Brother sees Mutoh as strong fit

Confirmation of the recent acquisition by Brother Industries of Mutoh Holdings was evident for all to see at FESPA Global Print Expo, with the exhibition stand signage proudly stating ‘Mutoh, a group company of Brother’. Wide Format Image had the opportunity to talk to Koji Yamanaka, Executive Officer, Brother Printing & Automation Business, about its recent acquisition of the successful Japanese wide-format printer manufacturer.

Yamanaka confirmed the move forms part of a broader corporate strategy to expand beyond Brother’s traditional strengths and into higher-growth industrial printing segments. He explains: “Industrial printing is a key future growth area for Brother and the acquisition of Mutoh provides Brother with a ready-made portfolio of wide-format technologies and applications that would have taken us years to develop independently. Mutoh’s established presence across signage, graphics, textile decoration and industrial printing was obviously a major attraction and aligns particularly well with our plans for business regions globally.”

“Outside of immediately enabling us to expand our product range and business in the short term, we also see significant opportunity in combining the significant R&D capabilities of the two companies to look at future products.”

Yamanaka quickly dismissed comparisons with Brother’s unsuccessful attempt to acquire Roland DG in 2024, stating that ‘the Mutoh acquisition represents a very different proposition’. “Whilst I wasn’t personally involved in the move to purchase Roland DG, m understanding is that one key difference here is that there is much greater cultural compatibility between Brother and Mutoh. Even during the acquisition negotiations, we found Mutoh’s corporate culture to be quite similar to ours, which has to be a benefit when looking at how best now to integrate aspects of the two organisations.”

Noting Yamanaka’s comments, it is clear that there is nothing but opportunity linked to the acquisition for customers in Australia and New Zealand, where Mutoh has built a strong reputation for a customer-centric approach, supported by a loyal and very technically capable dealer network and a steadily expanding portfolio that spans eco-solvent, UV, dye-sublimation and emerging technologies such as AquaFuze.

Yamanaka adds: “Ink technology was another key attraction. As industrial printing applications become increasingly specialised, access to broader chemistry and ink expertise is becoming critical and Brother simply would not have been able to catch up with where the industry is at, with regards to ink technology and related products, by itself. The fact that Mutoh is manufactured in Japan – a country that is widely recognised as being at the forefront of ink technology – is obviously another huge advantage for us. If we want to support other industrial printing applications, we need a lot of different kinds of inks, which would not have been easy for Brother to develop alone, so we were always going to have to look for partnerships…but being able to acquire Mutoh is an even better outcome.”

Finally, Yamanaka confirmed that there are no immediate plans to alter Mutoh’s branding or channel strategy. Instead, the focus is on leveraging the strengths of both organisations. “Brother and Mutoh clearly have different strengths, but from a brand perspective we definitely want to utilise what we have now so that we can continue to focus on what’s important for our customers.”

That customer-first approach may ultimately prove to be the strongest argument for the acquisition, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, where continuity, support and access to a broader technology portfolio are likely to be welcomed by both dealers and end users.

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