom Gateway workflow solutions for streamlining the end-to-end production experience (from online point of sale to shipment of finished product), Kornit has executed the KornitX production ecosystem, which connects demand for custom apparel and other pieces with Kornit users who can fulfill their orders locally, eliminating slow, wasteful, and risk-prone supply chain logistics to give the people what they demand, quickly and in the most cost-effective, eco-friendly manner possible.

What are the advantages of digital textile printing over conventional printing technologies?

Digital eliminates the setup times and labour associated with traditional analog processes, for quicker speed to market. It means no limitations on colour gamut or graphic detail. It’s fast enough that finished pieces and custom fabrics can be produced after the order is placed, aligning supply with demand to eliminate overstocks. There’s no water waste, and Kornit’s single-step systems, which require no additional pre- or post-treatments, require less labour and floor space to operate, making them a perfect match for nearshoring/onshoring and consolidated micro-factory production models. Digital pigment-based inks are versatile to work with multiple fabric types and applications, and enable agility to answer sudden unforeseen product demands, opportunities, or market disruptions.

What are some of the emerging trends in digital textile printing?
Retailers are adapting to a “new normal” in which e-commerce leads, and digital print, as well as digital workflow solutions that connect orders with their production mechanisms, is being optimised to answer that sales model. Brands increasingly use “virtual showrooms” and unlimited product catalogues, knowing that digital print can deliver those applications at just-in-time speeds. Some retailers are implementing digital print production nearer to brick-and-mortar stores, to ensure popular applications and styles can be replenished quickly, without excessive inventory risk.

What are your growth plans for the digital textile printing business?
Kornit has committed to “writing the operating system for sustainable fashion on demand,” so we intend to grow considerably by supporting an eco-friendlier, on-demand production model, while enabling greater creative expression than ever before. This includes a series of “Kornit Fashion Week” events globally, which combine educational presentations about building a business case for digital, live demonstrations of the technology producing applications that support the market’s needs, and runway fashion presentations showcasing brilliant and diverse apparel collections created by some of the world’s most visionary fashion designers — using entirely digital means, in a fraction of the time needed with more traditional (and less environmentally conscious) design and production mechanisms.

We anticipate being a $500 million company within two years, and have laid out an ambitious plan to substantially improve the global textile industry’s ecological impact/global footprint over the next five years.