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Tracking The Changes
Back Pages & Crystal Balls Following on from the Viewpoints article in last month’s 30th anniversary edition, PG continues to track the significant industry changes in two important areas digital printing and environmental credentials with Adam Short of The Imaging Centre and Sue Morrish of The Eco-friendly Card Company sharing their perspectives and predictions.
A Digital Printer’s Perspective
The arrival of and developments in digital printing rank as one of the biggest game changers for the UK greeting card industry over the last three decades. Adam Short, managing director of The Imaging Centre, a digital printer to hundreds of card publishers, shares his views…
A historical perspective... What has the past taught you? “No job is too small. This is actually one of our company values, and one of the finest lessons I have been taught. As digital printers we deal with many new businesses and we still never know how successful publishers will be. Our outlook is that we try and advise everyone as well 28
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
as we can and try and make each one of those start-ups that come to us as successful as they want to be.” What have been the main industry changes? “For us the digital technology has had the biggest effect, we truly believe it has allowed many more publishers the opportunity to come into this fantastic industry, as well as allowing those already established to bring out more designs, more frequently while still achieving the same high-quality standards.” What have been the highlights and lowlights for The Imaging Centre? “I always feel a huge sense of pride when I see a card we have produced on a shelf in a store, or even better when one comes through the letter box. However, our main highlight was PG Live 2018, just two years after using the same show to launch IC Simplicity we were able to see our vision come to reality as we were receiving orders from publishers while at the show just as they were receiving them from the retailer. Our lowlight would have to be the past 12 months, which have been hugely challenging for
Above: Reaching the 30th anniversary of PG was a good opportunity to turn back the pages of history while also looking into the future. Below left: Adam Short outside The Imaging Centre’s brand new state of the art headquarters in Tonbridge, Kent. Below: Adam Short (left) with John Higgins, co-founder of Go La La at PG Live 2018 when the IC Simplicity system was up and running. Bottom: Adam’s father Bob Short, who co-founded the company with an antique ‘clocking in’ machine at the old factory. Times have changed in so many ways.
everyone in the industry, although again to consider ourselves extremely lucky to be in such a creative industry where people have adapted to the forever changing situation so fantastically well!”
And now to the future… How do you foresee greeting card publishing changing over the short, medium and long-term? “We feel that short term technological advances mean that personalisation, direct to consumer
markets and instant trends will continue to grow. More long-term these advances will also mean that publishers can see their new designs published and more readily available to the general public much quicker. We believe on demand production will grow from strength to strength, reducing waste, footprint and improving the environment.” What have you done to help futureproof your business? “We have invested heavily at The Imaging Centre with the future in mind. In the past 12 months