Vanguard Digital Printing Systems has established a European branch in Brixen, Italy.

Headquartered in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Vanguard is a manufacturer of printing systems for the signage, decoration, corporate, industrial and packaging sectors.

Durst, which has its headquarters in Brixen, acquired a majority stake in Vanguard last year. Despite the acquisition by Durst, Vanguard remains an independent company under the leadership of founder and CEO David Cich.

With the formation of Vanguard Europe, the company now offer its wide format portfolio into European markets. The choice of the Brixen location, in a building adjacent to the Durst headquarters with over 5000sqm of factory space, is intended to leverage technical and administrative synergies between the two companies. For customers, the close proximity offers the advantage that all current printing systems in Durst Group’s overall portfolio can be seen and tested.

The official market launch of the Vanguard printing systems in Europe will take place in October at the Viscom 2021 trade show in Milan and Fespa 2021 in Amsterdam. For the Italian market, Durst’s Divisione Vendite Italia will handle distribution and service, while in other countries distribution will be established and expanded over the coming months, depending on Vanguard’s strategic decisions. For Poland, LFP Industrial Solutions has taken over the distribution.

Christoph Gamper, CEO and co-owner of Durst Group, said, ‘With the formation of the European branch, we are bringing the Vanguard printer portfolio, which has been extremely successful in the US, to the European markets and are opening up new customer segments. Despite the difficult pandemic period, this is a clear signal to the market for large format printing systems.

‘With this step, we offer our customers new opportunities for production excellence and, in combination with innovative workflow and ERP solutions, a complete production chain from pixel to output.’