The Durst Group is expanding further, with a recent acquisition of Callas Software, and a new Durst Como emerging from an earlier takeover of Aleph, which has also led to a new range of textile printers.
Durst announced that it had acquired Aleph back in September 2023, and since then Aleph has operated under its own brand name but as a Durst Group company. In the background, Durst has worked to integrate Aleph more fully into its own operation and is now renaming Aleph as Durst Como, and using it as the base for a new centre of excellence for digital textile printing. The legal process for the change of name should complete by the end of this year. Christoph Gamper, CEO and co-owner of the Durst Group, confirmed, “Durst Como will be our innovation center for the textile future – a hub that unites technology, software, and passion.”
This means that Aleph’s textile printers will now come under the umbrella of Durst’s R&D and product management. Thus Andrea Riccardi, who has been the head of Product Management at Durst for the last 25 years will now see his role expanded to also include textiles as well as graphics. Alessandro Manes, a co-founder and former CEO of Aleph, will take on the role of director Global Sales Industrial Textile, overseeing global sales activities. Another co-founder, Roberto Manes, Aleph’s former CTO, will head up the textile R&D as the director Development Textile. Roberto Frigerio, the former general manager and CFO of Aleph, will serve as managing director of Durst Como.
Durst has also announced a new LF series of textile printers, which are an evolution of Aleph’s Laforte printers. These were originally developed for indoor and outdoor applications using water-based inks. They offer both sublimation printing on paper and direct printing on polyester fabrics with sublimation ink. The new models feature a sticky-belt transport system for textile materials and a patented vacuum-belt transport system for paper media. The first of these machines is the LF 430 GF (Graphics Direct Fabrics) which uses water-based pigment inks for direct-to-fabric printing. This will be launched in May at the Fespa show in Berlin.
Callas Software to continue to operate as an independent company
It’s also worth noting that Aleph was originally founded as a software development company, specialising in textiles. Durst is continuing to expand its software offering, having also recently acquired Callas Software, which specializes in developing PDF-related tools for prepress workflows.
Callas does sell software directly to end users but its real strength lies in its OEM agreements with many print workflow vendors making use of Callas technology, particularly around preflighting and optimising PDFs for print. Durst has said that Callas will continue to operate as an independent company and that this acquisition will not affect the many OEM contracts that Callas has. Dietrich von Seggern, CEO of callas software noted, “Maintaining Callas’ independence was a central requirement for joining the Durst Group. Our customers must be able to trust that Callas will continue as a reliable partner – while also gaining a new foundation for long-term innovation.”
Christoph Gamper, ceo and co-owner of the Durst Group, commented, “This is not just another step towards digitalization – we are actively shaping the future of digital printing. With Callas at our side, we are making print software smarter, more connected, and more powerful. The best solutions arise when strong partners work together toward a shared vision.” Once again, we can expect more details from Durst on its software strategy and how it plans to protect Callas’ independence at the upcoming Fespa show.
In the meantime, you can find further information from durst-group.com, alephteam.com and callassoftware.com.
First published by The Printing and Manufacturing Journal on 10th April 2025. Republished by permission www.nessancleary.co.uk. Note – Nessan Cleary will cover Fespa Berlin for Indian Printer and Publisher as he has in past years.
