Director dealings: Xaar CEO makes small show of support

Xaar chief executive Doug Edwards has increased his stake in the printer inkhead technology group fresh from setting out his long-term strategy and receiving some ringing endorsements from analysts.

Edwards, the former Kodak executive who took the helm in January last year from long-time boss Ian Dinwoodie, forked out £30,000 to buy 6,092 shares at a price of 493.62p.

This took his stake up to 32,913 shares, weeks ahead of the key launch of the company's Thin Film piezo printhead family at the Drupa print media fair in June, with the launch Xaar's 5601 - known as P4 and which has 5600 nozzles and is said to be targeting the textiles and wide-format markets initially.

In recent weeks, Xaar has launched its latest generation of industrial printheads, the 1003 family, which will help maintain its position in the ceramics market where competition has lately caught up; strengthened its position in the 3d printing market with a heavyweight senior hire; and announced solid annual results.

More importantly, Edwards set out his '2020 vision' strategy built around a target of growing annual revenue to £220m by 2020, from the sub £94m last year.

He aims to achieve this by: capitalising on organic growth opportunities, continuing to invest in product development, building partnerships and pursuing carefully selected acquisitions.

Analysts at Investec said the target was achievable, but obviously comes with significant execution risk as the print market conversion is inherently prone to delay.

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Challenger Acquisitions Limited (CHAL)
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Challenger Acquisitions Limited (CHAL)
Director name: Gustafson,Mark
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Challenger Acquisitions Limited (CHAL)
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Servicepower Technologies (SVR)
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