News Decal

26 Jul 2021

How Digidelta's experience solidifies ours

Digidelta's history, the company that created decal in 2009, merges with that of the Portuguese digital era and we want to share how its 35-year experience solidifies ours. We can start by saying that we are one of the three vertices that compose Digidelta's digital delta and that we have a lot more to tell.

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A new era starts
Talking about digital is talking about Digidelta. The company from Torres Novas that founded decal emerged a few years after the old ZX81, the small personal computer (PC) developed by Clive Sinclair at the University of Cambridge, started to become a giant in the rest of the world and arrived in Portugal.

The 80's would come to mark the beginning of the Portuguese digital era, first with the offer of solutions aimed at companies and, shortly after, with all the news 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, on July 6, 1986, he founded Digidelta. The evolution of personal computers was accompanied at all stages with the commercialization of these equipment, until the appearance of the first solutions for the graphic industry.

In the early 90's, it began to import and commercialize the first PostScript Lasers, for printing color selection photolith films. The affirmation in the digital printing market took place during the boom of sign making applications with the exclusive representation of several brands, such as Summagraphics, Amiable (FlexiSign), TK-Adhesive and Seberg.

The market grew at an incredible speed, as did Digidelta Lda., which changed its name to Digidelta Internacional Import Export S.A. and included the first large format digital printing plotters in its portfolio. The end of the countdown towards the change of the millennium has brought new representations from other leading brands such as Mimaki, Fujifilm, Precix and GMP.

The digital vertex takes shape
It was precisely Mimaki's exclusive representation and distribution - today throughout the Iberian Peninsula - that led to the appearance of the first digital vertex of the Digidelta delta, connected to digital printing and cutting equipment.

The second vertex, associated with LED technology, emerged in 2004 with the launch of NetScreen. Digidelta's first own brand began as a project for managing outdoor networks and ten years later, in 2014, it began to ensure the integral manufacture of LED panels for indoor and outdoor visual communication.

Our brand, decal, was created in 2009, generating the vertex related to the offer of adhesive products for different segments of the digital printing market. In 2015, we launched the online store and in 2016 we started to develop and test our products in the new laboratory. The year 2020 brought us a new brand image and a new website with a modernized online store.

Always adding success
Thus, the digital delta triangle was complete and, if its success were measured in m2, we would be able to demonstrate it with the growing size of the company's facilities, which started in a small commercial space of 20m2.

This was followed by the 300m2 one, also in Torres Novas, and the 1,500m2 one that marked the arrival to the Industrial Zone of the same city. The need to increase responsiveness dictated the move to the current facilities, which house the headquarters and manufacturing unit on more than 10,000m2 since 2014.

The measure of success does not stop here as it is necessary to add the m2 of other Digidelta spaces in national territory and in the neighboring country. The Spanish branch opened in Madrid in 2005 and moved to new facilities, with a showroom included, in 2017. In 2007, it was Lisbon's turn to host the inauguration of the offices and showroom.

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 around the world and, of course, the approximately 160 employees that make Digidelta's digital vertex solid.

Certified and recognized experience
In short, a lot of success that has been awarded 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 ISO 9001:2015 and NP 4457:2007 , referring to Quality Management Systems and RDI.

As an example we can mention the following awards: Outstanding Performance (2002), Gold (2002 and 2003), Club 1 Million Dollars (2003), the Scanvec Amiable for Best Distributor in Europe (2004), the PIXEL 2008 - with which the Pro-Digital magazine highlighted Rui Leitão as “Businessman of the Year” – and the distinction of the London Stock Exchange as one of the 1000 European SMEs with the highest growth in the report “1,000 Companies to Inspire Europe - 2016”.

There were more and, among the most recent recognitions, are those from 2020. Last year, Digidelta renewed for the eleventh time the SME Leader status - awarded annually by IAPMEI - and was once again included in the ranking of the 1,000 national companies with the highest turnover in Portugal, established by the Expresso newspaper, Informa D&B and Deloitte.

The next 35 years
Digidelta is celebrating its 35 years 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 your experience and inspired by Rui Leitão, our CEO:

“Opportunities arise every day, to take advantage of them we have to be very 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.".