Esko said in its announcement yesterday (19 December) that the divestiture includes assets, employees, contractual agreements and intellectual property specific to AVT. Under its new ownership, AVT will maintain its brand name, identity, and product portfolio.
The anticipated closing of the transaction will be Q1 2025, subject to any customary conditions under applicable local law.
Porat Itay is a private company based in Israel, founded by Roy Porat and Yaron Itay. Roy Porat had previously held the role of president of AVT from 2020 until 2023, and Yaron Itay has successfully built and led several industrial technology companies in Israel.
“Selling the print inspection business enables AVT to operate with the strategic focus necessary to drive its growth and innovation,” said Joël Depernet, president of Esko.
“With our commitment to drive value accretive growth within our culture at Esko, it became apparent that our strategic ambitions in packaging management, prepress workflow and flexo platemaking solutions hindered ambitions of the AVT print inspection business.
“Under new leadership, I am sure AVT has exciting times ahead. We wish the team the very best for the future.”
Porat added: “We are very excited about this opportunity, as it is the beginning of a new era for AVT.
“Given my familiarity with the AVT business, I am confident that with the support of the associates globally, we will demonstrate the right strategic focus and commitment to investment to grow the business and serve our customers.”
Separately, Esko Pack Proof has become the first image processing software in the world to secure the Fogra55 certification for the Extended Colour Gamut printing process for colour matching.
The Pack Proof software accurately models the spot colour and expanded gamut ink systems used to print brand colours to deliver a contract proof that matches the final packaging.
The new Fogra55 certification adds to Esko Pack Proof’s existing Fogra39 and Fogra51 accreditations, which demonstrate the ability of the Esko software to match ISO 12647-7 quality.
“We are thrilled with this world-first achievement,” said Martin Cusack, product manager for colour and digital at Esko.
“Accuracy of brand colours is of paramount importance in packaging, with a key challenge for converters being maintaining consistency between plate production and proofing.
“This new certification complements our existing Fogra certification to demonstrate how using Pack Proof now makes it possible to output industry standard proofs first time, enabling businesses to maximise press production and reduce errors.”
Fogra, the German Research Association for Printing and Reproduction Technology that provides certifications for the printing and media industries, assessed the latest version of the Esko Pack Proof software, which is available to all users of the Esko software platform.
“The process is straightforward but rigorous. We had to output, measure and submit Epson proof samples to Fogra, which was undertaken by the team at our facility in Itzehoe, Germany, using an Epson SureColor SC-P7500. These were then submitted for analysis and to ensure they met all the strict criteria,” said Cusack.
