At formnext we learned much about Prusa Printer’s manufacturing capabilities.
The Prague-based manufacturer of inexpensive desktop 3D printers has grown tremendously in the past three years, and their printers might now be the most frequently made 3D printer on the planet.
When we last spoke to the company directly regarding their production capacity, we were told they were producing an incredible 3,000 units per month. At that time the number was far larger than any other manufacturer we were aware of. To put this in perspective, MakerBot’s first 3D printer, the venerable CupCake, likely sold fewer than 2,000 units in total. Prusa now made that many machines in only a couple of weeks.
But now things are quite a bit bigger, somehow.
The company now has staff numbering around 400, and their production line is, as it always has been, made up of their own 3D printers. These machines produce the parts required for making more printers. We’re told a machine can produce a full set of parts in about 15 hours.
Now their manufacturing farm numbers around 350, and we strongly suspect they continue to add more units as we speak.
How many units are they actually producing now? Is it more than the 3,000 we were told last year?
Yes, indeed. We were told Prusa now produces about 450 units per day. Wait, let’s read that again: FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY 3D PRINTERS EVERY DAY!
If they’re running a seven-day-a-week operation, this is equivalent to 3,150 units per week, 13,500 units per month, or a staggering 164,250 units per year.
And they’re expanding. And these numbers don’t even count the new inexpensive resin machine they announced but have yet to ship in volume.
They have to be the largest manufacturer of 3D printer units in the world. Of course, their equipment is very low cost, so they likely have lower revenue than some other companies. Or do they?
We don’t know their specific sales by model, but the average price of all their filament machines is just over US$800. And 164,500 of them yields a massive revenue of US$133,500,000! And this does not yet count their resin machines, which are priced quite a bit higher.
If they have a margin of, say 10% on this revenue, that’s US$13M. But their margin might be higher.
The bottom line here is this company is pulling in an astounding amount of money, far more than almost every company we saw among the 626 vendors at formnext. I was quite amused when I saw Prusa’s modest booth:
When compared to their flashy neighbors:
Which company is making more money? Hard to tell from appearances. But the numbers speak.
At this point it appears that Prusa is now the low-cost desktop 3D printer manufacturer that countless others envisioned when they started their journey. While most have fallen in their voyage, Prusa has achieved total success.
Via Prusa Printers
The fate of major 3D printing conferences in 2020 is unclear with the ongoing virus outbreak. We have thoughts on what it could mean.