New building to house R&D and production groups for commercial and industrial printing -

TOKYO, Japan - Seiko Epson Corporation will invest approximately 16 billion yen to build a new building (named Innovation Center Building B) on the campus of its Hirooka Office, in the city of Shiojiri in Nagano, 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.

Innovation Center Building B will have a total floor area of 37,650 m². The first floor will house the factory and test laboratory, while the second and third floors will be an office area. 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 center for core devices used in the printing solutions business and as an inkjet printer planning and design center, the Hirooka Office works closely with Epson's production sites worldwide. It shares the advanced production technology and know-how it gains through the development and production of core devices with Epson's overseas sites to help maximize manufacturing capabilities across the Epson Group. 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 the 2018 fiscal year.

Epson has designated commercial and industrial printing as a key business area in its Epson 25 mid- to long-range corporate vision, Epson will build Innovation Center Building B in response to the expansion of key markets. In the signage market, Epson is 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.

Epson is committed to advancing its original technologies and to delighting customers by exceeding their expectations with products and services based on original core devices.

Innovation Center Building B profile

Hirooka Office profile (as of March 31, 2017)