E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s largest e-paper display supplier, yesterday said it expects its revenue and net profit to hit historical highs in the next three years through 2028, fueled by rising uptakes of its new large signage, and robust demand for store shelf labels and electronic readers with color displays.
To cope with growing customer demand, E Ink plans to build a new production line, called H6, to expand capacity for large e-paper displays, such as 30-inch displays for indoor and outdoor signage, the company said.
Multiple production lines are planned, as the company’s board of directors approved a new capacity program totaling NT$3.37 billion (US$107.83 million) for acquiring land and leasing a manufacturing facility in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), it said.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
“We have a chance to see E Ink’s revenue and profit hit record highs in the next two to three years,” E Ink chairman Johnson Lee (李政昊) told investors via an online conference.
The e-paper displays used in signage would outgrow other business segments next year due to a lower base, Lee said.
E Ink is counting on a new e-paper display production line, dubbed H5, to bring extra growth next year, he said.
“We expect our large-e-paper module factory to be fully utilized next year. The module production line operated by our joint venture with AUO Corp (友達) will also be fully loaded,” Lee said.
The e-paper displays for electronic shelf labels (ESLs) would come next, as the major international retailers in the US, the UK and Europe are increasingly replacing paper labels with ESLs, Lee said.
US tariffs and labor shortages have prompted large-scale retailers to quicken their pace to install ESLs, he said.
This year, E Ink expects to ship 25 percent more ESL e-paper displays to 500 million units, compared with about 370 million last year, Lee said.
The growth would extend into next year, he added.
The company also expects growth from e-paper displays used in e-readers and e-notes, driven by replacement demand for those equipped with color displays.
The integration of artificial intelligence features into those devices is also boosting consumers’ interest, the company said.
E Ink’s revenue grew at an annual rate of 29 percent to NT$29.1 billion in the first three quarters from NT$22.49 billion.
Net profit surged 76 percent to NT$9.4 billion in the first three quarters from NT$5.35 billion in the same period last year, setting an all-time high. That surpassed the NT$8.87 billion the company reported for the whole year of last year.
Earnings per share climbed to NT$8.17 from NT$4.67 over the period, company data showed.
Gross margin rose to 56.44 percent from 47.84 percent a year earlier, according to the data.
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