The Voice Of The Industry
Volume 44 | Number 07
February 2013
Is There Money in Print? Also in this issue: ■ Peninsula Print Makes Major Finishing Investment ■ Centenary Celebrations at Killarney Printing ■ New Flexo Press at Label World ■ Neopost Enjoys Strong Sales for Mohr Cutters ■ Dargan Completes Heidelberg Line Up with CtP ■ Tallaght Company in Label Printing First for UK and Ireland
Congratulations to all of the finalists and category winners from the 2012 Irish Print Awards. Our thanks to our genorous sponsors, without whom we would not be able to continue to recognise the excellence of the work produced by the Irish printing industry. The Heidelberg Award for Sheetfed Colour Offset Printing
The Avery Dennison award for Self-Adhesive Roll Labels
New Era Packaging Ltd
Print Run Limited
The Antalis McNaughton award for Digital Print
Plus Print Ltd
The manroland Ireland award for National Newspapers
Webprint Concepts
The Reprocentre Group award for Large Format Digital Print
Select Digital Print
The Agfa Ireland award for Regional Newspapers
Celtic Media Print
The Ferag Systems award for Print Finishing
Hudson Killeen
The KBA award for Magazines
Hudson Killeen
The Irish Printer award for Graphic Design of Printed Material
Fresh Design
The Xerox Ireland award for Books
Hudson Killeen
The Reprographic Systems award for Flexographic Print
J H Label Solutions Ltd
The Swan Papers award for Annual Reports
Print Media Services
The Robert Horne Sign & Display award for Commercial Vehicle Wraps
The Uniboard award for Carton Packaging
The Printed Image
DP Imaging
The Fujifilm award for Screen Printing
The Komori/ Portman Graphic award for Small Printers
Plus Print Ltd
Print & Display
The Irish Printer Magazine, Print of the Year 2012 Concern Worldwide Annual Report and Accounts 2011
Printed by
Print Media Services
INSIDE
VOLUME 44 NUMBER 07
The high profile exits of HP, Agfa, Heidelberg, Xerox, and, more recently, Roland, from Ipex 2014 are indicative of a fundamental shift in how print supply companies are now promoting their products and services. This shift has been driven largely by the emergence and growth of digital media, particularly social media, but also by the increasing awareness among print supply companies that they have reached a saturation point in the European and North American markets. Their brand and product range is well known in these markets and they can maintain their profile and sell in a variety of other ways while focusing on newer markets in Asia and South America via exhibitions and big events. It isn’t just the client whose marketing spend has changed because of the emergence of digital media options. The print suppliers’ approach to getting its message across has also changed. The reasons given by the most recent withdrawal from Ipex, Roland, show the extent to which marketing communications strategies have changed. ‘Customers now want more personalised, localised and immediate ways to learn and interact with the brand and its products and we are working hard to deliver that,’ said Jerry Davies, managing director at Roland DG (UK). He then went on to list some examples, which included the online Roland Forum and social media activities. The range of online options now available means that many manufacturers fail to see the value in making the investment required to take a stand at some of the major exhibitions. Whether it is Ipex or drupa, taking a stand is big money – there is the space itself, the transport of presses or finishing equipment for display on the stand, the commitment of staff to man the exhibition, along with their transport costs, and the distraction from the company’s core business which all of that represents. Is it worth it? Are manufacturers and suppliers getting a return on their investment? Clearly, many believe the return does not warrant the investment. However, while these developments may be of concern to many in our industry, not least of all the big exhibition organisers, it is encouraging to see that suppliers are finding more targeted, personalised and cost efficient ways of communicating with their audiences. This trend has also been replicated in Ireland over the past few years. An increasing number of print supply companies that offer complementary products and services are coming together to jointly promote their wares to the market. These open day events are usually held in hotels or small venues around the country. The era of mass marketing communication is over. It is all about the personalised and localised approach and that approach is proving to be very effective, and cost effective, for supplier and printer alike.
QUINN
MURRAY
LYNCH
14 Editor: Maev Martin Commercial manager: Fiona Larmon Production manager: Jim Heron Circulation: Josie Keane Administration: Marian Donohue Publisher: Frank Grennan Managing Director: Simon Grennan
KELLY
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Over 900 Irish Coats of Arms Includes Family Origins Map Mc COURT
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IRISH FAMILY CRESTS COVER D5.indd 1
Jemma Publications Ltd. Broom House, 65 Mulgrave Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, Republic of Ireland Tel: 00 353 1 214 7920 Fax: 00 353 1 214 7950
Ink
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13
Irish Printer looks at how leftover ink can get a new lease of life.
Cover Story
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Company closures, consolidations and capacity culls have forced printers to restructure their businesses and reassess the type of service they are offering the market. This month Irish Printer talks to some companies to find out if there is a business model that printers should be adopting in these difficult times.
Recession Busters
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Co Dublin-based print management company Impression Design and Print Management is celebrating 31 years in business this year by expanding its operations into a completely new and novel market – the production of personalised heraldry maps. Maev Martin reports.
MIs
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2012 appears to have been a busy and profitable year for the providers of Management Information Systems (MIS) to the Irish printing industry and 2013 is shaping up to be another successful year, with new product launches, new installations and new markets on the horizon.
Packaging
Wide Format
O BRIEN
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KENNEDY
Co Down Company in Major Finishing Investment Centenary Celebrations at Killarney Printing Antalis & Konica Minolta Give Printers a Helping Hand New Flexo Press at Label World Monopoly Manufacturer Selects Speedmaster XL75 Survey Shows Confidence Returning & Demand Steady Chesapeake Installs World’s Largest B1 Speedmaster Neopost Enjoys Strong Sales for Mohr Cutters Print Equipment Roadshows Announced Dargan Completes Heidelberg Line Up with CtP
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On 27 December last, three articulated trucks arrived at the premises of Label Art in Tallaght carrying the components of a Gallus 10-colour EMS430 SW combination press, the first of its kind in the UK and Ireland. Maev Martin talks to Label Art’s sales director Gerard Molloy about what makes this new press so unique.
Maev Martin Editor m.martin@jemma.ie MURPHY
News
DALY
17/01/2013 17:56
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There are more printers offering the market everything and anything from A1 Point of Sale materials to large, high-impact building banners, and everything in between. Tony Roe, managing director of McGowans Digital Print, looks at whether the wide format market is reaching saturation point.
E mail: (editorial) m.martin@jemma.ie, (sales) f.larmon@jemma.ie Subscription Order Line: Tel: +353 1 214 7920 Order Online: www.irishprinter.ie Cover image: courtesy of McGowans Digital Print No part of Irish Printer may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form without the prior permission of Jemma Publications.
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Irish Printer February 2013
NEWS
Co Down Company in Major Finishing Investment Peninsula Print & Design, who are based in Newtownards, Co Down, installed three Duplo System 5000Pro machines supplied by Neopost Ireland last month. The three fully automatic booklet makers all have a three knife trimmer and were installed to cope with the rising demand that the company is experiencing for a range of booklets, including timetables and brochures. ‘We are running a variety of products through the Duplo System 5000Pro, including leaflets, brochures and booklets, anything that requires folding and stitching,’ says managing director Gary Withers. ‘We decided to make these investments because of the capacity that they give. With the three knife trimmer on the end we find them to be good value for money. Also, the three knife trimmer gives you a better finish quality so we have become more efficient and our quality has improved. The Duplo System 5000Pro can do small A6 books two up. If we have a 50,000 run it halves the run time, which suits some of our work. The system has two collating cars and each section goes into it. The operator can put in up to 20 sections and each section is brought through in order, and is folded, stitched and trimmed and it comes out as a finished booklet. The number of books we can do in a month has increased significantly. The three Duplo booklet makers are helping us become more efficient and allowing us to do more work in-house rather than having to subcontract out, which is an expensive operation and having this equipment in-house also gives us greater
Gary Withers (left), managing director of Peninsula Print and Design with Johnny Crangle, production manager.
control of jobs. We work 24 hour shifts virtually seven days a week.’ Peninsula Print & Design operates four Komori presses and three digital presses – one each from Xerox, Ricoh and Infotec. A Canon press fulfils their large format needs and is used for pull-up stands and signage work. Gary says that packaging is a growing market for the company. ‘We have already invested about £400,000 in developing the packaging side of our business and that includes a new six-colour Komori press, a glue line and a die cutting machine – they were all installed over the past year,’ he says. ‘Packaging is a more stable market from the point of view of getting paid and it is a growing market. We have only entered that market but it is expanding. We produce sleeves for convenience foods – short to
medium-run work – and that is done on the Komori presses. We will invest further in the packaging side of our business – we have glue lines but we would be looking at other equipment to make us more efficient in printing and finishing. In addition, we are currently aiming for accreditation from the British Retail Consortium to add to the quality and environmental accreditations we already have. We expect to have that accreditation in June. That is a very important accreditation for any company undertaking work in the packaging area.’ Peninsula Print & Design’s online operation has brought in a lot of work for the company. ‘We have an online ordering system for weekly offers for small trade printers and we can give them good value across a range
of products including leaflets, booklets, stationery, NCR work etc,’ says Gary. ‘We are launching a new website in March – not a trade one but one that our trade customers could use to sell our products to their customers and we would put a mark up on it. The products on this website would include leaflets of different sizes as well as stationery, including laminated business cards, posters and also pull-up stands.’ Gary says Peninsula Print & Design has a lot of trade customers in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland. ‘The Republic of Ireland is a growing market for us for trade customers,’ he says. ‘We don’t do as much work in Britain as we would do in Ireland because it is very expensive to ship material across the Irish Sea. Our year runs up to the end of July and our turnover went up by 41% last year. This year our turnover is rising as well and I would think that growth will be in the order of 30% on 2012.’ Peninsula Print & Design employs 53 staff. The company celebrated 25 years in business last year. The Duplo System 5000Pro is a fully automatic booklet-making system for offset and digital book production. It can deliver up to 9,000 booklets and 10,000 collated sets an hour. The AMS feeding system ensures that paper stocks from 356mm (W) x 508mm (L) and weights up to 300gsm can be fed. The System 5000Pro bookletmaker incorporates a fully automatic changeover from one job to the next within 60 seconds.
Centenary Celebrations at Killarney Printing Kerry-based Killarney Printing, which is celebrating 100 years in business, once again exhibited their range of souvenir tourist merchandise at the Showcase Ireland event in the RDS in Dublin last month. The organisers of Showcase Ire-
land joined the directors of Killarney Printing, Tom Barry and Mike O’Donoghue, on their stand where Karen Hennessy, chief executive of the Crafts Council of Ireland, helped cut the centenary cake.Visitors to the stand on Sunday were
treated to champagne and cake. ‘We are delighted the organisers of the show took time out from their busy schedule to mark this milestone with us,’ said Tom Barry. ‘This begins our celebration of 100 years in business and we will be continuing the
celebrations during the year in Killarney.’ Killarney Printing began trading in 1913 and, along with their printing plant, is now one of the leading suppliers of souvenir products throughout Ireland.
Irish Printer February 2013
NEWS
Antalis & Konica Minolta Give Printers a Helping Hand Antalis and Konica Minolta have joined forces to bring the print industry one of the biggest prize draw competitions seen for years with a total prize fund worth over £100,000. With a Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C6000L as the top prize, plus numerous other digital print-related prizes such as digital SLR cameras, iMacs, iPad minis, Pantone reference libraries, and Adobe software, this really is a significant prize bonanza. This prize draw has been launched by Antalis and Konica Minolta who share a commitment to providing a ‘helping hand’ to printers looking to make the transition into digital print and benefit from the potential new business opportunities digital capabilities can provide. With the Digital to Business (d2b) initiative launched last year by Antalis and the Digital 1234 business development programme from Konica Minolta, the support, information and opportunities to work collaboratively with suppliers to help printers transition into digital print continues to increase. ‘We are delighted to be working with Antalis on this headline promotion as it highlights the
work both our businesses are doing to help enable printers in their transition into digital print,’ says Mark Hinder, market development manager PPD, Konica Minolta. Marian Thomasson, marketing communications manager for Antalis, is equally enthusiastic to be involved in this latest initiative. ‘One of the objectives for running this competition is to draw attention to some of the valuable resources and information that is available to printers within this sector,’ she says. ‘Of course we also want people
to join in, so we have tried to make registration for the draw and the way to earn more tickets as easy as possible for participants.’ The prize draw has been open for registrations at www.digitaldraw. co.uk since 4 February and will close on the 28 June 2013. To enter, participants need to complete a questionnaire. Further tickets into the prize draw can also be awarded based on purchases of Antalis products. Full Terms and Conditions are available at www. digitaldraw.co.uk. All the prizes available in the digital prize draw have been chosen specifically for their relevance to print or design businesses.
New Flexo Press at Label World Co Dublin-based Label World installed a new flexo press last month. The Mark Andy four-colour press brings to four the number of UV flexo presses currently being operated at the company. Their sole digital press is a Xeikon 3300. In April 2011 they became the first label printer in Ireland to buy a €0.5 Xeikon digital press and there is still no other printer in the country with this particular 3300 model. ‘We have grown our digital sales threefold since we got the new Xeikon and we still have further capacity with the press,’ says managing director Declan O’Rourke. Apart from the new flexo press, Label World operates a seven-colour Comco 10-inch
press and a 10-inch, four-colour Comco model, along with an eight-colour Mark Andy 2200 label press. ‘Our business grew by 20% last year and 20% the year before in terms of sales turnover so we needed the extra machine to cope with demand,’ says managing director Declan O’Rourke. ‘The machine is very compatible with our other Mark Andy press – it is the same width (a 10-inch wide press) - and all the cylinders, gears and dyes are the same so it will work really well for us. We do a lot of trade work and we produce labels for a number of sectors including drinks, healthcare, retail and the electronics industry. We secured some new contracts in the drinks sector over the
past few months which we are very happy about so we will be producing a variety of labels on the new machine.’ Apart from the new press, Label World also hired two printers recently. ‘Business is good,’ says Declan. ‘In a couple of months we will be integrating the web-to-print software package we have with our website so that customers can upload their artwork and order from us online. We are also hoping to export a lot more of our digital labels outside of Europe. We are planning to advertise our digital labels service abroad in 2013. We have been talking to Enterprise Ireland about this and they will be supporting us on the marketing side.’
Irish Printer February 2013
NEWS
Print Consortium Seeks Designers A new consortium of six print companies, headed by Impression Design & Print, is seeking two design companies to join its group. ‘This consortium has been established to bid for State printing contracts and to keep print work in Ireland,’ says Paul McCourt, managing director, Impression Design & Print. ‘At the moment
we are looking for two well qualified design companies to add to the existing expertise in the group. The six print companies in our consortium have a combined turnover of approximately €200m and employ over 190 people.’ Interested parties should contact Paul McCourt on (087) 2555 260 or email: print@iol.ie
Epson Appoints Square One Distribution
Epson has appointed Square One Distribution to sell its Point of Sale printers, colour label printers, and its DiscProducer (disc publishers) in Ireland. This latest partnership makes Square One Epson’s only distributor in Ireland for this specialist market. Square One Distribution, based in Bray near Dublin, will also sell Epson’s latest range of intelligent printers, Epson TM-T88V-i and TM-T70-i, which use Epson’s ePOS print technology. This enables users to print out receipts, tickets and coupons at the point of sale, as well as in back office and kitchen environments, directly from tablets and other mobile devices.
Over €250,000 Raised During Haiti Week (l-r) Norma Smurfit, Haven founder and Independant News and Media chairman and director, Leslie Buckley, Gladys Thomas and Olympic Champion Katie Taylor.
The second annual Haiti Week (19-26 January), organized by non-governmental organisation Haven, resulted in the Irish public raising over €250,000 for development projects in Haiti. The week brought the Irish public as well as the art, music and business communities together to raise awareness of Haiti and raise funds for Haven’s work in Haiti. Supporters included Katie Taylor, Paul O’Connell, George Hook and Clodagh McKenna. Haven focuses on three main areas: water and sanitation, shelter and training, and education. Since Haven’s inception in 2009, the charity has built, repaired and
upgraded over 2,329 homes, provided more than 9,000 children in schools with water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, and trained over 3,000 local people to help facilitate the empowerment of communities to pursue sustainable livelihoods. Haiti Week got underway with a nationwide bucket collection on 19 January where 90 volunteers took to the streets of Ireland for Haiti. Many dressed up as cuddly animals to encourage the nation to ‘Hug a Bear for Haiti’. Counties taking part included Dublin, Kildare, Limerick, Galway, Cork, Kerry and Kilkenny. ‘Irish Artists for Haiti’ was held in The Westbury
Hotel on 23 January and saw both Irish and Haitian art come under the hammer. James O’Halloran from Adams acted as auctioneer for the night and made sure lots were sold to the highest bidder. Celebrity Chef Clodagh McKenna hosted ‘Clodagh’s Host for Haiti’ in her restaurant, Clodagh’s Kitchen, in Arnotts on 24 January. Guests were treated to cocktails and canapés on arrival while watching a Haitian cookery demonstration given by Clodagh and Haitian celebrity chef David Destinoble. Guests were then treated to a Haitian feast during the three-course sit-down meal that followed the demonstra-
tion served in Clodagh’s Kitchen. Tickets cost €60 each with 100% of the ticket price going to support Haven’s projects in Haiti. Clodagh McKenna will join Paul O’Connell, George Hook and Tomás O’Leary as Haven’s newest Ambassador. A Corporate Quiz Challenge on 24 January in the Clyde Court Hotel raised €85,000 with proceeds on the night going towards Soul of Haiti’s projects in Haiti. On 25 January Haven hosted the Haiti Investment Forum where approximately 40 influential Irish and Haitian business people came together to talk about investment opportunities in Haiti. Speakers at the event included Haitian Entrepreneur of the Year Lionel Pressoir, Elizabeth Headon (an Irish citizen who is an adviser to the government of Haiti) and Haven founder Leslie Buckley, who is chairman and director of Independent News and Media. Over 350 guests attended the Haiti Ball in the Four Seasons Hotel that evening. On the night Irish Olympic Champion Katie Taylor, with Leslie Buckley, presented the William Jefferson Clinton Goodwill for Haiti Award to Haitian Gladys Thomas, a Haitian Nurse who took over an abandoned orphanage in Haiti’s capital Port au Prince in 1981. Today she manages one of the most successful hospitals in Haiti and has helped thousands of children. Her hospital was a vital part of the emergency response to the earthquake which saw 10,000 victims looking for treatment.
Irish Printer February 2013
NEWS
Events Update… The organisers of Fespa 2013, which will take place from 25 to 29 June at London’s ExCeL centre, expect the final layout of the show to firmly emphasise the long-term dominance of digital, while the event still offers a strong screen printing line-up, with exhibitors including M&R, Saati, Kiian, Demak, Sun Chemical, Sefar, Macdermid Autotype and Encres Dubuit. The top 10 exhibitors in 2013 are HP, Canon (incorporating Océ), Agfa, Durst, EFI, Fujifilm, Orafol, Mimaki, Kornit and M&R. Textile printing remains a focus for the event, with more than 102 exhibitors showing textile printing applications, and the 6,500 square metre Fespa Fabric feature on the show floor specifically designed to meet the needs of garment printers and decorators. Fespa 2013 will feature a Print Inspiration Runway, a collection of prints provided by printers and exhibiting companies to show how effective print can be across a variety of applications, and Creative Corner, which will target designers, creative and brand directors by showcasing what print can do. Print Shop Live will take participants through wide-format print technologies from pre-press to production to finishing and a new feature for 2013,
Promotional Products Business Academy, will provide a market-entry brief to promotional products. Organiser Informa Exhibitions is repositioning the Ipex 2014 event to reflect the new media landscape. The organisers have cut its duration from eight to six days (24-29 March 2014). In addition, the show, which will integrate Cross Media, is now being marketed as a digital, print and marketing communications showcase that brings together the whole print and media supply chain. The organisers will also place a significant focus on delivering a comprehensive, thought provoking and inspirational content programme. This will include the World Print Summit, which will follow the theme of ‘Strategies & Practices of Outstanding Leadership in the Challenging Business of Offline and Online Marketing’, where thought leaders from within and surrounding the print industry will come together to address the big issues and opportunities they face. A dedicated wide format seminar programme will focus on growth trends/opportunities for commercial printers. EFI, Océ/Canon, Fujifilm, Screen, Epson, Esko, Vivid Laminating and Zund are among the wide format suppliers now signed up to the
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show. The decision to shape Ipex into a thought leadership event for the print-centric multi-channel marketing communications industry was made following a review of the results of an independent global market study during Q4 2012. AMR International carried out the research on the key trends impacting the industry and the events that serve it. 114 telephone interviews were followed-up by an online survey which elicited 1,600 international visitor responses, with the geographical spread representing the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The results of the research clearly emphasised seven key trends impacting the graphic communications industry: consolidation in the Print Service Provider community in developed economies; offset is changing; the rapid rise of digital; printers offering non-print-related services; growth in printed packaging; growth in emerging markets; interest in multi-channel marketing communications. Cross Media 2013 will take place on 23 and 24 October 2013 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. The event will focus on the theme of ‘Joined-Up Thinking – the Power of Multi-Channel Marketing’ and will provide the latest solutions,
case studies and seminars on how the marketing, print and publishing industries can maximise the effectiveness of their multi-channel communications to deliver a higher return on marketing investment. According to the organisers, Informa Group, of Cross Media 2012’s 2,526 attendees, 59% of visitors were marketers, brand owners or agencies, followed by 28% print and marketing service providers, and 13% publishers or other content creators. Specific multi-channel interests ranged from integrated marketing to design and creative services, apps and digital solutions, while 33.8% of visitors highlighted digital marketing, 27% social media and 24% cross media solutions as their key areas of interest. European Sign Expo (ExCeL London, 25-27 June 2013) has acquired Screenmedia Expo 2013, and will wholly integrate it within the June event. The three-day event is co-located with Fespa 2013, giving visitors to either automatic access to the neighbouring event free of charge. Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is increasingly complementary to printed graphics, and the two are being widely integrated in markets across the world to provide comprehensive marketing campaigns.
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Irish Printer February 2013
NEWS
Monopoly Manufacturer Selects Speedmaster XL75 Board games giant Hasbro has had a Speedmaster XL75-5+LC press delivered to its Irish plant in Waterford, allowing it to bring more outwork in-house. The 18,000sph B2 five-colour and coater has been specified with Inpress Control automated colour and register control and Prinect Pressroom Manager digital networking. This means that the company has closed loop colour and is in a position to move ahead and secure ISO
12647-2 colour certification in the future. The fifth unit of the press will be used particularly for special corporate colours and the majority of Hasbro’s work is coated. ‘This press will produce a number of Hasbro games including Monopoly, Cluedo and Twister,’ says technical manager Sam Jordan. ‘Although it was a prerequisite that any press we bought had to be able to handle heavier stocks, what secured
Heidelberg the order was the high speed and quick makeready on the XL 75, particularly run in conjunction with Inpress Control. It will save paper/board waste and improve labour productivity.’ The Speedmaster XL 75 replaces a 12-year-old Speedmaster SM 74 which had clocked up 340 million impressions. A two-colour SM 74 is retained and is used primarily for instruction sheet production.
The plant at Hasbro employs four printers and a prepress specialist. The machine will run double days with a third shift added as required. The company’s peak period is between June and November as it gears up towards the Christmas shopping season. Hasbro has been in operation since 1923 and is a well known multinational board games brand. The facility in Waterford was opened in 1977.
Roland Withdraws from Ipex Roland DG announced on 8 February that it was withdrawing from Ipex 2014, which is scheduled to take place at London’s ExCel centre from 26 March until 2 April 2014. ‘Customers now want more personalised, localised and
immediate ways to learn and interact with the brand and its products and we are working hard to deliver that,’ says Jerry Davies, managing director at Roland DG (UK). ‘Our online Roland Forum, Creative Centre, Roland Academy, open
days, social media activities, and the work we undertake with our authorised dealers and partners have all been very successful and we look forward to announcing some additional exciting new initiatives over the coming months. It is with
all this in mind that Roland DG has made the decision to withdraw from Ipex 2014 and further diversify its communication channels by focusing on the country and industryspecific needs of all its market sectors.’
Survey Shows Confidence Returning & Demand Steady Domestic demand remained static for most printers during the fourth quarter of 2012 according to the latest British Printing Industry Federation Printing Outlook Survey Report published on 31 January. With over half of survey respondents reporting no change in domestic order levels, this was the fifth quarter out of the past six in which the majority of firms reported demand holding steady. The forecast for the first quarter of 2013 is for more of the same, with 62% expecting no change in domestic demand levels and just slightly more of the others predicting a pick-up in orders compared with a drop. This fits with the current level of order books, which are normal for the time of year for most respondents but with 17% reporting these as better than normal, compared with 7% reporting that they are worse than normal. Confidence levels remain static. The vast majority (61%) report neither a rise nor drop in con-
fidence levels, in line with both the general state of orders in the three-month period and the previous forecast. Perhaps surprisingly though, given the forecast for slightly better demand, printers are far less sanguine regarding prospects for trade during the traditionally slower first quarter. Most are neither more nor less confident but 30% expect the market to weaken which more than offsets the 7% that anticipate a pick-up. Once again ‘competitors pricing below cost’ remains the issue most frequently chosen by companies as one of their top three business concerns - selected by 79% of respondents in January 2013. ‘Late payment by customers’ has returned to the second ranking concern, with 30% of respondents selecting it. 24% of respondents were affected by an increase in late payments with two-thirds of respondents reported that they had been obliged to accept longer payment terms from customers in order to help
retain or secure business; up from the 49% reported last quarter. ‘Weak productivity levels’ has become the third ranking concern, with the number of respondents selecting it increasing from 5% in October to 22% in January. Reflecting this concern the vast majority of respondents intend to invest in new equipment over the next 12 months, with increased efficiency the over-riding reason given for investment. Almost all firms – 96% – were working below capacity, with 88% reporting under-utilisation of 10% or more of their capacity. Against a backdrop of readily available capacity, 84% of respondents reported a lead time of less than a month during Q4 2012, with 41% operating at between three to four weeks and 18% at less than one week. Not surprisingly UK print prices remain under downward pressure as a result and Q4 saw almost a third of firms forced to cut prices domestically in order to compete for business, with only 1% able
to raise levels. The first quarter of this year offers little hope of respite - nearly four-fifths anticipate holding prices steady but 18% expect to reduce levels while only 3% believe an increase is possible. Cost pressures showed a mixed picture: for energy 44% said that they had to pay more. Rises in other costs were minor and 21% of printers reported paying less for the paper and board compared to 8% that saw increases in the period. There was no change in print employment levels during the autumn. These are set to remain stable in the period ahead too, with 71% not expecting to make any changes to the size of their workforce in Q1. Of the remainder, firms set to take on more staff just outweigh those expecting to reduce numbers employed. The online trading trends survey was carried out between 3 and 11 January 2013 and received responses from 102 companies employing 7,629 people with a combined turnover of £0.8bn.
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Irish Printer February 2013
NEWS
Chesapeake Installs World’s Longest B1 Speedmaster Chesapeake’s Branded Packaging division will extend its range of creative print finishes available to the premium spirits, fine confectionery and personal care markets it serves with the purchase of the longest ever B1 printing press produced by Heidelberg. The Speedmaster XL 106 perfector, which has been installed at Chesapeake East Kilbride, has 17 print units - 10 printing units, three coating units, four drying units and an in-line cold foiling option. ‘East Kilbride supplies some of the world’s most prestigious brands and many of the packs it produces demand an ultra-high quality finish and outstanding shelf appeal,’ says Chesapeake Branded Packaging’s vicepresident, Tim Whitfield. ‘This significant investment will bring a number of processes inline providing greater quality control. We will be able to provide multiple colour applications, foiling and an even greater range of matt, gloss and pearlescent finishes, including metallics, spot and solid ap-
The record-breaking press
plications.’ The press is equipped with coating units both before and after printing and perfecting that will allow Chesapeake East Kilbride to provide customers with a range of finishes and effects inside as well as outside the box. It will provide customers with a greater choice of substrate options, without compromising a pack’s aesthetic appeal. The press is part of a major company-wide investment
programme. Chesapeake Branded Packaging’s carton operations in the UK, Germany and Poland have all benefited from significant press investments in the last two years. The investment in East Kilbride follows the UK’s first Heidelberg VLF packaging press at its sister plant in Newcastle. That site runs the Speedmaster XL145 which has seven printing and two coating units, interdeck drying and extended delivery and
also a high specification XL 105. ‘This latest B1 press is a huge step forward in technology,’ says Heidelberg UK’s sales director, Jim Todd. ‘This press has really advanced technical features such as Autoplate XL plate-changing and Logistics fully automated materials handling. These help to maximise efficiency and service and to seamlessly integrate into any facility.’
Year on Year Decline in Company Failures The number of business failures in January 2013 totalled 107. This figure is a 22% decline on the total of 137 business failures recorded in January 2012. That is according to latest insolvency statistics published by www.insolvencyJournal.ie. There has been a 14% drop in the total number of corporate insolvencies for November 2012, December 2012 and January 2013 compared to the same period the previous year i.e. November 2011 to January 2012. The insolvency journal says these figures may be early indicators of some economic stabilisation. However, the high level of retail insolvencies in January does raise concern for the sector. Latest figures from the CSO reveal the volume of retail sales fell by 0.1% in December compared to the previous month. These figures also indicated sales fell by 1% on an annual basis in December which is the largest decline
in five months. Total retail sales have now fallen by 25% since the start of the recession. The insolvency journal expects to see an increase in examinerships this year with the expected change in Company Law making it easier for SMEs to apply directly to the Circuit Court for protection. Under the new legislation, companies satisfying two of the following three conditions - fewer than 50 employees, turnover less than €8.8m and a balance sheet value not exceeding €4.4m - will be able to apply to the Circuit Court to enter examinership. Liquidations continued to dominate, accounting for 80% of total insolvencies in January. With regard to insolvency types, there was a 58% year-onyear decline in receiverships this month (19 receiverships) compared to January 2012 (45 receiverships). However, receiverships are likely to continue to be active through-
out 2013 with the level of enforcement by banks not expected to decrease. Regarding Personal Insolvency, now that the Personal Insolvency Bill has been enacted the new Insolvency Services under the scheme are due to be launched at the end of March. The Scheme provides for three new components of a personal insolvency structure: a debt relief notice; debt settlement arrangement; personal insolvency arrangement. Commenting on the outlook for 2013, David Van Dessel, Partner with kavanaghfennell (the firm that compile the data), says ‘We would expect to see a reduction in the overall level of corporate insolvencies in 2013 compared to 2012. We also envisage heightened examinership activity as a recovery model compared to liquidations, which will allow more companies the opportunity to restructure and continue trading.’
Irish Printer February 2013
NEWS
11
Neopost Enjoys Strong Sales for Mohr Cutters The Mohr range of guillotines is proving to be a popular choice for print companies in Ireland. Although Neopost Ireland only took on the contract to supply the brand late last year, they have already sold four models on the Irish market - to Dublin-based companies Trimfold, Printhead Ireland and Reads Design and Print, and Belfast-based Media Design and Print. ‘We have three Ideal guillotines but this is our first Mohr guillotine,’ says Gary O’Reilly of Reads Design and Print. ‘We really needed it because business is flying here which is great. We are finishing a wide range of material on it, including business cards, wedding invitations, flyers, and menus. It is a very robust piece of equipment and it is extremely precise so it gives us peace of mind. 90% of what we print digitally has to be finished and it can finish all of that.When our current online developments eventually take off we will probably need to invest in another Mohr model.We are increasing the range of products that people can purchase from us online. Our online offering currently includes cards, flyers, invitations, posters, iphone covers, ipad cases, and wedding invitations, but we will shortly be offering a range of other products, including glass coasters, in memoriam cards, book marks, and acknowledgement cards, and we will continue to expand the range.’ Gary says Read’s Magic Moments range of personalized items, including slippers, bags and table flags, is in big demand. ‘Personalized shortrun material is in big demand as is canvas printing,’ he says. ‘We are also now offering a next day service through An Post anywhere in the country for €6.This was launched via our website and through other online and offline media.’ Reads Design and Print has devoted 1,200 square feet of finishing space at its digital operation
Conor Power (left) of Neopost Ireland and Michael Beckinsale of Media Design and Print with the new Mohr guillotine
in the Setanta Centre in Dublin where they operate trimmers, creasers, scorers and booklet makers.Their litho finishing department, which is located in Wicklow, covers about 12,000 square feet.The company operates 50 digital presses – eight from Xerox and 42 Konica Minolta machines - and six wide format machines, from Mimaki and HP – in the Setanta Centre. Reads also operates a number of litho presses. ‘Apart from the Mohr guillotine we recently installed a new creasing machine and a new €90,000 Xerox 770 colour press so we are constantly investing in new equipment,’ says Gary. Belfast-based Media Design and Print installed its Mohr guillotine in January. ‘Our existing cutter was a bit slow and was starting to jam so we needed to invest in a better system,’ says Michael Beckinsale. ‘The Mohr device has yielded a lot of improvements in production for us.The main benefit is speed and cutting accuracy. It has saved us an hour to an hour and a half a day and that is down mainly to the speed of the hydraulic blade and the programming accuracy of the machine which is excellent.We are finishing all kinds of material with the new guillotine, apart from our large format posters.’
Media Design and Print specialises in digital and large format printing.They operate Xerox 700, Xerox 770, and KM451 printers. On the large format side they have a Canon 8000, Canon 820 and Roland BN20 device.The Mohr machine is the company’s only guillotine but they also operate a Duplo System 2000 with the new digital sheet feeder, a Duplo 1000 folder, a Duplo 445 Creaser, and a Matrix laminator. ‘The Duplo kit is all from Neopost Ireland (purchased when it was PFE) and the Matrix laminator was supplied by DBC Group,’ says Michael. ‘All of our kit, presses and finishing equip-
ment, has been purchased over the past four years so we don’t have any plans to make further investments at the moment. Media Design and Print was set up five years ago as an offshoot of our Media Marketing company.We started off as a designer and printer for our marketing company but we then moved into commercial print work and it is a big part of what we do. We find that people are increasingly requesting short-run work and we have benefited from that. We still do quite large runs on the digital presses from time to time but generally run lengths are decreasing.’
Print Equipment Roadshows Announced Neopost Ireland’s mailing and office solutions exhibition, Opportunities in Print, will take place on Thursday, 14 March in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cork and on Tuesday, 23 April in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Galway. The company will be demonstrating the latest franking machine technology, fulfilment solutions, office, wide format print and print finishing equipment.
Also exhibiting will be IBS, a leading provider of the latest Xerox printer technology, DWS Supplies, who supply digital print materials, and Wildcard Software, who supply the Printlogic MIS system. The Neopost Ireland roadshows aim to help printers reduce costs, discover new revenue streams from existing customers, increase margins and turnover and add new services to their portfolio.
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Irish Printer February 2013
NEWS
Dargan Completes Heidelberg Line Up with CtP A Suprasetter 75 completes the colour loop at Dargan Press in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland. Last year the company returned to Heidelberg for a Speedmaster XL 75-5-P+L after a six year gap. ‘Now we are replacing a seven-year-old rival CtP device - it has performed well but we believe it will be easier and simpler to use the Heidelberg Suprasetter and simplify the Prinect digital networking connectivity,’ says managing director Richard Traynor. ‘We have both Prinect Prepress Manager and Pressroom Manager as well as Inpress Control spectral measurement, meaning seamless colour control. Now if anything goes wrong Heidelberg alone will be responsible and they are very good. One call does it all. I can’t fault their response, it’s excellent.’ Dargan Press will run the Saphira Chem-Free plates on
the Suprasetter. The company already streams and recycles its waste and opts to work with FSC-certified papers and suppliers wherever possible so the quality of the Saphira plates off the Suprasetter will be a good match for the press. ‘We have been very pleased with the excellent quality we have been able to achieve with the XL 75 and Inpress Control,’ says Richard. ‘The fast makeready and 15,000sph speed means we are very efficient with both full colour and perfected spot colour work.’ The Suprasetter 75 is a thermal platesetter which features Heidelberg’s home developed and manufactured laser heads to output plates from 370mm x 323mm up to 680mm x 760mm. Dargan Press operates from a 24,000 square foot production unit and offers both digital and
litho facilities, print management, graphic design, marketing consultancy and point of sale services, as well as an online ordering facility.
p
The Suprasetter 75
Turning Printers into Profit Leaders
Epson Supports Mobile Printing with Apple
Informa Exhibitions has confirmed that the Printers’ Profit Zone, in association with The Print Coach’s Nick Devine, will return to Ipex 2014. Running on the show floor for the duration of the event, attendees will have the opportunity to take part in a range of sessions which are all being designed to tackle the main trends, threats and opportunities facing the print industry. ‘In this fast changing environment, it is more important than ever for print service providers to ensure they stay on top of the latest industry trends and the opportunities it represents,’ says Nick Craig Waller, Ipex 2014 marketing director. ‘The Printers Profit Zone is the ideal platform to receive free hands-on training and to get robust and tangible business advice and insights from key industry figures.’ The five sessions taking place every day will include ‘Master Classes’, where
Epson recently announced that 105 Epson-branded printers worldwide support AirPrint, which allows users to print emails, photos, web pages, and documents directly from iPad, iPhone or iPod touch without having to connect software, drivers or cables. ‘We recognised some time ago that mobile printing wasn’t just a novel idea, it was a necessary requirement for both sharing memories and mobile productivity in a rapidly changing digital marketplace,’ says Ian Cameron, general manager, global web & communications, Seiko Epson Corporation. ‘As iPhone and iPad momentum continues to grow, Epson will continue to lead the development of various innovative mobile digital imaging solutions.’ Epson has expanded its current AirPrint-enabled printers by more than 80% from last year, providing customers with a wide array of mobile printing options. A total of 105 Epson AirPrint-enabled printers allow applications to create Epson-quality photos and documents. AirPrint is an iOS printing system and is already integrated into commonly used apps such as Mail, Photos, Safari and iBooks. There are also many more apps available on the App Store that utilise AirPrint so Epson’s large selection of AirPrint-enabled printers make it more convenient for users to print directly from their iOS device.
attendees will hear about critical issues that face print service providers today and learn the practical steps profit leaders take to grow their sales and increase revenue. ‘Mr X Files’ will feature case studies where profitable printers reveal some of their secrets to grow sales and profit margins in competitive markets, while ‘The BIG Print Debates’ will be chaired by leading industry figures to discuss key issues affecting print service providers. ‘Trendspotting in Print’, which will be moderated by print & media analyst and The Print Tribe member Neil Falconer, will present data and statistics that highlight hardware and software trends that are shaping the future of print. The presentations will cover digital and offset commercial print, wide format, packaging and multi-channel marketing in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.
Irish Printer February 2013
ink
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Leftover Ink Gets New Lease of Life You can find them in many offset printing companies across Europe: containers holding leftover inks that are too valuable to throw away, but too difficult to reuse unless the exact same job is ordered again. Because it takes considerable time and skill to mix these so-called waste inks for a new job, the containers may sit undisturbed for months until management decides to clear stockroom shelves and throws them out. Losses from waste inks that are simply discarded can add up to hundreds of thousands of euros for a medium-sized printing operation. Sometimes printing companies will recoup some value from the waste inks by mixing them together to create a dark grey-brownish color that can replace the black component for blacktoned colours, especially in the yellow-reddish spectrum. The mixed ink isn’t as valuable as its constituent inks, but at least some money is recovered.
Creating a Profitable Re-mix
But there is another option for printers to recoup much of their investments in inks, thanks to advances in colour management technology. That’s according to Andrej Repar, technical director for Sun Chemical, the world’s largest producer of printing inks and pigments. He reports that by using a spectrophotometer and new software from X-Rite Inc geared specifically for ink formulations, one company was able to halve its stock of leftover inks in only a few months by remixing inks to fit specific new jobs. ‘Leftover inks are a fact of life in the printing industry, especially for companies that use large flexo and gravure presses that need to fill pipes, the ink chamber and pump sumps before a job is run,’ he says. ‘All of these voids in the press normally remain filled with ink even as the last sheet is run on the job.
Most jobs may take 10 to 15kg of one ink to fill the press, but that can add up to 80 to 120kg in leftover inks after each job for an eight-color flexo press. The flexo printing trade has adopted routine ways to use waste inks simply because so much loss is at stake, but offset printers are showing interest in the reuse of waste inks because they more frequently use spot colors, even though their equipment typically doesn’t require as much ink as flexo or gravure presses.’
Matching Colours to Make Savings
Most printers label a waste ink with a sample sheet of the last job and store the container with the hopes that the company will get a job requiring a similar colour soon. If they find a similar colour to the existing leftover, printers add basic colours to try to match the colour for the new job. ‘But matching colour by eye with leftover inks takes considerable time and skill, with a result that is still unpredictable in volume,’ he says. ‘The amount of re-matched ink can exceed the needed volume for a job, possibly generating a larger volume of
leftover. Or if the volume of mixed leftover colour one of the highest hurdles to is not enough successfully implementing the use for the of waste inks is the company’s whole approach to colour mixing and job, it’s difficult to matching reproduce the recipe.’
InkFormulation6’s Recipe for Success
According to Andrej, using the InkFormulation6 software from X-Rite Inc. and spectral data from leftover inks, a company can in many cases create a recipe of the target colour that uses waste inks and new inks to achieve the desired colour. ‘The economical impact of the InkFormulation6 software is significant,’ he says. ‘It’s difficult to give a general estimate of savings because they are so dependent on print technology, consumption, and other factors. But it’s clear from what our customers tell us that the InkFormulation6 software reduces stock kept as leftovers and reduces press set-up time significantly.’
Simple
and User Friendly for Fast Results
Andrej says that one of the highest hurdles to successfully implementing the use of waste inks is the company’s approach to colour mixing and matching. ‘Some managers believe that colour mixing is simple, merely taking the spectral data and making up a recipe from instructions on a computer screen,’ he says. ‘Even though the InkFormulation6 software is very user-friendly and accurate, it still requires skill at mixing the inks properly. Companies that put an experienced person who is familiar with computers in charge of a colour formulation programme to save waste inks show a high degree of success in the shortest possible time.’
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Irish Printer February 2013
COVER STORY
Diversify or Die? Company closures, consolidations and capacity culls have forced printers to restructure their businesses and reassess the type of service they are offering the market. This month Irish Printer talks to some companies to find out if there is a business model that printers should be adopting in these difficult times and if there really is still money to be made in print. Professional procurement and contract negotiation advisor, Gerry Ebbs of GAE Procurement Ltd points out that companies in the financial services sector are working on incentive schemes to get their members to cut down on print. ‘People are being encouraged and incentivised to accept annual reports online rather than having them printed and posted off,’ he says. ‘Irish Life and Permanent would have been issuing 150,000 annual reports and the last run I’m aware of was less than 20,000. Let those print companies that are in the business for the long-term form a group that reflects screen, litho, digital, flexo, security printing and other sectors, and talk with the representative bodies, such as the banking federation and ISME, to find out what their members’ priorities are over the next 18 months, three years and five years. The industry needs to find out how print fits into their plans so that it can compile a short, medium and longterm plan for print. The printing industry needs to understand what the real pressures are that the big print users are under and what printed material they need to hold. Compliance is probably one of the biggest cost drivers for most organisations. The level of document storage and attention that is required is a business opportunity for the print industry if they sit down and address it properly. The printing industry needs to look at taking on board a compliance specialist to see what the compliance requirements are of companies in different industries and to see how the good print companies can meet those requirements. There are records that all organisations have to hold in hard copy format for a number of years. Maybe printers could link up with companies that are in the information storage business (hard and soft copy) to provide the services that organisations want and
need in the current climate. Maybe the print industry could look at offering a data storage service to companies.’ Gerry says that the quality suppliers in the print industry need to put aside their differences and create a collective understanding that says ‘if we are going to survive what do we need to do to restructure ourselves and what services does the print industry need to provide over the next few years’. He says printers could also look at providing services to organisations in conjunction with companies from other industries. ‘Printers need to stop cutting one another’s throats by taking pricing to a level that is unsustainable,’ he says. ‘The lowest common denominator is the benchmark for everyone and if that is based on unsustainable rates it challenges the good providers as to why they aren’t providing the service at the same rate. They are not getting a proper hearing in that type of market. Woodprintcraft, Future Print, Craftprint and Gillespies are some of the really good companies that have gone to the wall. My concern is that in the competitive drive that is going on out there, there is a race to the bottom, and that has to impact on a business’s ability to give a full supported service.’ Fintan O’Connell, managing director of Inspire Design & Print, says his company’s focus is on design. ‘We would now describe ourselves as designers who have in-house printing facilities,’ he says. ‘It is quite clear that printing is a shrinking industry but I think the larger printers will always be with us. Moving from core competency is challenging and acquiring expertise in new areas isn’t without headaches and hard graft but the medium and smaller printers will have to broaden their offering.’ Is the printing industry engaging enough with the industries it serves to find out what their future print requirements are likely to be and what other related services they might be looking for? ‘I’m not sure there is a collective role,’ he says. ‘It is more up to individual businesses to listen to their customers and adapt accordingly.’ Snap’s chief executive officer John Eager says the management of social media platforms is a big business opportunity for printers. ‘The approach that we take to the market reflects the fact that our clients’
Irish Printer February 2013 marketing spends are diversifying so as a provider we should diversify our service offering to reflect and respond to that,’ he says. During the month of February Snap offered customers free social media integration with any website order and free digital marketing consultations. The company will be rolling out a wide range of new products in 2013, with different centres trialling different products at different times. ‘For example, we have our text SMS, social media, websites, wide format, promotional products, digital video, email, and e-publications,’ he says. ‘That is a sample of the new products being rolled out in 2013 and each centre is adopting one new product and leading on it. In that way we build up our competencies better and get better feedback on market testing. We are positioning a lot of the products on the digital marketing side under the website banner which is a more organised way of presenting it to the marketplace.’ Snap has 110 Dublin Bus buses around Dublin advertising its new services as well as buses in Cork, Galway and Limerick and there will be a particular focus on digital marketing when it comes to promoting the new services. One of those new services, in fact their newest service, is a product called responsive websites. ‘We are a very early entrant into this marketplace,’ says John. ‘A response website is a website that understands if you are on an iPhone or iPad or PC and gives you the appropriate layout. It automatically responds to the device that you are using and you get a layout specific to that device, including horizontal or vertical orientation, but the trick is that it is a single website. The client only pays once – they don’t have to buy a mobile app any more. We have a range of worldwide and Irish technology partners for all of our technology and they work with us to provide that particular service as well. Our own website - www. snap.ie - is a responsive website.’ Smart Text is another of Snap’s newest services. ‘With Smart Text we can convert a printed leaflet into a disposable webpage allowing the customer to text the web page to even more
COVER STORY
customers,’ says John. ‘There is a short URL code embedded in the text that links them to the disposal webpage where they can view images and the image is hyperlinked to the business. Responsive websites and Smart Text are available from all of our centres right now and we are advertising those services on outdoor adverting, radio and social media.’ John says that the Snap business model of the future will be a combination of print, design and digital marketing. ‘Our new logo is “Snap – Print, Design, Websites and More” and that follows a roughly similar change in Australia and New Zealand as well,’ he says. ‘Our business model will be the printer of the future in terms of the range of print services we are offering and the mix of online and offline services that we will provide. From the industry analysis we have done of the digital marketing suppliers and providers, it is exactly the same as the print industry, ie, very fragmented, so there is a place for a main brand in both industries and we are hoping to be that main brand. I don’t think that Snap will supply less print
but the marketing campaign is changing. It now combines online and offline channels so if we enable the online we also get the offline, print business. That is a major component of our strategy. Printers shouldn’t believe that print is dying. It is just the nature of print and how it fits into the new digital world that is changing. There is no doubt that newsprint and operational print will disappear but Frank Romano said in a speech in Washington in March 2011 that the one area of print that is continuing to develop is marketing print so it is a case of print changing, not dying.’ Stephen Murphy is managing director of Design Printworks. ‘We describe ourselves as a design, branding and marketing company,’ he says. ‘We don’t even mention print when describing what we do even though print is a high proportion of our business. 98% of our clients are at marketing or communications manager level in organisations so if you tell them you are a printer they see print as a commodity. In a marketplace of commodities only one thing differentiates and that is price. We don’t advertise Snap has 110 Dublin Bus buses around Dublin advertising its new services
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ourselves as printers for that reason because we want to compete on other fronts, namely quality. It is hard to put a label on what we do now but we are very different to what we were four years ago. We started as a digital printer and then added in design, copywriting, photography and other services. In the beginning our design service was basic but now our design is much more high-end, including annual reports and high quality catalogues. Essentially we can do what a full service design house would do without full service prices! We also offer direct marketing services. We would be involved from the design of the campaign right through to its completion and we can do quite a bit of highly personalised printing. We are always asking ourselves “what is our business model?” because the environment has changed so much in the last four years. We now see ourselves primarily as a marketing communications company because clients want a single company looking after them from A to Z. A lot of our clients would have used big design houses and agencies but they don’t have the budget to use them any more so when they come to us they can brief us, we can design a project from scratch, shoot it, print it, finish it and distribute it. They only have to talk to one company. The marketing communications company model can go as far as web design, which we have resisted.’ When it comes to the type of business model that printers should adopt in the current climate he says there is no one size fits all approach. ‘Printers come in all shapes and sizes but I believe that smaller, lean businesses that can offer niche services will fare best in the current climate,’ he says. ‘When we have large runs we subcontract them out to trade printers and that works best for us. From our experience the industry is similar to what it was even before the crash, albeit there are a lot fewer players and people have reduced their cost base. I don’t know if printers are embracing new technologies and offering new services but we certainly have because our clients demanded it.’
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Irish Printer February 2013
recess i on b u sters
Print Manager Targets the Tourism Market By Maev Martin
ing had already sold 400 maps to a number of retailers, including House of Names outlets on Fleet Street and Nassau Street, the Heraldic Artists shop on Nassau Street, and
Co Dublin-based print management company Impression Design and Print Management is celebrating 31 years in business this year by expanding its operations into a completely new and novel market – the production of personalised heraldry maps. Last month Impression Design and Print’s managing director Paul McCourt registered a separate company, McCourt Publishing, to provide the new service to customers. McCourt Publishing is currently printing B1 Irish Family Name posters/maps with crests and supplying them to a wide range of retail and tourist outlets. Paul has collected 1,300 Irish family crests in total and 938 of them are on their Irish Family Name map. ‘I have been collecting family crests for the past six years,’ says Paul. ‘I have 1,300 Irish crests, 1,500 English crests, and about 1,500 French and 1,500 German crests which represent the most commonplace names in those Over 900 Irish Coats of Arms countries. The checking Includes Family Origins Map and proofing of the crests took several months but we waited until we had all Mc Court Publishing Made In Ireland of the information we required to get the products onto the market quickly and to ensure that we could Irish Family Names cover then roll out variations of that product over an eight to Currans Heraldry in Adare and Shannon. 10 month period. There will be an English, ‘The artwork for the maps has cost thouScottish and Welsh map available in the next sands of euro but if you discount the cost of three months – we are currently at the artthat I’m already into profit. And the tourist work stage on those. We are also in discusmarket has yet to kick in - I expect that will sions about French and German versions so really happen on and after 17 March,’ says we are actively looking for distributors and Paul. ‘There are so many potential business sales agents. We will be targeting the US and opportunities with this product. The retail Australia this year and we will be going into outlets that I have already sold the maps to France and Germany with this product in have put in orders for English, Scottish and 2014.’ Welsh maps already so it’s nice to have print Although Paul had only been selling the orders a year in advance for a change!’ maps for a fortnight at the time of our conThe product is essentially a B1 map with versation on 6 February, McCourt PublishMURPHY
QUINN
MURRAY
LYNCH
KELLY
O SULLIVAN
WALSH
SMITH
cover and McCourt Publishing can offer a generic or personalised map. ‘I can deliver a personalised B1 map anywhere in the world, including postage, for less than €20, which is very cheap,’ says Paul. ‘Turner Print Group in Longford printed 2,000 maps for us and they did a great job. They printed 1,000 on 170gsm Silk paper and the other half on 150gsm Silk paper for the international postage as it keeps the rate down. The cover is 350gsm Silk. There is a tipped in booklet on 120gsm Bond paper. As the business evolves and sales volumes increase, I would hope that we will have an ongoing relationship with Turners on the print side of the business. We are currently hand gluing on the map covers ourselves but when the bulk orders come in we will be shipping them to a hand gluing house.’ Paul’s wife Orlaith MacCourt did most of the design on the map and cover in conjunction with four other designers based in Ireland and overseas. ‘I outsource everything – buying machinery and employing people is not cost effective,’ he says. ‘Orlaith and I are the only people directly employed by Impression Design and Print and McCourt Publishing. Everyone else employed by our businesses is on a contract basis, including our four sales agents.’ McCourt Publishing’s website – www. FamilyNamePoster.com – will be launched at the end of February/early March and it will allow the user to personalize the covers on the maps or the heading on the map and order online. ‘With the family names map, where it says at the top “Irish Family Names” the text and images can be dropped out of this box and we can drop in a photo, text or logo and it can all be done online,’ says Paul. ‘If a family name or crest is not
Irish Family Names
KENNEDY
DOHERTY
GALLAGHER
Mc CARTHY
Mc COURT
MOORE
IRISH FAMILY CRESTS COVER D5.indd 1
O LOUGHLIN
CARROLL
CONNOLLY
DALY
O BRIEN
BYRNE
RYAN
O CONNOR
O NEILL
O REILLY
DOYLE
17/01/2013 17:56
Irish Printer February 2013 included in our collection of crests we can print individual maps featuring that crest and its location in Ireland and the map can be manufactured to any size on a wide range of materials, from poster paper to stretched canvas or vinyl. We did a deal with our website developer whereby he gets a percentage of the sale price of the maps which was a cost effective way to pay for the web developer’s services. We were being quoted prices of €5,000 to €6,000 for website development which was out of our price range. If this arrangement works – if the site looks good, the developer sets up the right Search Engine Optimisation tool and more sales come in as a result – the developer earns more money. We have taken a “low basic and high commission” approach which is a great incentive for any salesman. So our website developer is also a sales agent for the McCourt Publishing operation.’ McCourt Publishing will also be setting up a site in March dedicated to Irish Printed Products. ‘If any printer or designer has a product that they want to market through our website or distribution network then they should talk to me,’ says Paul. ‘If we think the idea has merit then we will advertise and sell it. If a printer wants to print and supply that’s ok or if a designer wants us to print the items we can do that too. We can sell mass produced items such as posters, books, prints etc. or we can sell digitally printed items, for example, a poster with space for a customer to drop in personalised text or images. We hired a few members of Lucan photography club to go around Dublin and take photographs of doors. They came back with 350 high resolution images, much more than we could ever use, and it cost us less than the cost of a professional photographer for a day. We are selling the “Georgian Doors of Dublin” poster as a pre-printed item but we are also selling the option of allowing clients to upload their own photo and drop it into a designated space on the poster. This is then digitally printed on a large format digital press and shipped
recess i on b u sters
Irish Family Names map
directly to the client in a postal tube. At the time of writing, “Georgian Doors of Dublin” is going to press shortly, all designed and printed in Ireland.’ Paul says that by January 2014 McCourt Publishing will have a number of its own items selling on this website. ‘There are great opportunities for 1916-2016 and 1922-2022 related items,’ he says. ‘We have a number of items for “The Rising” anniversary at first draft stage. Fortunately we
have access to some fantastic photos from this time, such as Mountjoy Square and Lord Edward Street images.’ (see page 18) Apart from dedicated websites, McCourt Publishing has also set up a Facebook page to promote the new products and the page had reached 397 likes in the space of a week and a half without any promotion. McCourt Publishing has sold county and provincial crests to COH Suppliers in Castleblayney who sell to Dunnes
17
Stores, SuperValu and Centra. ‘They are licensed to use the crests from us and they are using them on different products,’ says Paul. ‘The county and provincial crests are in the public domain but if someone uses them without our approval we have a printed copy of the original that is in the public domain. We have changed the crests so if someone scans our artwork we know immediately and we can take legal action. I digitally printed 90 separate map covers
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Irish Printer February 2013
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for it. With the worldwide web you get a much broader reach in a short timeframe and in a cost effective manner and with the evolution of digital printing you have options for personalisation.’ Some printing companies have coped with reducing volumes and margins in the traditional print business by moving out of the business altogether but some, like Impression, have decided to move into other print-related or non-print areas. ‘Margins in the print management business
British Troops cordon off Mountjoy in 1916
with individual family crests for a corporate client. He has been handing them to his clients and
to all of the tourist outlets and operators including the big names such as Jameson Whiskey,
Paul McCourt of McCourt Publishing
he has got a great reaction from them. We are also in discussion with wedding companies to have a family crest cover with the crest of the bride and groom as the cover on the wedding booklet.’ Paul was delighted when The Gathering initiative was announced last year. ‘The timing is great for our new business,’ he says. ‘I will be talking to the organisers of The Gathering soon, who are based on Amiens Street in Dublin, about a possible link-in. We are also talking
Guinness, Cooley Distillery, Avoca, Blarney Woollen Mills and Kilkenny Design Centre. These are just some of the major brands and organisations that could or should be interested in the product. With Guinness, they are asking us to look at providing a personalization solution for printed materials and I’m talking to Xerox at the moment about providing a solution to Guinness’s requirements. I’m also talking to petrol stations about doing a free map giveaway and I’m targeting the
Easons shops and retailers at Dublin Airport and Shannon Airport, including the book and souvenir shops.’ Paul says that McCourt Publishing doesn’t have a competitor to its product in Ireland. ‘There are similar products but nothing in the same league as ours – we have taken a theme that is out there and improved it tenfold,’ he says. ‘There are maps with crests but the print quality isn’t great and they aren’t very attractive. Also the locations that are outlined in the map for the family name are historically accurate. We have been compiling the information on the location of the family names off genealogical and historical sites over the past six years and we have also been collecting the crests over that timeframe. The McCourt family has been designing and printing heraldic scrolls and maps for many generations. Back in 1968 my dad worked for Browne and Nolan in Glasnevin and he used to print maps there and he continued to print maps when he set up his own company, Task Print in Naas. I always wanted to produce my own maps and I also knew that there was a market
Lord Edward Street
are ok but the level of business is dropping off,’ says Paul. ‘There isn’t the same level of volume in the market that there was a few years ago and you need volume to create margins. The doctors’ detail aids give doctors all the information they require on the impact and side effects of particular medicines – we used to print two or three of those leaflets a week but that work is gone because the sales representative goes through the information with the doctor using their iPad or some other handheld mobile device. That change has knocked €10,000 to €15,000 off my business in the last 12 months. Holiday brochures are another area that has experienced a drop off in volumes. The print run on the biggest brochure that we produce is now 20,000 copies and it would have been 50,000 copies. The print market is shrinking. If you don’t find or create your own market you are in trouble so that is what I’m doing with McCourt’s Irish Heraldry Map and with the other tourism-related products that we have planned.’
Irish Printer February 2013
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New Services, New Customers & New Markets 2012 appears to have been a busy and profitable year for the providers of Management Information Systems (MIS) to the Irish printing industry and 2013 is shaping up to be another successful year, with new product launches, new installations and new markets on the horizon. Maev Martin reports. Dublin-based Wildcard Software develops and upgrades its Printlogic MIS software on an ongoing basis. Some of the recent changes they have made to the software include a web ordering facility, an online interactive training module which guides users through the software, a stock and warehousing control module, and a production/floor screen facility. 2012 was a very fruitful year for Wildcare Software. With their new telemarketing team in place, they rolled out their first major marketing campaign in July and managing director Geoff Needham says that the campaign has led to a considerable increase in the number of new clients now using Printlogic as their print management system. In August they rolled out Printlogic in England. ‘The response to our system in the English market has been great and in December we introduced our new website, which allows interested parties to book demonstrations or avail of our 30-day free trial,’ he says. ‘We have signed up around 30 print and promotional customers since the start of quarter 3 last year. Those customers include Indian Fields, Definition Print and 3 Rock in Dublin, Media Design & Print in Belfast, and Verve, Aurora and IsIs in the UK. We expect to sign up 100 plus customers in the UK and Ireland this year. We’ve got off to a good start this year with 10 customers signed up so far – these
include A&J Print in Meath and Serla Print in Dublin and Limerick - and we are on target to double our client base this year. Certainly, if the number of clients choosing our 30-day free trial is anything to go by we will reach our target earlier than expected this year.’ Geoff says they are ‘delighted’ with the feedback they are getting from their clients who are choosing Printlogic. ‘That could be feedback from clients who have never used an MIS system before or from customers moving from larger, more cumbersome, systems to Printlogic,’ he says. ‘We find people are driven to choose Printlogic for many reasons but mostly because of the ease of use of the package, the customisation to the individual requirements of the user, the free training and flexibility of the online training, the free continuous upgrading of the system, the online ordering facility, the fact that the system can be used on a Mac or PC, and because the system is competitively priced and doesn’t involve a large initial outlay.’ Geoff says they probably won’t attend big exhibitions this year but Wildcard Software will be involved in smaller trade shows in Ireland with Neopost Ireland and other companies, which will take place in March and April. ‘We will be introducing the Printlogic MIS to the Scottish and Welsh markets early this year and we also have plans to increase our telemarketing and IT/support operations during the year,’ he says. ‘We did have some major launches in 2012 at drupa and one of them has been road tested by Anglo Printers – we launched a tablet device application called Cloud mobile which integrates fully with Optimus. It is all driven by the Dash calculation engine which we launched at Ipex
2010 and that has transformed our business. The tablet device introduced last year is really taking off and we are adding more features to that. Campaign Manager, Sales Manager and Contract Manager are new modules that we have added to the Optimus MIS and we launched these at drupa. These new modules are all about helping our customers to drive revenue. Part of our big message at drupa was that an MIS isn’t just a production tool but powerful information and data about your customers’ buying habits. MIS is more than just producing an estimate, creating the job bag and the invoice – printers should use the information contained in the MIS to do a targeted campaign of activity to incentivise orders for specific types of work. The Campaign Manager and Sales Manager modules are about getting printers to see MIS as a tool that drives sales and revenue and helps you to better understand your customer base.’ Steve Richardson of Optimus is keen to point out that their MIS can handle all printing technologies whereas a lot of MIS systems are only geared for offset litho. ‘We have about eight sites in Ireland using the Optimus MIS software,’ he says. ‘I’d like to get another three or four installations in Ireland this year – if we could get one a quarter we would be really happy. We are currently in discussion with a lot of printers in Ireland and we are particularly keen to do business with some of the smaller printers. There seems to be a greater desire in the Irish market to start investing again. We are finding that Irish print companies are looking more strategically at how people can work smarter and at how technology can liberate them from those mundane and time-wasting day-to-day tasks.’
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Optimus secured an order with Dublin-based PMG Laminating a few months ago who have recently gone live with their Optimus MIS system. ‘They are absolutely delighted with the results they have got so far,’ says Steve. ‘They are experiencing huge time-saving and cash flow benefits for their business. The system we installed at PMG Laminating is our Optimus Dash MIS – it is our Optimus MIS with a Dash interface at the front end. Our MIS is about reflecting and adapting to the processes that exist within individual print companies and not about the logic of the MIS service provider. With Dash you can create an environment that reflects the reality of a customer’s business.’ Optimus secured two major orders at Fespa 2012 – a large UK installation and their first Optimus Dash installation in Sweden for a wide format house called The Big Image Company. ‘They couldn’t find an MIS solution to suit their needs in Sweden and we actually found out that they were looking for an MIS with specific requirements via LinkedIn,’ he says. ‘We are finding that a lot of our newer customers have a large format digital operation and they will go to shows like Fespa and Sign and Digital UK but not necessarily Ipex or drupa so Fespa is an important show for us.’ Securing finance to fund capital investments has been an ongoing struggle for Irish print companies. Steve says that banks are even more reluctant to lend money for software investments than they are for capital investments. ‘That seems to be a trend in all countries,’ he says. ‘We have shown print companies the workflow savings that the software can bring and they can see how they will get their money back but convincing the banks is a different story. We have dealt with many profitable vibrant businesses that are looking to expand and they are not getting the help they need from the high street lending institution and that is because a lot of these
lending houses don’t understand software. This is something that we have come across quite a lot since the credit crunch. However, lending has started to ease up in the UK in the last 12 months and banks are becoming more forward thinking, which is good because the market needs liquidity. If successful companies are struggling to get credit we are all stuck.’ Primo is the latest version of Tharstern’s MIS software. However, the company is adding to its product offering. On 26 March Tharstern will host an event for its customers at the Hilton Hotel in Burton Upon Trent in the UK where they will launch their new mobile estimating app for the iPad. ‘The theme of the event is “Time is Money” and every client attending the event will receive a free year’s subscription for up to five users,’ says Tharstern’s Ross Edwards. ‘In November we launched an add-on product to our estimating module called Estimate Pro but the extension of this is our Tharstern app which is driven by the MIS. With the Tharstern app, the printer is creating a quote in the Tharstern system while they are on site with the client so they are responding to an enquiry there and then, which takes away the time barrier and gives them a better opportunity to close the sale. The idea of Estimate Pro is to speed up the quotation process because so many printers are under pressure to get prices back to clients as quickly as possible. It is often a race to get the quote back first as that can sometimes win the order, not the price. Estimate Pro could be described as an intelligent estimating system – it looks at all of the kit that the printer has and compares the pricing of all the production methods for that product. In doing that Estimate Pro looks at price in a number of ways, for example, it looks at the best price for the customer, the best margin to you as a business etc, so it helps you to choose the most competitive option. In addition, Estimate Pro removes the need for the printer or the estimator to have
extensive experience of and training in print. Because the software is so sophisticated, you could allow your administrator or sales reps to produce quotes.’ Ross says that the last financial year has been one of Tharstern’s most successful years in terms of customer growth in Ireland. ‘We have completed a number of installations in recent months, including Label World, Fine Print and Esmark Finch,’ he says. ‘We have in the region of 70 plus customers in Ireland and we are engaged with quite a few new business enquiries. A significant amount of existing customers have upgraded their Tharstern software and the level of enquiries has really increased in Ireland and that is because printers are under pressure to work more efficiently.’ Tharstern will be hoping to develop their Irish customer base further following their roadshows, which will take place in Belfast and Dublin in early June.
What Printers Want from an MIS
‘Printers want lots of little features to make their life easier, such as emailing an invoice rather than having to print it out, and web shop integration, and we have that in our software,’ says Geoff Needham. ‘We are a lot less expensive than some of our competitors and the user can be up and running on our software in a couple of days and the charges are very modest. Our view is that both big and small printers need simple software that their staff can use. We don’t support JDF and we can count on one hand the number of people who have asked us for it. The theory of it is good but you need to be a really big company to make that investment. Our experience is that people want simple and inexpensive software because they don’t have hours to spend operating it.’ Ross Edwards of Tharstern points out that
RedTie – Online ordering of print is in rapid growth Web-to-print supplier RedTie is launching its first major software update of the year this month. The company has completely rewritten its design view feature to allow printers to get products on their web stores much faster. ‘We have also added in some other new features that printers can offer their customers,’ says managing director Jamie Thompson. ‘Ease of use is the big feature that printers are looking for from web-to-print software. Ongoing support and training in using the system is also very important. Printers are finding ways to use our software that weren’t even imagined when it was first developed so flexibility is also crucial. Before a printer even looks at any solution that is out there, they should have a list of what they would like the web-to-print software to do and then look to see what system most closely matches their requirements. The printer must decide what type of customer they will use
web-to-print with. The next step is to talk to the software supplier to see what they can offer that meets their needs. Every market we operate in throughout the world is at different stages of web-to-print adoption. In the US many of our customers know exactly what web-to-print is and have online strategies. In the UK and Europe we are further behind and that is the case in Ireland in particular - only a very small percentage of Irish printers have an online strategy. Irish customers make up around 5% of our total customer base. We have offices in the US, Australia and the UK and we also have resellers in other regions but most of our customer base is in those countries. We are happy with how we are progressing in Ireland but we have to wait for the market to want to move online and be there with the features they require when they are ready to do that.’ Jamie believes that, for certain customers, integration of their
MIS systems with a web-to-print solution is becoming increasingly important. ‘It is not as essential at low volumes but as volumes pick up it becomes an absolute necessity,’ he says. ‘Last year we developed a product – a graphic XML Editor - to make integration easy and cost-effective for the printer to develop their own integration. It creates feeds from our system that can be delivered in various ways to other pieces of software, reducing integration from days of work to a single day’s work. It takes time to create big volumes through web-to-print but the internet will become more important to businesses. HMV and Blockbuster went bankrupt because they had no online strategy so the signs are out there that printers should be looking at this new avenue to sell their products. If print is in decline the online ordering of print is in rapid growth so it is something that all printers will have to have in their arsenal at some point.’
Irish Printer February 2013 estimating is becoming much more competitive and that this was a key driver for their launching Estimate Pro and their mobile app. ‘Being competitive isn’t just about the price that is produced but about responding more quickly and being able to reduce the overhead involved in that,’ he says. ‘You still need a skilled estimating team but Estimate Pro means other staff in the business can produce a quote for the client. Another key driver is integration and automation – tying up the administration and the production workflow together using JDF. 2004 was probably the advent of JDF because that was the JDF drupa. Now JDF is more of a commercial reality and many printers, big and small, are moving to JDF workflows. JDF isn’t necessarily the full solution but it might be that you just integrate with your pre-press and use traditional data collection for post-press. We have a handful of customers in Ireland who have sophisticated JDF workflows and we have other customers in Ireland who are looking at incorporating it.’ Steve Richardson of Optimus says printers are looking for the next level up in terms of flexibility. ‘There has been a lot of emphasis on workflow but the print community hasn’t necessarily got to grips with it,’ he says. ‘We are seeing that the typical print customer has a mixed environment – a bit of litho, some digital, and some wide format – and they need to be able to handle all of that in the one system.
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Another trend is that printers are driving work into their factories in a lot quicker and slicker fashion and the ones doing that are making more money. Everyone has an expectation that runs will be shorter, more personalised and often jobs will require delivery on the same day. If printers want the business they need processes that can handle the speed and efficiency that their customers expect and that is where Optimus Dash comes into its own. If printers don’t just see MIS as a calculator that creates a quote that comes out as an invoice but as a tool to track customers’ buying habits, then they have something to generate revenue with and I think you will see more and more printers thinking that way. However, there is still a huge responsibility on the MIS community to provide good information that informs printers of the benefits of MIS software.’
MIS & Web-to-Print
Web to print is a big trend in the UK and Ireland. Steve Richardson says that if a customer has a web-to-print system of choice Optimus will link into it. ‘We launched our own webto-print system, Cloud, at drupa 2012 and it is linked to our MIS so it is very powerful,’ he says. ‘Web-to-print providers are very good at providing an environment where people can personalise and order products but the MIS
vendor can help them do that and give them access to historical data and get that work straight into their MIS system.’ Tharstern have introduced a new version of their own web to print solution called e4Print Pro. ‘e4Print allows the printer to present each of their clients with their own unique and personalised website as a front-end to their MIS,’ says Ross Edwards. ‘This powerful e-commerce solution empowers your customers to take control of their own print requirements, while saving their staff time and reducing the costs to process jobs. As easy as ordering their shopping on-line and from the comfort of their own desk, printers’ customers can build their own instant quotes, upload their artwork and documents to create jobs on-line, order standard catalogue items and generate their own variable data items. It offers not just Web2print but other online services such as fulfilment services and stock management. We have also integrated with a product called Chilli Publish. It is now fully embedded into e4print Pro, offering opportunities varying from simple business card templates and comprehensive design capabilities to soft proofing and through to mail merge. The integration with Chilli Publish allows us to offer a range of variable data and document creation capabilities. We offer ePrint Pro and Chilli Publish as hosted services for the customer.’
PRIMO , cutting through your workload ®
81460
PRIMO is Tharstern’s enterprise Management Information System providing all the tools needed to run and manage a printing business.
MIS SOLUTIONS FOR PRINT +44 (0) 1282 860 660
info@tharstern.com
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www.tharstern.com
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Irish Printer February 2013
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Tallaght Company in Label Printing First for UK & Ireland On 27 December last, three articulated trucks arrived at the premises of Label Art in Tallaght carrying the components of a Gallus 10colour EMS430 SW combination press, the first of its kind in the UK and Ireland. The 15.5 tonne press is just shy of 20 metres long and its delivery and subsequent installation represents a €1.5m investment for the company. Label Art’s ability to invest in a press of this type shows that Ireland can be a technological leader as well as a follower when it comes to print. It is also a strong vote of confidence in the future of our industry, following hot on the heels of other significant investments in the commercial print and packaging sectors, which were reported on in the last issue of Irish Printer. This month Maev Martin talks to Label Art’s sales director Gerard Molloy about what makes this new press so unique. ‘The press had been assembled and tested prior to delivery and was then dismantled, and re-assembled into a running state when it arrived at our factory. The re-assembly process took about 10 days,’ says Gerard. ‘The press was then tested and over a period of another 10 days our print operators continued training in the use of the new model.’ Label Art spent most of 2012 validating different manufacturers’ presses before making their final choice. ‘First, we looked at the different presses available on the market and we examined their “claims to fame” which involved visits to view the machines in action. During those visits we challenged those “claims to fame” by running specific jobs on the presses to evaluate their performance. We tested a number of areas, including set up time, set up waste, run speed, register control, and the changeover time from screen
Label Art’s Gallus 10-colour EMS430 SW Combination press
to flexo, for example. This new press impressed us in all these critical areas, and particularly the changeover time from flexo to screen due to its hybrid print stations, i.e., the same printhead can run flexo or silkscreen with a quick four minute modification. It is the only press on the market with that capability. Also, when we change from silkscreen to flexo we don’t have to break the web, another time-saving feature. It can print flexo, silkscreen, hot foil, cold foil, reverse print and emboss all in one pass.’ The press went into production at Label Art in the third week in January and has already yielded huge production efficiencies for the company. ‘With running speeds on the press of around 150 metres per minute we can achieve up to eight times better productivity than on the six colour and eight colour Gallus presses it replaces,’ says Gerard. ‘The press employs sleeve technology for fast changes so we can change plates in a minute
and colour change takes two minutes. For example, if we stop a job and change six plates in the job, between 40 and 50 metres is all it takes for a complete changeover to take place and for us to be back up and running. Downtime is what costs money but with this new press, once one job stops the next job is ready and the press is up and running in minutes. The press is challenging our digital print process. Some of the digital business that we would have put on our digital presses because of the quick changes required has now moved to this new press, so that creates a new challenge for us and for digital technology.’ The press can handle all materials, including unsupported film, i.e., non-self-adhesive product. ‘We have run 20 micron film through the press and can print on substrates up to 400 micron thick,’ says Gerard. ‘Its servo drive system and the chilled roller system make it easy to run thin film substrates. The press
also has automatic register technology, which can be controlled from a central control screen that can move up and down the press, instead of a fixed control point. This gives the operator great flexibility in running the press.’ This isn’t the first time in Label Art’s 33-year history that it has pioneered a new print technology. In 2005 Label Art installed Ireland’s first digital label press - an HP Indigo 4050 – and they installed a second HP Indigo 4500 in 2011. ‘We have grown our digital capability very successfully,’ says Gerard. Label Art’s 35,000 square foot premises in Tallaght Industrial Estate also includes their sister digital print company, LA Digital. ‘We also run a Lean Manufacturing programme at Label Art and the first thing that the lean approach tends to look at in a company is the reduction of waste,’ he says. ‘But there is more to lean manufacturing than just waste reduction – it means streamlining all systems,
Irish Printer February 2013 from order entering to pre-press, to printing, to customer service and delivery. However, when you address all of those areas you can only optimise performance within the limits of the technology that you are working with. Of course, when you reach that stage or limit it doesn’t mean that the lean manufacturing process is over – it means where to next? Is there a technological change we can make to further improve the process? That is where this new press comes in. With the EMS430 SW we are moving to servo-driven, hybrid technology - the state-of-the-art web transport concept with servo drive technology ensures top print quality on a variety of substrates. Everything is controlled by servo motors. We were the first in the label printing industry to install a digital press in the Irish market and now we are the first company in both Ireland and the UK to install an EMS430 SW press.’ Another attractive and key feature of the Gallus EMS430 SW model is that it uses a short web path, thus keeping material usage to an absolute minimum. Apart from the new 10 colour Gallus combination press, Label Art operate two Comco presses - an eight-colour and a four-colour, and two eight-colour Gallus silkscreen, letterpress and foil blocking combination presses. ‘We took out two Gallus presses to put in the new press and that still leaves us with twice as much capacity as we had before we took out those presses,’ says Gerard. Label Art’s technological innovation isn’t confined to its machinery investments. Two years ago they introduced SecuriNan, a nano-based technology product which they have successfully supplied to a number of their clients. SecuriNan is a covert, invisible technology that Label Art introduces into labels for companies to help them protect their products against counterfeiting. ‘Clients that have availed of this product are from various market sectors, from automotive to pharmaceutical,’ says Gerard. ‘It can be used to protect brands in all market sectors. Incorporating this technology doesn’t involve any
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design changes to a label and we will supply the client with a scanner for their own validation purposes. We work with a UK-based technology company to provide this product. They had proven nano-based technology which they were using for other projects and we took it and spent a year and a half developing it for use in labels. Counterfeiting affects quite a number of markets so anyone determined to protect their product should embrace this technology in their labelling. Failure to protect brands can have huge financial implications for a company so brand protection is an important market for us and for our clients.’ Apart from a range of anti-counterfeit products, Label Art produces self-adhesive labels, heat seal lidding, non-adhesive tags and sachets. Pharmaceutical, healthcare, medical devices, chemicals, beverages, automotive, electronics and brand protection are key markets for the company. ‘We have experienced strong growth in demand for labels across all the sectors that we serve, but it has been particularly strong in the pharmaceutical, medical devices and chemicals markets,’ says Gerard. Label Art also provides a number of added value and ancillary services to its customers, as required, which help them manage their internal stocks and their delivery schedules. ‘We provide Vendor Managed Inventory, which is essentially supply chain management for clients,’ says Gerard. ‘We ship, track, trace and issue reports for some of our clients, and for other clients we visit and view their production plan and then ship in accordance with the requirements of that plan, and it is all done electronically. In addition, we also ship consignment stock. Instead of shipping an order for say, half a million labels and looking for payment, we bill them for it on a monthly or weekly basis, which helps our customers with their cash flow. For one of our customers we ship to about 1,200 locations and every roll is logged, tagged and controlled by us.’ Gerard says the main trends in packaging and labelling at the moment are reducing
The HP Indigo 4050 press
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the carbon footprint, reducing landfill and having a degree of recyclability. ‘From the food industry to the logistics industry, and so many other industries in between, it is all about highlighting an organisation’s or brand’s green credentials,’ he says. ‘Reducing or offsetting a company’s carbon footprint was the popular environmental concern a few years ago but it is now all about recycling and land fill reduction. We are being asked more and more about whether our paper is sourced from a managed forest and about how much of our product is recyclable. Also landfill has become very expensive, and that is driving companies to look for thinner products with less material. The trend regarding materials is thinner, thinner, thinner. The focus for self-adhesive labels is to make the label itself and the backing as thin as possible. We are now seeing a move from paper liner to polyliners or plastic labels which can be recycled. We are supplying some companies with a recyclable backing paper or liner on the label. That trend is very popular but the recycling operations are currently based in Europe. As demand increases for recyclable materials, the need for easier access to recycling will increase.’ Print runs for a Label Art customer vary between 100 labels and one hundred million. ‘We run variable shifts – our standard operation is a double shift Monday to Friday but we can run 12-hour shifts at short notice and we have Saturdays and Sundays as well so we have plenty of available capacity,’ says Gerard. ‘We have to be able to respond quickly to peaks in demand. There has been a drive in the market to shorten print runs, and to order less more often, and the new press is a great response to that trend. Customers are trying to reduce their inventory and digital feeds the short-run, multiple copy, printon-demand market but digital has a limit and runs out of steam at roughly a couple of thousand linear metres. Digital is still not at a stage where it can take over from conventional printing in the label printing arena. It can still do things that conventional print can’t, such as personalisation. But when the label market thinks of personalisation it thinks of individualisation, where each label has an individual code or number. Digital is perfect for that. It is Label Art’s intention to make further equipment investments and our next investment will probably be in the next generation of digital press. Digital is an important part of our business and it is crucial to some of our key customers that we have the latest digital technology. There is some pretty exciting stuff happening behind the scenes in terms of future printing technologies, particularly digital technologies. If what we understand is imminent is actually made commercially available then it will be game-changing technology for the printing industry globally.’
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P a per ta l k
Antalis UK Now Stocks UPM Raflatac Antalis UK announced this month that it is now the exclusive stockists for the UPM Raflatac self-adhesive labelstock products. This new edition of the UPM Raflatac brand complements Antalis UK’s existing offering of graphic adhesive products. The UPM Raflatac brand includes a range of coated and uncoated, opaque, semi-gloss/ gloss and filmic grades with permanent, extra permanent, removable and ultra removable adhesives. In addition, there is a full range of digital papers and synthetics in SRA3 for HP Indigo (approved) and high speed laser printing. Each grade has been designed to offer properties suitable for specific applications
ranging from EDP, address and ID labelling requiring fine line definition, label grades for high speed laser and toner-based printers and more durable synthetic products in Clear and White for industrial and retail labelling requirements. Antalis has also been appointed as a UK stockist for International Paper’s HP Everyday Papers range with effect from January 2013. International Paper has the global exclusive agreement to manufacture HP Everyday Papers. The appointment will see Antalis stocking the HP Everyday, HP Office, HP
Printing and HP Colour Laser ranges. The HP Everyday Papers range covers all office printing applications, from single to full colour printing on both laser and inkjet printers and is the perfect match for use with HP original inks and toners. The HP Everyday Paper range has high environmental credentials, with its 75gsm A4 grade available with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accreditation. The HP Everyday Papers range is also PEFC certified and several products in the range also offer the EU Eco-Flower environmental accreditation.
UPM Plans to Reduce 580,000 tonnes of graphic paper capacity in Europe UPM is planning to permanently reduce paper capacity in Europe by a further 580,000 tonnes. The capacity reductions are planned to take place in Finland, Germany and France. In early January UPM finalised the employee consultation process in UPM Stracel, France, implying a reduction of 270,000 tonnes of coated magazine paper capacity. With UPM Stracel and the plans announced on 17 January, UPM would have reduced its graphic paper capacity in 2013 by a total of approximately 850,000 tonnes. UPM is planning a permanent closure of paper machine 3 at UPM Rauma mill in Finland, a permanent closure of paper
machine 4 at UPM Ettringen in Germany, a sale or other exit of UPM Docelles mill in France and, subject to further analysis, streamlining in the Paper Business and UPM’s global functions. If all plans are implemented, UPM’s personnel will be reduced by approximately 860 persons. The plan would affect several countries. According to the plan the Rauma and Ettringen machine lines would be permanently closed by the end of the first half of 2013. Both machines are producing uncoated magazine paper, in total 420,000 tonnes annually. The process for selling the UPM Docelles mill will start immediately and will be given a
maximum of six months. The Docelles mill is producing uncoated woodfree papers, 160,000 tonnes annually. Regarding the Paper Business Group and global functions streamlining, the process will start after further analysis as of the beginning of February 2013. Including UPM Stracel, the plans are estimated to result in annual fixed cost savings of €90m. UPM says that the paper machines targeted for closure are either at the end of their technical age, have limited product flexibility or poor profitability and that they need to adjust their capacity ‘to the level of profitable customer demand’.
Irish Printer February 2013
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Two Sides Tackles Google’s Anti-Print Stance Two Sides is an initiative by companies from the graphic communications supply chain to promote the responsible production and use of print and paper, and dispel common environmen-
Dear Mr Schmidt
tal misconceptions by providing users with verifiable information on why print and paper is an attractive, practical and sustainable communications medium. Two Sides recently sent an open
letter to Eric Schmidt of Google highlighting concerns that the company (and others) is trying to promote its services as environmentally preferable to print and paper when there is evidence
that electronic communication has a significant environmental footprint. The letter is as follows:
Paperless in ment to consumers to ‘Go s of Google’s encourage new is intended the ably y sum ulit pre red t inc tha e We read with som trees and US recycling data of s ure pict erless2013. by ied .pap ww pan om ing paperless’. http://w 2013’. This initiative is acc s that will arise from ‘go Manilla, an efit ice; ben l serv nta fax me ine iron onl env an ax, to highlight the sed organisations HelloF -ba US reporting e by ens ject exp pro ine the onl in service; Expensify, an org/. Google is joined HelloSign, an e-signature ap scanner. ice; nSn serv Sca nt the me es age mak man ich online bill and Fujitsu, wh iness accounting service; service; Xero, an online bus initiative is clearly to be admired, this new delivered by Google are ices ing campaign to ket serv mar and d ts use duc foc pro lly While the n using an environmenta atio anis org facts: Google’s ted the r eres side -int environment. Let’s con another example of a self g its own impact upon the ity a year. This tric orin ign elec of ile s wh our ices t-h serv wat its kilo promote uses 2.3 billion er use act is astounding. Google Buildings. Data centre pow own environmental imp or about 41 Empire State r, yea one for es hom would power 207,000 US electricity consumption. per cent of the US’s annual accounts for roughly two twhole additional kilowat ical data centre, nearly a typ a in a g ing nin put bur com to for ent used s on Google are equival For every kilowatt-hour utes of ting systems. 100 searche hea min and 100 e. ling xid coo dio g on nin carb hour is used for run electricity and 20gms of tricity minutes, using 0.03Kwh s, using 0.02 Kwh of elec 60watt light bulb for 20 light bulb for 13 minute att 60w a g es 1.2kg of nin erat bur to gen ent and r ival yea equ ry is eve eo YouTube vid uses 2.2Kwh energy xide. Every Gmail user and 13gms of carbon dio carbon dioxide. te of the municipal solid was est growing component fast l the tota now the is n tha aste er e-w fast t es Greenpeace highlights tha t a year, almost three tim , with 20-50 ing at three to five per cen ntly reas inc rece is ed aste ket roc e-w sky ope stream. In Eur arded globally has ipal of electronic products disc five per cent of all munic waste stream. The amount (e-waste) now makes up te was nic ctro Ele r. nded to be read yea ry inte if eve , ed ing erat read gen ent nes um ton doc million clusion that dies have reached the con y if printed. solid waste worldwide. Stu re environmentally friendl mo be may ple, peo ral seve by or e onc n tha re mo n is having electronic communicatio the extraordinary impact aled volume of reve the cle and arti ed nt vest rece A New York Times s are grown than are har tree re mo es, stland has Stat fore ited US the Un 50 years. The amount of on the environment. In populareased 49% over the last US inc the has nd ugh stla tho n fore eve US s, trees growing on at about 750 million acre rs yea been 100 has last and the 0 for 195 e in sam is now 30% larger than remained essentially the . Forest cover in Europe iod per e sam the ing dur tion tripled soccer fields every year. increasing by 1.5 million increasingly ewable product that is an wood, a sustainable and ren from forests are a e d age mad is man er ly pap t nsib tha spo Re Let’s remember ge of sustainable products. ran t are now vast a tha of ts duc tion pro crea vide wood and wood byvaluable resource for the rgy to produce environment and also pro ene the s efit take It ben t ls. tha fue e il urc foss critical reso its reliance on er l as society tries to reduce used to make pulp and pap seen as a preferred materia le, over 65% of the energy mp exa an as , and ble ewa paper but most of it is ren ble biomass. ope, originates from renewa in the US, and 54% in Eur ic services are betlarly inferring that electron to go paperless, and particu haps might reflect ple per peo g and agin acts our imp enc n So, before need to examine their ow ers oth and e live in an increasogl we Go ity nt, real ter for the environme way to communicate. In ble aina sust a be mental impacts can er iron pap n coexist. Each has env that, on balance, print and paper-based communicatio and to differentiate ic try tron not elec uld and wo rld ns ingly digital wo consumers, if organisatio h wit est hon h greenwash re Suc mo ms. and clai and it would be helpful, ttributed environmental flagrant disrebasis of spurious and una in r, the on side ices con we serv ly, and ing ts reas their produc tions but also inc aging to cor porate reputa n and DEFRA (UK). marketing is not only dam Federal Trade Commissio US the of se tho as h suc ds dar stan sing erti n. adv paig of gard this cam nsiders its participation in We hope that Google reco
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Irish Printer February 2013
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Is Wide Format Reaching Saturation Point?
My answer to that question is an emphatic Yes and an equally authoritative No, says Tony Roe, managing director of McGowans Digital Print. Let me explain. There are more printers, be they general printers or wide-format specialists, offering the market everything and anything from A1 Point of Sale materials to large, high-impact building banners that are
all too familiar these days, and everything in between. What was once viewed as an upstart in general printing terms is now considered mainstream, although changes in technology, materials and markets continue to expand its range. When I said yes to the initial question, I was referring to the high-speed, high-volume printing that has become widespread in the
market. I consider this market to be at maturity now, simply because there is a finite volume available to us on this comparatively small island. Speed of production - flatbed digital presses printing at over 7,000 square feet per hour and the newer type of roll-fed banner and sheet-fed larger poster machines - has put serious pressure on the number of units that the market can accommo-
Irish Printer February 2013 date. What is happening now is real competition between technologies for this type of work. Digital print production was traditionally considered for runs fewer than 100 units. That number has now shifted to probably 1,000 and is constantly growing. With run counts going down and targeted marketing increasing, wide format has evolved as a huge player, so much so that there has been huge interest in it among commercial printers. While margins in the general printing sphere have been continuously cut, and cut again, until there is simply nowhere to go, wide format has been seen as a safe passage to profit. This continuous cost-cutting has created many victims in our industry and one way out of this vicious cycle is to enter a new market. Try your hand at wide format and all of its offerings. Similarly, as with the trend of larger litho printers taking on smaller run lengths, screen printers have now begun to compete in the lower volume scale, so that traditional lines and quantities have become a bit detached from what they used to be. Advances in technologies there have enabled this. Direct to screen and automating the front end process can be likened to the direct to plate model in the litho market, where manufacturers sought to bring the printer into financial efficiency at lower volume print work. Well guess what? This high volume model is also hitting that same spectacular freefall. It doesn’t matter if the latest digital or conventional model can print 1,000 sheets per hour or 10,000 square metres per hour - there is still that number at which the work will dry up. Speed is number one and has been for a while. With speeds now hitting thousands on several printers, this, again, provided the digital print industry with a tool to compete with screen. Also, faster printers can mean more production. For a lot of companies, the faster printing has tied in with a downturn in pricing of projects. Resolution is very good on most printers and this has made for a much more level
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playing field and opened up the industry to even small shops. The new norm is 1,000 dpi-plus whereas years back we were selling a standard 360 dpi. Flatbeds are the biggest industry change in the last four years. The hybrid, roll-to-roll and flatbed options have changed the industry and our substrates. It’s still early days for this equipment so we should expect better, bigger, faster and quicker developments from flat to roll-to-roll. Roll-to-roll has moved from oil and solvent ink technology to eco-solvent and latex in an effort to improve the environmental footprint. While these ink technologies haven’t done a lot to expand the application versatility, they are much
many clients using the unique application versatility of our flatbed and roll-fed printers to do just that. I see lots of customers that have had imagination for a ‘product’ in which the calculated margin per square metre is way above what the perceived going rate is for conventional use. The ever expanding range of printable media is driving the new applications market also. Companies that embrace this way of thinking will profit handsomely and the evolution will be continuous and it will shape your company as much as you will shape it. There is further opportunity to invigorate the niche market with advancements in ink tech-
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niche markets. Some examples off the top of my head are the vast opportunity that exists in interior design. Linked to that, you have the endless opportunity that exists in the printed furniture market using keylines and flat-bed printed re-board products. How much more will you get for an 8 inch x 4 inch sheet made into a piece of domestic furniture than you might get for an 8 inch x 4 inch generic POS sheet? There is no definitive answer to this but I’d imagine my answer, were I to answer it, will contain the word ‘lots’. The really successful companies will mix the conventional with the new, providing general and niche products under one
Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f**king knife to it – Banksy.
more pleasant to use than the high solvent printers we lived with for the previous 10 years.
Is There a Solution?
So how do printers address this? Well this is related to my No answer to the opening question. There is a market out there, untapped and profitable and there isn’t a ceiling at which we all start to compete again on price. The opportunity surely is to create and provide niche products, not just providing square feet in nanoseconds at ultracheap prices that nobody can match because your machines are simply the best and fastest you’ve ever seen.Very often, it’s not until your prospective client or existing customer sees the machine that they start to think of applications and uses for them. Finding speciality applications where you can add real value or demonstrate unique knowledge or skill is key. Always ask yourself the question ‘what can we do with this?’. We have
nologies. Spot colours coupled with metallic capabilities have increased the impact value for viewers and prospective customers. In reality the print production model should be driven by the results of the services offered. If you only do efficient print production, you will eventually be commoditised and compared in a strictly fiscal sense. Even latterly, the roll-to-roll market has been judged on a price per square metre to assess value. The marketplace is left to assume that all other aspects of the project are the same from one printer to another and therefore the only differentiating factor is the cost. This is nonsense but we as print providers have to educate the marketplace to demonstrate the value-added portion of the project. We have to demonstrate what it will cost our clients not to utilise this way of thinking and how paying the additional cost can distinguish them from the rest. The thing is there will never be a limiting number of specialised
roof. Of course, it costs money and time to think ‘outside the box’, so to speak. Get the right people together with the right ideas and you will have a blueprint for success. Relying on what you knew of a market will stand you on unsteady ground going into the future. Eventually people will catch up, regardless of your traditional and current standing in that market. Forward and joined-up thinking should become standard in your company as even the markets we once perceived as niche will become traditional. To finish the piece, I leave you with two quotations which I feel are relevant to the words above and which may inspire you to embrace this positive and progressive way of thinking: Imagination is more important than knowledge – Einstein. Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f**king knife to it – Banksy.
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Irish Printer February 2013
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Fujifilm Opens New Ink Manufacturing Facility Fujifilm’s Digital Ink Facility
Fujifilm recently opened its new digital ink manufacturing facility at its manufacturing plant in Broadstairs in the UK. The company’s investment in this facility, alongside an upgrade to its R&D department, highlights Fujifilm’s long-term commitment to the wide format digital sector. The new digital ink manufacturing facility has been two years in planning and development and is the result of an investment of over €4m, with an additional €2.5m invested to upgrade the R&D department. It is now the global production site for wide-format inkjet ink for Fujifilm.The new manufacturing facility has a footprint of 1,800 square metres and is built to accommodate a projected annual increase of 56% in the production of UV ink at the site, manufactured in a range of batch sizes of up to 4,000 litres. This projection reflects the demand for Fujifilm wide format digital inkjet solutions and the success the company has had in helping its customers’ transition to digital in this growing market segment. The facility has the capacity to manufacture 6,000 tonnes of ink per year, which will be produced in a variety of packs, from 250ml RFID tagged pouches and cartridges up to 10 litre packs
for high productivity wide format printer platforms. ‘We have planned everything meticulously over the last few years, recognising that to stay at the forefront of digital ink technology with our range of Uvijet inks, we need to work with state-of-the-art equipment and have the ability to increase production and packing volumes,’ says Colin Boughton, operations director at the Fujifilm Speciality Ink Systems Broadstairs site. ‘We were delighted to win the “Best Process Plant” award at last year’s “Best Factory Awards” in the UK, evidence of what we have achieved so far. Our vision is to remain at the forefront of this technology and to re-invest every year in order to maintain that position. For instance, we have worked closely with a specialist company to develop next generation dispersion equipment for our inks, and this will allow us to reduce particle sizes to less than 100nm – true nanotechnology! Further investments in equipment will take place during 2013, keeping Fujifilm at the cutting edge of UV digital ink manufacturing and packing technology.’ Underpinning this extensive project is Fujifilm’s commitment to the environment.
Waste energy in the form of heat from production processes and compressed air generation via a bespoke new heat exchange system is used to provide 70% of the heating required for the factory. In addition, a new boiler plant has been installed which incorporates high efficiency modulating condensing boilers that use 40% less fossil fuels than conventional heating systems. Combine this with the latest figures from the site which show that only 7% of the waste generated goes to landfill, with 23% going to energy recovery and 70% recycled, this means that effectively 93% is reused in some way. This work has played its part in Fujifilm Speciality Ink Systems being accredited to the Environmental standard ISO14001, in addition to the Quality standard ISO9001. Accreditation to the Health and Safety Standard OHSAS 18001 will be complete by mid-2013.
Targeting Corrugated Print Market
Fujifilm is targeting the digitally printed corrugated market with a new handling system and speciality inks for its Onset UV flatbed printers. The system is still in prototype stage but is expected to go to beta testing in March and be ready to show the public by June. The new corrugated handling system, together with a dedicated ink formulation for use on the Onset, is expected to open a significant new market for Fujifilm. Manufactured by a UK company (as yet unnamed) the hefty steel constructed transport system is based on two vacuum heads that move the corrugated material from stack to printer and from printer to pile. The speed and accuracy of handling – together with the new ink - is said to make digital inkjet printing on corrugated really cost effective for the first time. But pricing on the handling unit has yet to be decided.
Inkjet Advances with Single Pass System The newly formed Print Solutions division of Reprographic Technology International (RTI) is bringing out a range of Memjet-powered printers, including a 42 inch-wide tworoll printer, an A4 sheet fed printer for envelope and flyer printing and a roll-to-roll label
printer (A4 width). ‘The inkjet market has not really advanced much in technology since the 1970s, with the majority of print devices still using the scan-and-step print methodology,’ says Peter Barton, EMEA director for RTI. ‘The scan-and-step sys-
tem will always require a compromise between resolution and speed - faster speeds give poor resolution, while greater print quality slows down output speed. This new single-pass system, using the new Memjet “Waterfall” printhead technology enables amazing speeds,
with no reduction in lateral resolution at all.’ Using the Memjet technology, the Vortex printers are said to run at 300mm/sec linear speed, meaning posters can be printed on the wide-format device at speeds exceeding 1,100m2/hr.
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…And cut – Roland Reduces Costs and Saves Time for Corrie! The lives of the residents of Coronation Street are discussed on television gossip pages and in living rooms up and down the country. Much effort goes into making sure the set looks as realistic as possible – from billboards and flyers posted on walls to packaging labels on items for sale in the Corner Shop. Lynsey Shepard is the programme’s principal graphic designer and is responsible for creating all these applications as authentically as possible and her Roland VersaCamm SP-300i printer/cutter has been crucial to ensuring the set’s printed materials are ready whenever the show’s demanding and fluid filming schedules require them. The Roland was purchased and installed two years ago following a recommendation from another graphic designer who was familiar with Roland’s products. It is the first machine to be used by Coronation Street’s design team and Lynsey has been very impressed with the performance of the VersaCamm and aftersales support received through the RolandCare service and support package. ‘The majority of the material we print is on vinyl, as it’s far more practical to have waterproof labels and signage given the nature of this business,’ she says. ‘The print &
receive a package, for example. The VersaCamm SP-i series comprises two models – the 30inch SP-300i and the 54inch SP-540i – and is available with a four-colour printing system. ‘I’ve been a graphic designer for nearly 10 years and I’ve witnessed a great number of changes in the industry over this time, many as a result of the technological advances compapSigns, Graphics and Labels printed as necessary to appear in D & S Alahan’s corner shop uStreet Cars’ graphics
cut function is excellent and saves so much time and it’s very precise – even when cutting circles.’ Keeping overall production costs down was another decisive factor in Lynsey’s decision to stop outsourcing and purchase the SP-300i. ‘We used to outsource our print jobs to a local printing company,’ she says. ‘While the quality was good, it was more expensive and really restricted our flexibility on set as if we needed something last minute we would either have to wait or reschedule filming around this. Having the Roland on site means we are now able to quickly re-print material for extra takes and ensure we can always keep up with the schedule.’
The VersaCamm is used to print a wide range of set graphics including those that are iconic to the soap, from beer labels for the Rovers Return’s house ale, Newton and Ridley, or posters on the wall of the pub, to stickers on the door of the Corner Shop, signage for the taxis or a vehicle wrap for a courier van if someone on the street is due to
nies such as Roland have made in the development of printers and ink,’ says Lynsey. ‘Print quality is certainly one of the biggest improvements I’ve seen. The vibrancy of the print finish from today’s printers is astonishing and the quality of the Eco-Sol Max inks with the Roland is brilliant.’
New Automation Benefits Large to Super-Wide Format Printing Enfocus recently announced that its Enfocus Switch 11 can be set up to automatically connect to EFI’s Fiery XF or Colorproof XF RIP. This new automation capability will benefit a broad range of professionals involved in large to super-wide format printing such as ad agencies, prepress businesses, publishers, newspapers, packaging companies, full-service printing houses, photographers and print shops. Connection to EFI’s Fiery XF or Colorproof XF RIP is provided through a new configurator which comes standard with Switch 11 update 2 and later versions. Stefan Spiegel, general manager of Fiery
wide format production and proofing at EFI, says the integration with Enfocus Switch enables their customers to seamlessly bridge the gap between their existing workflow and the Fiery’s wide format production and proofing systems. Support for naming conventions, metadata, integration with databases, preflighting files, and more, helps customers take full advantage of Switch’s Smart Automation features. Processed files are automatically routed to the appropriate RIP and output device for correct printing and finishing. Without any manual intervention, the correct settings for the output device will be used, such as colour manage-
ment, sheet size, rotation, scaling, nesting, tiling, step and repeat, footer, and finishing. EFI Fiery XF is a high-performance RIP that reduces production time and unifies the handling of printing devices. It works with most major solvent, eco-solvent and UV printers such as EFI VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Epson, Canon, Mimaki, Mutoh and Roland printers. Colorproof XF is a professional-level proofing RIP that provides users with all the tools required to produce ISO 12647-7/8 compliant validation prints and contract proofs as well as G7 compliant prints on inkjet, laser and LED printers.
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IrishPrinter PrinterFFebruary ebruary 2013 2013 Irish
Iw Nh K at S ’s new in print
W in M ore V D P W ork with N ew C i P ress Xerox is claiming that its new CiPress 500 and 325 Single Engine Duplex (SED) production inkjet systems make it easier for printers to produce lower volumes of transactional, direct marketing, catalogues, books and manuals – at a lower cost of ownership. Unveiled at Hunkeler Innovationdays (1115 February) in Lucerne, Switzerland, the CiPress SED is a single engine configuration with many of the same features as the twin engine devices - the Xerox CiPress 500 and 325 production inkjet systems. The CiPress SED’s compact configuration – suitable for operations with limited floor space – prints duplex jobs, one-up on a narrow 241mm (9.5”) web at 152m (500 feet) or 100m (325 feet) per minute. The CiPress SED uses waterless inks. An ink optimisation mode reduces the amount of ink coverage on pages that have more text and fewer graphics. Ink monitoring reports let printers know the exact amount of ink used for precise job costing. Xerox says that increasing volume shifts can easily be adjusted between the single engine duplex and twin engine full-width mode,
without purchasing an additional engine. Other features include built-in automated closed loop self-correcting controls, and Xerox FreeFlow Print Server which handles complex variable jobs at speed and supports IPDS, PDF, PS and VIPP. Cw Niemeyer Druck (CWN), a full-service production company based in Germany, purchased the Xerox CiPress 500 production inkjet system
R icoh A dds to D igital P roduction L ine - U p The Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts + and the Ricoh Pro C901S Graphic Arts + are the latest additions to Ricoh’s digital colour production system line-up. The Ricoh Pro C901 and Pro C901S Graphics Arts + digital presses incorporate the new EFI E42 or E82 print servers. New features to speed up job preparation and enable more work per shift include a HyperRIP which improves performance by processing multiple job pages simultaneously, Xobjects caching to enable PDF files that include Xobjects to print at speeds previously associated only with VDP jobs. In addition there is inline job editing, which is ideal for tasks such as the application of additional job options directly from the job list without opening Job Properties. There is also a Job Preset Quick Select that applies the same predefined settings used in virtual printers and hot folders to jobs in the job list. Productivity is further addressed with an uprated duty cycle of up to 700,000 - 20% more than previously. Uptime is also improved with larger sized toner bottles that require fewer changes per shift. Depending on toner coverage, they deliver on average 67,000 clicks, up from 63,000, to reduce costs per page and improve profitability margins. Substrates up to 350gsm are now included as part of the standard settings on both models with the media library continually updated to reflect broader grade choices. The presses offer a production speed of up to 90 pages-per-minute for multiple paper types. According to InfoSource, Ricoh is the best-selling brand for production devices/colour presses during the first three quarters of 2012.
at drupa 2012 to create high-value fashion catalogues with variable content. They cite the device’s high-volume personalisation, ability to run on plain paper and offsetcomparable image quality as key benefits. The CiPress Single Engine Duplex configuration was available for worldwide order taking at Hunkeler Innovationdays. Customer deliveries begin in April.
Xeikon Highlights New Security Printing Technology At the Hunkeler Innovationdays, Xeikon highlighted digital security printing features, including the brand new capability of using taggant marked spot colour toner. During the exhibition Xeikon produced tickets on the latest Xeikon 8600 rollfed digital press that included several security features. Taggants are microscopic chemical markers that can be added to the substrate or the toner itself, to allow various forms of verification. They are already used for high security documents such as banknotes, identification documents and value papers. Taggants are invisible to the human eye in print and can only be detected by special Ticket printing with security features at the readers. They are not removable and they are very Xeikon stand during Hunkeler Innovationdays difficult to reverse engineer. Xeikon embeds taggants, provided by BrandWatch Technologies, in the toner during the production process. Once the taggant toner is ready, it will only be distributed through BrandWatch Technologies who has expertise in managing security solutions, and maintain a strict chain of custody, following ISO 28000 standards. The taggants in the tickets printed at the exhibition were detectible with a dedicated reader unit developed by BrandWatch Technologies. The taggant toner, which was applied using the fifth colour station of the Xeikon 8600, was used to print variable information and makes the ticket virtually impossible to duplicate. Xeikon has incorporated a growing range of security options into its hardware and software, including variable data, barcodes, micro text, guilloche, tactile fonts, fluorescent security papers and security toners. Xeikon has published a white paper on brand protection that explains the various printed security features available with its toner presses. The white paper can be downloaded from the Xeikon website: www. xeikon.com
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D igital or O ffset – N ew T ool I dentifies M ost C ost- E ffective R oute to P rint In a world where many printing businesses run a hybrid offset/digital production operation there can sometimes be an uncertainty about the most effective production technology to use. Ricoh is making these decisions easier with its Digital or Offset Calculator. This new tool, free and exclusive to all members of the Ricoh Business Driver Programme, identifies which print production process is most appropriate for a particular job. The tool was demonstrated for the first time during Hunkeler Innovationdays. ‘We are working all the time with combined offset/digital operations that are producing jobs in a wide range of run lengths,’ says Stephen Palmer, production print director for
Ricoh UK and Ireland. ‘For jobs at either end of the scale, the production technology decision can be obvious. However, there is an increasing grey area in the middle that this calculator addresses. This is driven by continual price/performance improvements in digital printing presses that extend the run lengths for which these presses are appropriate. The Digital or Offset Calculator provides printers with a fact-based methodology for making these important production decisions.’ The Digital or Offset Calculator takes into consideration the run length for a range of products i.e. leaflets, business cards, posters, brochures and folders, to determine the most profitable printing platform. Ricoh cus-
Stephen Palmer with the Ricoh Pro C901
tomers enter basic information into the calculator to confirm fixed costs such as labour, consumables and energy consumption for each process. For offset - the make-ready waste, plate production, service and maintenance costs are included. For digital - click charges and maintenance fees based on an-
World’s First Production Order for Digital Cutter
Glossop Cartons in the UK has confirmed the world’s first production order for a Highcon Euclid digital cutting and creasing machine. Highcon launched the world’s first production speed digital converting machine at drupa last May. ‘The Highcon Euclid opens up a new range of possibilities for our customers: bespoke packaging, for short runs, pushing design boundaries and being able to respond to seasonal product changes cost effectively,’ says Glossop Cartons’ director Jacky Sidebottom. The Highcon Euclid combines patent-pending DART technology to create the digital crease lines, with a high speed and laser
cutting solution. It does not require a conventional die, removing the time associated with die production and additional machine set-up. Glossop Cartons will take delivery of the machine in April 2013. Glossop Cartons is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of carton board packaging products, including printed cartons, wallets, blister cards, skin pack cards and packaging, for blue-chip organisations across the UK. Conversion, Highcon’s channel partner in the UK, closed the deal with Glossop Cartons.They are authorised distributors for the Highcon Euclid and the Scodix S Series presses and associated products in the UK and Ireland.
ticipated volumes are important data points. For both offset and digital, equipment depreciation and residual values are also considered. Information on substrates, based on an A3 sheet size and whether the job is simplex or duplex, can also be a factor if different substrates are used in the two processes.
Continuous Feed Inkjet Enhancements Unveiled Ricoh recently announced significant enhancements to its InfoPrint 5000 inkjet portfolio, which was on display at Hunkeler Innovationdays. The latest enhancements to the InfoPrint 5000 include an extended Media Dryer Option which allows the InfoPrint 5000 to print on a broader variety of coated stock and less expensive papers, and G7 hardware certification. The InfoPrint 5000 is now G7 hardware certified - integrating G7 Gray Balance into the system’s workflow allows machine-to-machine, job-to-job colour output consistency as well as ensuring colour balance on various paper grades and weights. The InfoPrint 5000 support of Arcis Pantographs has been extended to include dye and pigment inks, running at up to 128 metres/minute (420 feet), with a new multi-colour prismatic Pantograph, and the option to support micro-fonts. This function enables customers to increase the security of negotiable documents such as cheques. Enhancements coming in 2013 include new configurations and functions. The InfoPrint 5000 MP Monochrome and MP Colour platform will be extended to support simplex and dual simplex configurations, and the InfoPrint 5000 GP Colour platform will be able to support an extended page length.
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Sooner Than Later specialise in trade print, mailing and distribution services. Call us today for a competitive quotation on (01) 2844777 or email sales@soonerthanlater.com
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www.soonerthanlater.com
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SERIOUSLY LOW PRICES FLYERS – Full Colour Both Sides on 130gsm gloss DL 1,000 €29 2,500 €39 5,000 €59 10,000 €118
Please contact us for a free quotation Freephone: 1800 613 111 Email: sales@walshcolourprint.com
A5 €35 €49 €79 €158
A4 €59 €75 €119 €238
NOTE Jobs received up to Wednesday 2pm will be dispatched the next day – Thursday.