AVT Reports Record Growth for 2006

HOD-HASHARON, Israel—Advanced Vision Technology Ltd., a global provider of automatic optical inspection and quality assurance systems for the printing and packaging industry, completed a successful 2006 with sales of $28.5 million, up 13.2 percent over 2005.

Profitability for the year 2006 was up 28.9 percent at $ 5.4 million ($ 4.2 million in 2005).

Sales for the fourth quarter of 2006 totalled $ 7.4 million, up 12.3 percent for the same period in 2005 ($ 6.6 million).

Order bookings for 2006 were more than $ 28.9 million, an increase of 10.5 percent over 2005 ($ 26.1 million), and at year-end, AVT’s order backlog totalled $ 9.4 million ($ 8.8 million in 2005).

Revenues from maintenance, service and training increased to $ 2 million in 2006, an increase of 49 percent over the previous year, reflecting the growing installed base of over 1,500 systems.

“These are gratifying results,” said Shlomo Amir, president and CEO, “and reflect our continued strategy of market focus, and R&D based on the real needs of printers and converters. The launch of the solution for sheet-fed applications was a result of this research and marked AVT’s entry into the sheet-fed market. During 2006, AVT’s ‘Leadership through Partnership’ strategy was vividly demonstrated at Labelexpo Americas, in Chicago, where AVT solutions were featured on the stands of eight OEM press and finishing equipment partners.

“While our market share of 60 percent in Europe and North America is a source of pride, less than 10 percent of the world’s packaging and labels printers currently use machine vision systems for print inspection,” he said. “With web and sheet-fed solutions for these markets and our growing positions in the new markets of China and Eastern Europe, AVT’s challenge is clear, and we are well-positioned to meet that challenge.”