DUBLIN, IRELAND 18TH SEPTEMBER 2024 — Harkness Screens, one of the world’s premium cinema technology companies, has today announced plans to restructure its global manufacturing capability to better support current cinema customer demands. As part of the plans the business will cease manufacturing in the USA in October 2024 and will serve its Americas customers from its state-of-the-art global manufacturing facilities in Europe and Asia whilst maintaining sales, technical and customer support functions in the USA.
Harkness Screens’ manufacturing facilities in France, India and China are capable of supplying the entire range of Harkness premium product portfolio including premium offerings such as Perlux HiWhite, Clarus XC, Hugo SR and Precision White and have done so since 2017. New packaging technology recently developed by the Harkness Innovation Centre in the UK now makes it possible to expedite the global delivery of screens from these plants. Harkness’ business leading Research and Development team also continues to work on exciting new screen technologies that will support the cinema industry as it moves further towards laser projection. At CinemaCon 2024, Harkness launched its new laser engineered screen, Hugo SR to industry acclaim. Hugo SR is the first of the next generation of screen technologies to emerge from the Harkness Innovation Centre with more to follow.
Harkness continues to evolve and develop in order to better meet customer needs. In addition to its ongoing investment in developing next generation screen technologies, Harkness has recently established a new development and manufacturing facility, HSG Labs, near Cannes, France, for its range of screen monitoring products – Ultimate, Dual, Spectro, and Optimiser. These products allow cinema exhibitors to maintain a consistently high quality of presentation, manage costs and deliver a great experience for movie-goers.
Commenting on the re-alignment, CEO Mark Ashcroft explained “Our global manufacturing footprint has always enabled us to supply customers with screens that help them deliver their projects on time. Over the past two decades, our Americas customers have been supplied with screens not just from our US plant but from our four global facilities seamlessly and with a quality assurance given the consistent manufacturing processes and raw material supplies that we deploy across the group. Our recent advances in packaging technology most notably Compact+, makes it possible for us to expedite the global delivery of screens via air or sea freight whilst reducing the carbon footprint dramatically. Aligned to this, Compact+ provides exhibitors with convenient and cost-effective solutions that improve ease-of-access and handling of screen deliveries to existing auditoria,” Ashcroft concludes.
About Harkness Screens
Harkness Screens™ is the world's leading screen technology company, specialising in the design and manufacture of projection screens and supporting technologies for cinema and live events. From single-screen independent theatres to large multiplexes to large format immersive theatre experiences or live events, Harkness supplies thousands of screens every year helping provide outstanding presentation experiences to audiences around the world.
With global reach, Harkness is regarded as the world leader in cinema and has screens in more cinemas worldwide than any other manufacturer. With its industry leading 2D and 3D screen brands (Perlux HiWhite, Clarus XC, Precision White, Nova and Spectral) along with an innovative range of presentation monitoring tools (through HSG Labs), digital surveying services and suite of cinema design and specification apps, Harkness continues to lead the way in screen technology for cinema.
Founded in 1929, Harkness has facilities in the USA, UK, France, India and China and combines unrivalled experience with the latest technology and production methods to provide innovative solutions to the company’s key markets. For more information, visit the Harkness Screens web page at www.harkness-screens.com.