Trends
Gravure Looks Ahead — with Confidence Opportunities through innovation and consolidation Courtesy of the European Rotogravure Association
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nder the theme “Building for Gravure” the European Rotogravure Association (ERA) met from 18 to 20 September for their Annual Meeting in Manchester, UK. With 180 participants from Europe and abroad, the event, which also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the organization, was well attended. Besides prominent speakers, the program also included visits to the brand new gravure plants of Polestar in Sheffield and Prinovis in Liverpool with their up to 4.32 meter-wide presses. Key topics of the Annual Meeting included the continuing internationalization of the printing markets and ongoing consolidation within the gravure industry, as well as the recent spectacular investments in new gravure sites and presses.
ing as of 2007 as they do not reach their customers by this method. Neckermann, a subsidiary of KarstadtQuelle now trading as neckermann.de, for the first time had higher turnover through the Internet than through catalog. And from 2007 onwards Neckermann will reduce their advertising expendi-
need to be brought on the market faster and production time needs to be shortened.
Jasper Scott from IPC, one of the largest British publishing houses for magazines, gave a thrilling report on the latest developments in the UK magazine market with an encouraging message for the gravure printers. According to Scott, gravure will be the winner, whereas web offset will suffer. He underlined Middelhoff ’s statements on the future of gravure printing and confirmed for the UK market that production times will need to be shortened as topicality is the main factor for success. In addition, he also sees the future belonging to large printing houses since only these will be able to handle the high Wes Lucas, CEO of Quebecor World, speaking at costs. There will be fewer printthe ERA Annual Convention Dr. Thomas Middelhoff was the ers; however, these will be workideal keynote speaker with his view ing globally. Thus, large gravure of the connection between gravure printers ture from 240 to100 million euros. printers with high printing capacity will and their customers. Only a few years ago have an advantage over web offset printhe was Chief Executive Officer of Bertels- What answers does the gravure industry ers. Even the largest web offset companies mann; now he is CEO of KarstadtQuelle, have to offer to these developments that at in the UK are hardly profitable. His meswhich is one of the biggest customers of a first glance could have a negative effect on sage: The current conditions in the British European gravure printers. He is also Chair- the branch? According to Middelhoff, con- magazine market definitely favour gravure. man of the Board of Polestar and thus still solidation and innovation are the keywords very connected to the printing industry. for the gravure industry. Because printing is a Following these speakers from the catalog He described the structural changes within capital-intensive industry, the future belongs and magazine publishers, Dr. Giancarlo the catalog market. Quelle will modify the to the large printing houses, which are able Cerutti, president and CEO of the Italian structure and frequency of its catalogs while to be successful in the market. It is particu- press manufacturer, put the emphasis on the printed volume will remain the same. larly important that the printers are able to innovation in gravure during his presentaFurthermore, KarstadtQuelle will no longer keep up with the speed that the publishers tion. A worldwide trend in gravure printuse newspaper supplements for advertis- and the mail-order companies set. Products Continued on page 24 GRAVURE/December 2006
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