Seiko Epson to expand printing biz

Seiko Epson will invest 16 billion yen in a new building in the campus, in Hirooka office in Japan. The new building, which will house a factory for prototyping and volume-producing large commercial and industrial printing systems and a test laboratory for digital textile printing, is part of Epson’s mid-term plans to grow its printing solutions business.

The new building that will be named Innovation Center Building B will have a total floor area of 37,650 sq m. The first floor will house the factory and test laboratory, while the second and third floors will be office area.

The construction work is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2018 and operations are expected to begin in around March 2020. Epson expects the new building to yield benefits by reinforcing its research and development capabilities and production technology in the commercial and industrial printing domain. The company also expects to benefit from greater operational efficiency by bringing all relevant departments under the same roof.

As an R&D and production centre for core devices used in the printing solutions business and as an inkjet printer planning and design centre, the Hirooka office works closely with Epson’s production sites worldwide. Epson already has under construction at the Hirooka Office a new factory that will produce the company’s state-of-the-art PrecisionCore printheads. That factory is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2018.

Epson is constructing the Innovation Center Building B in response to the expansion of key markets. Epson is also in the process of expanding and upgrading its lineup of printers that deliver spectacular image quality for things such as indoor/ outdoor sign boards. In the digital textile printing market, Epson anticipates rapid expansion because, in addition to having a comparatively low environmental impact, digital systems offer print shops the ability to handle short-run print jobs at low cost and with a fast turnaround.