A new era is beginning
To talk about digital is to talk about Digidelta. The Torrejana company that founded the decal came into being a few years after the old ZX81, the small personal computer (PC) developed by Clive Sinclair at Cambridge University, started to become a giant in the rest of the world and arrived in Portugal.
The 1980s would mark the beginning of the Portuguese digital age, first with the offer of solutions aimed at companies and, shortly afterwards, with all the novelties that entered our homes, making it almost impossible to imagine a non-digital world.
Digital = Digidelta
Rui Leitão soon realized the potential of this area and founded Digidelta on July 6, 1986. The evolution of personal computers was accompanied at every stage by the marketing of this equipment, right up to the appearance of the first solutions for the printing industry.
In the early 1990s, he began importing and marketing the first PostScript lasers, for printing color selection photolithographs. It established itself in the digital printing market at the height of the boom in sign making applications, with exclusive representation of various brands such as Summagraphics, Amiable (FlexiSign), TK-Adhesive and Seberg.
The market grew at a breakneck pace, as did Digidelta Lda, which was renamed Digidelta Internacional Import Export S.A. and included the first large format digital printing plotters in its portfolio. The end of the countdown to the turn of the millennium brought new representations of other leading brands, such as Mimaki, Fujifilm, Precix and GMP.
The digital apex takes shape
It was precisely the exclusive representation and distribution of Mimaki – today throughout the Iberian Peninsula – that led to the appearance of the first digital apex of the Digidelta delta, linked to digital printing and cutting equipment.
The second vertex, associated with LED technology, appeared in 2004 with the launch of NetScreen. Digidelta’s first own brand began as a project to manage billboard networks and ten years later, in 2014, it began to fully manufacture LED panels for indoor and outdoor visual communication.
Our brand, decal, was created in 2009, generating the vertex related to offering adhesive products for various digital printing market segments. In 2015, we launched our online store and in 2016 we started developing and testing our products in our new laboratory. 2020 brought us a new brand image and a new website with a modernized online store.
Always adding up to success
The digital delta triangle was thus complete and, if its success was measured in m2, we were able to demonstrate it with the growing size of the company’s premises, which began in a small commercial space of 20m2.
This was followed by a 300m2 unit, also in Torres Novas, and a 1,500m2 unit which marked the arrival in the Industrial Zone of the same city. The need to increase response capacity dictated the move to the current premises, which have housed the head office and manufacturing unit on more than 10,000m2 since 2014.
The measure of success doesn’t stop there, as we need to add the m2 of Digidelta’s other spaces in Portugal and the neighboring country. The Spanish branch opened in Madrid in 2005 and moved to new premises, including a showroom, in 2017. In 2007, it was Lisbon’s turn to open its offices and showroom.
The accounts could be closed with the Portuguese showroom in Vila Nova de Famalicão and the Spanish showrooms in Barcelona and Bilbao. However, there are other numbers that make the difference: the hundreds of partners and distributors spread all over the world and, of course, the 160 or so employees who make Digidelta’s digital apex solid.
Certified and recognized experience
In short, a lot of success that has been rewarded over the years and to which the Quality and RDI (Research, Development and Innovation) policy has contributed, as well as compliance with the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 and NP 4457:2007 standards for Quality and RDI Management Systems.
For example, we can mention the Outstanding Performance award (2002), the Gold award (2002 and 2003), the 1 Million Dollar Club award (2003), the Scanvec Amiable award for Best Distributor in Europe (2004), the PIXEL 2008 award – with which Pro-Digital magazine named Rui Leitão “Entrepreneur of the Year” – and the London Stock Exchange’s distinction as one of the 1000 fastest-growing European SMEs in the “1000 Companies to Inspire Europe – 2016” report.
There have been more, and among the most recent recognitions are those for 2020. Last year Digidelta renewed its PME Líder status for the eleventh time – awarded annually by IAPMEI – and was once again included in the ranking of the 1000 national companies with the highest turnover in Portugal, established by the newspaper Expresso, Informa D&B and Deloitte.
The next 35 years
Digidelta is in the midst of celebrating 35 years of contributing to the development of the digital printing market. We don’t know what the future holds, but we will continue to work every day, confident in his experience and inspired by Rui Leitão, our CEO:
“Opportunities arise every day, to take advantage of them we have to be passionate about our work. Our commitment for the coming years is to continue with this passion and grow with our customers, suppliers and employees. Thank you all very much.”
