Gerber Scientific

Gerber Scientific Inc., located in Tolland, Connecticut, is the parent of companies that supply software and hardware systems for apparel and technical textiles, sign making and specialty graphics, composites and packaging applications. Headquartered in Tolland, Connecticut, USA, the company operates through four businesses: Gerber Technology, Gerber Scientific Products, Virtek Vision International and Yunique Solutions.

Gerber Scientific is owned by Vector Capital, a San Francisco-based, global private equity firm specializing in the technology sector that manages more than $2 billion of equity capital. On August 18, 2011, Gerber Scientific’s stockholders approved the take-private transaction of Gerber Scientific, Inc. by Vector Capital in a transaction valued at approximately $283 million. CITIC Capital Partners, a leading China based private equity firm, has a minority stake in Gerber Scientific alongside Vector.

The business began as the Gerber Scientific Instrument Co., founded in 1948 by Austria native Joseph Gerber to support his invention of a variable scale, the first of 675 patents he'd eventually hold. In 1994, President Bill Clinton presented Joseph Gerber with the National Medals of Technology and Science at a ceremony at the White House in Washington DC, USA.

In 2004, Gerber Technology received the Export Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The award is presented to companies whose exports increase consistently year over year and account for a significant portion of revenue.

In 2007, Gerber Technology received the President’s “E” Award, the nation’s highest award to honor American exporters in a ceremony in Washington D.C., attended by President George W. Bush and Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez.

Gerber Scientific, Inc. is divided into four businesses:

• Gerber Technology (GT) is the largest business of GSI (accounting for 2/3 of revenues). It has been providing hardware and software systems to automate and manage the product design and manufacturing process with CAD software for pattern design, automated material spreading systems and computer-controlled cutting systems. The company serves 25,000 customers, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies, in the aerospace, apparel, retail, composites, packaging, furniture, technical textiles and transportation interiors industries in 130 countries. Gerber Innovations, a business of Gerber Technology, is North America’s only full-line manufacturer of automated cutting hardware for the design, die making and short-run production segments of the packaging industry.

• Virtek Vision International, an Ontario, Canada-based business acquired by Gerber in Sept. 2008 for $33.1 million, serves aerospace carbon fiber composite part assembly, sheet metal part fabrication and construction markets with laser templating, quality inspection and spatial positioning systems.

• Gerber’s Yunique Solutions business, acquired by Gerber in Dec. 2009, and based in New York City, offers YuniquePLM product lifecycle management software. This web-based system helps retailers, brand owners and manufacturers manage all of the details associated with their products from conception to store shelf and helps them communicate with their suppliers. Users of this software include Abercrombie & Fitch, Fruit of the Loom, Aeropostale, Merrell, and Cutter & Buck, among others.

• Gerber Scientific Products (GSP) develops and manufactures computerized sign making and specialty graphics systems, software, materials, and accessories to provide sign shops and graphics professionals with solutions for vinyl-cutting, digital color printing and dimensional signage needs. GSP also develops and supplies aftermarket materials.

External links

• http://sirismm.si.edu/archivcenter/findingaids/AC0929.pdf Gerber Scientific collection at Smithsonian
• Rourke, Elizabeth; Wernick, Ellen (2007), "Gerber Scientific, Inc.", International Directory of Company Histories, Encyclopedia.com, retrieved 5 July 2014