Widthwise 2021

??????????

2021 An Image Reports publication The Fourteenth annual survey and report on the state of the UK and Ireland’s wide-format print sector

In association with

1 | Widthwise 2020 | www.imagereports.co.uk

Widthwise 2021

Welcome to Widthwise 2021 It is 14 years since we conducted the first Widthwise survey of the UK/ Northern Ireland’s large-format printers.

We’ve probably seen more disruption in the marketplace in the last year than we did in all of those previous ones put together, and 2021 is proving to be ‘the great reset’. What that means for PSPs in this sector is where we hope to shed some light in this report, having polled 195 companies for their grassroots input and outlook.

In the following pages you’ll find easily digestible graphics of the data gathered in the 2021 Widthwise poll which took place in January/February - plus analysis of, and commentary on, all the findings. Also included are editorial features relating to key issues thrown up by the survey, and case studies from PSPs that have reset their businesses for a sustainable future. Hopefully, these insights will help you do likewise.

CONTENTS

Lesley Simpson Editor, Image Reports magazine lesley.simpson@imagereportsmag.co.uk

06 | The key findings An easy-to-digest overview 10 | Business outlook How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted your business, and the sector? The survey data tells its story.

16 | The great reset: sales and marketing In a marketplace where virtual meetings are becoming the norm, how do PSPs find, attract and maintain customers?

20 | Talking heads PSPs reflect on the most turbulent year in the history of wide-format print, share insights on how they, and their businesses have changed, and discuss their strategy for the future.

38 | Environmental outlook Are players in the wide-format sector doing enough to save the planet, as well as their businesses? Poll data raises the question.

42 | The great reset: on purpose Once you could get away with clichéd sound bites about your business’s purpose. Not any more, as this this article explores.

Editor: Lesley Simpson lesley.simpson@imagereportsmag.co.uk Design: Alex Gold

26 | Technological outlook Where are you investing - or not - and why? Here’s what the survey findings tell us.

Advertising Manager: Carl Archer carl.archer@imagereportsmag.co.uk Tel: 020 7933 8976 Fax: 020 7933 8998 www.imagereportsmag.co.uk

30 | The great reset: automation Are wide-format print providers, which have already invested in digital transformation, ready to seize the day?

34 | Five for five We ask five key suppliers five key questions about the future of the industry based on the findings of this year’s Widthwise survey.

Image Reports SJP Business Media Ltd 2nd Floor, 123 Cannon Street London, EC4N 5AU Printed in Great Britain. ISSN 1478-338X No part of this circulation may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without the Publisher’s permission.

The editorial content does not necessarilrly refelct the views of the Publisher. The Publisher accepts no responsibility for any errors contained within the publication.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 5

Widthwise 2021

The key findings

T

he worst of times has been the best of times for some. That may not be what you want to hear if Covid has just about sunk your business but, thankfully, according to the 195 large-format orientated UK/Ireland-based print businesses that answered our fourteenth Widthwise poll at the start of 2021, the sector has not fared too badly.

That’s not to say it hasn’t suffered of course.

Almost half (47.69%) had to cut staff levels, and a whopping 81.03% said they had needed to take advantage of Government aid during the pandemic.

Two thirds of respondents (64.62%) said turnover dropped more than 10% in the past year, and another 13.33% said it had fallen 1- 10%. But, 13.34% saw turnover grow - 8.72% by more than 10%. And though not everyone was feeling tickety-boo over what the next couple of years hold, more than two thirds (67.18%) said they were optimistic - more than a quarter (26.15%) ‘very optimistic’.

Asked if, in the short to medium term, they felt overall demand for large-format print in the UK would return to pre-Covid levels, almost two-thirds (63.59%) said yes, with 12.82% giving a decisive ‘no’.

The findings come from a cross-section of PSPs, all of which handle large-format digital inkjet print. To put things into perspective, 60% of the 195 companies had five staff or fewer, while slightly under 15% (14.88%) had 21 employees or more nine companies polled had more than 100 employees. Almost half (48.72%) of those that responded reported a turnover under £250,000, though 7.69% had a turnover of £5m or more.

A good number (45.64%) of the sample said they had restructured their business during 2020, with new markets, new print - and non-print - applications, and ecommerce having been a focus for many, but with workflow efficiency measures at the top of the list, with 32.31% earmarking this as a key change. Asked about likely strategic moves over the coming two years, more than half (57.95%) of companies said further improving workflow efficiencies would be a top priority.

So what else is on the priority list? Well,

6 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

Q2. Number of employees in your company 1–5 6 – 10 11 – 20 21 – 51 51 – 100 More than 100

60.00% 13.85% 11.28% 6.67% 3.59% 4.62%

Q3. What is your company’s total turnover?

Up to £249,999 £250,000 - £499,999 £500,000 - £999,999 £1m - £1.99m £2m - £4.99m £5m+

48.72% 15.90% 12.82% 10.26% 4.62% 7.69%

not necessarily investment in new kit and software, a key priority for so many companies for so many years. Asked how much they were expecting to invest in new hardware/software right across their business in 2021 compared to 2020, a third (32.31%) said more, but another third (32.82%) opted for a zero spend in each period.

Interestingly, given that so many PSPs said they’d been/would be on an efficiency drive, under one in ten (9.23%) said they would be investing in Industry 4.0 (eg the Internet of Things, automation, AI, remote diagnostics etc) in the year ahead.

Nigh on two-thirds (65.13%) of respondents said they would be spending under £20,000 on large-format technology specifically over the next two years, and 77.08% said there would be no investment in software or finishing kit.

Half (50.26%) said they were expecting to buy a new wide-format printer before the start of 2023. UV curable hybrid printers came out top of the wish list, with 34.62% of those planning to invest selecting that technology. Next in the planned purchases

popularity contest came solvent printers, with 30.77% earmarking those despite the furore surrounding the need for the large-format print sector to green-up.

So, how important do respondents think it is to improve their green credentials? It’s hardly surprising that 70.77 said it had become more important for them to be seen as environmentally friendly than it was two years ago - and 67.18% said they do now have environmental accreditations. What might be more surprising, is that 43.08% said few clients ask to see these credentials/ policies, and 21.03% said none do.

When it comes to priorities and concerns going forward, the poll confirmed what we’d all expect - that growing turnover is the key focus for almost half (47.18%) this year, while the rising cost of supplies is what gives 85.64% the biggest headache.

A fear of further lockdowns, worry over paying back Government loans, uncertainty about UK economic bounce-back were all flagged up as reasons for sleepless nights, yet that fabulous optimism prevails. Let’s hope it’s well founded.

In association with: AGFA

New beginnings. New opportunities.

M

any months of turmoil and uncertainty haven’t gone by without leaving a lasting mark on our world. Unprecedented political, environmental, and social changes have rocked the very foundation of our personal and professional lives. Some of these changes will remain with us for better or worse, others will subside.

But how can we cope with so much change in such a short space of time when we have high ambitions and goals to achieve?

Maximum flexibility, keeping all options open? Refocus, where the things we do well need nurturing and investment in? Pushing into adjacent markets where margins are better? Whichever one it is, let’s do it better, faster, more cost efficiently, and more environmentally friendly.

Many will have thought about these points, some will have implemented them, all will have heard their competitors do something in that direction.

8 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

Can everything be combined under one roof, one single investment that caters for all?

Time to meet Agfa’s Jeti Tauro LED Series. It will transform the way you print. Truly a new beginning for new opportunities.

Optimising the flow Printing begins with fast, error-free delivery of print files to the pressroom. The ability to process jobs through a dedicated workflow saves time and money and ensures that every machine is fed with the right data at the right time. This is where Agfa’s award-winning Asanti workflow comes into play. Asanti automates everyday tasks without restricting the operator. On the contrary, Asanti guarantees that what is sent to press is complete and ready to print.

Thanks to the seamless integration with the Jeti Tauro LED Series any last-minute changes on press are fed back to the Asanti server avoiding conflicting versions being used accidentally. By removing the need to jump from one platform to another Agfa systems significantly reduce press make-

ready times giving you greater productivity day in, day out.

Automate to accelerate Let’s look at loading and unloading times, and how those can be optimised with the right level of automation. Some solutions restrict a press’ flexibility. Agfa ensures that even with a fully automated press the operator will always be just a few clicks away from switching from one job to the next without losing precious set-up time.

Automation choices are plentiful on the Jeti Tauro LED Series. Thanks to its hybrid belt-driven technology every Jeti Tauro LED is ready to run flat sheets and rigid boards, as well as flexible roll materials.

Corrugated and fluted cardboard on a hybrid? Not a problem for the Jeti Tauro LED Series thanks to its fibre-reinforced belt and powerful vacuum pumps.

For sheets and boards, customers can choose between manual loading and unloading, semi-automatic loading with ABF, or full automation from pallet to pallet with

In association with: AGFA

Greener printing The benefits of Agfa’s ‘Thin Ink Layer’ technology go even further. Because of the unique way Agfa combines all its components – software, press, ink – every Jeti Tauro LED is saving on actual ink usage not only on the finished product, but also in terms of ink waste. On average a Jeti Tauro LED purges less than 9.8 litres of ink per year reducing the environmental footprint of your print operation in terms of ink deliveries and waste collection.

Furthermore, Agfa UV LED inks obtained multiple certifications – including GREENGUARD Gold – and comply with a wide range of industry norms that pertain to the restricted use of chemicals listed by the UK and the EU, to chemical emissions and air quality in indoor applications, to safety for toys regarding heavy metals migration and to the restriction of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. feeder and stacker. Automating the loading cycle reduces production gaps over longer runs without changing the printing speed of the press. Depending on the sheet size and print layout this could mean as much as 20% extra capacity over a normal shift.

For flexible roll materials the Jeti Tauro’s integrated roll-to-roll system offers single roll printing to a maximum of 2.5m or 3.3m depending on the bed size and roll weights of up to 200kg. That’s not all, as the Jeti Tauro LED can be extended to run larger and heavier rolls thanks to its optional Master RTR module. At that point the press can run two rolls side-by-side to a maximum of 1.6m each, and weights of up to 700kg per roll.

Each Jeti Tauro LED can be configured to the individual needs of the user without losing any of its flexibility to cope with the changing demands printing companies face every day. Equipped with optional White, Fast White or White plus Primer print heads a Jeti Tauro LED is perfectly placed to enhance the application scope for existing or new clients.

Agfa-made inks save time and money Specially formulated to print on rigid and flexible roll media, Agfa’s award-winning inks broaden the scope of possible applications. Whatever the medium or intended use – general applications, indoor or outdoor – accuracy and excellent adhesion are a given. Agfa-made UV LED inks boast a wide colour gamut and high colour vibrancy, resulting in lively yet natural

prints. Agfa inks are LED cured instantly, delivering consistent high-quality results, batch after batch. What’s more, this vividness is created to last, even when subjected to adverse outdoor weather conditions.

Thanks to Agfa’s patented ‘Thin Ink Layer’ technology, which involves the optimal dispersion and high pigment load of Agfa-made inks combined with Asanti’s CMS algorithms, ink consumption per square metre is the lowest on the market. This does not mean that we compromise on quality or performance in any way. Quite the opposite is true – Agfa’s low ink consumption results in eye-catching prints while preventing clogging, offering stable jetting performance, and helping you save time and money. You can literally feel the difference when running your fingers over a Jeti Tauro LED print.

Meet The Beast The brand-new Jeti Tauro H3300 UHS LED is the next leap forward in productivity. Running at over 600 sq.m/h the Beast will transform the way you look at print quality and printing speeds, making it easier for you to win work on quality as well as on cost efficiency. No high-volume application is too much for the Jeti Tauro H3300 UHS LED. New beginnings and new opportunities await.

Agfa UK’s new Inkjet Competence Centre in Rugby, Warwickshire is now fully open.

To book your demo on the Jeti Tauro LED Series visit www.agfa.co.uk, email icc.gb@ agfa.com or call 020 8231 4027.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 9

Widthwise 2021

Business outlook

I

“

t was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.” This continuation of the famous opening of Charles Dickens’ novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, inspired by the French Revolution, seems particularly apposite after one of the most traumatic years in the history of the United Kingdom and, for that matter, of the wide-format printing industry. The magnitude of disruption is captured in the 2021 Image Reports Widthwise survey which reveals that nearly two out of three (64.6%) British wide-format printers said their sales had fallen by more than 10%, almost one in two (47.7%) had cut staff and a similar proportion (45.6%) had restructured their business.

That sums up what, for many Print Service Providers (PSPs), was a season of darkness, which began with the first lockdown in March 2020. At the same time, it was a season of light for 13.3% of companies that actually increased turnover, and especially for the 8.7% that grew sales by more than a tenth.

Q4. How has your total turnover changed in the past year?

Decreased by 1-10%

8.72%

Increased by more than 10%

8.72%

Increased by 1-10%

4.62%

Q5. Do you expect most of your revenue to come from wide-format digital print in the next year?

52.31%

Yes

47.69%

Q6. Which of these sectors is now the biggest provider of revenue for your business? (mark one)

10 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

13.33%

Stayed about the same

No

Retail Manufacturing Construction Other Events Local Govt.

Hospitality Education Medical Entertainment

64.62%

Decreased by more than 10%

35.90% 12.31% 10.77% 9.83% 8.72% 7.69% 6.67% 4.10% 3.08% 1.03%

Widthwise 2021

Now, there seems to be much more light than darkness - 67.2% are optimistic about business, with 26.1% saying they are ‘very optimistic’ compared to one in ten (10.3%) who are pessimistic. That positive outlook is reflected in another Widthwise finding - that 28.7% expect to hire more staff between now and the end of 2022. (In comparison, just 3.5% say they will cut staff.)

That upbeat mood may be driven by sheer relief that the worst has been averted.

There were times last summer when managers and owners faced the distinct possibility that their businesses might not survive. That existential threat seems to have focused people’s minds. Companies have pursued a whole host of survival strategies - more than eight out of ten in the Widthwise survey have accepted Government aid, more than one in five have offered new print applications, and about

one in seven have diversified into non-print services in the past year.

To say the outlook was grim last spring and summer would be a colossal understatement. In truth, there was no outlook because no-one - no PSP, no client, not even the Government - could say for certainty what was likely to happen in the next days or weeks, let alone months. With two of its key customer bases - retail and live events - hit hardest by lockdowns, many wide-format PSPs cut costs to the absolute minimum and trod water awaiting an unpredictable upturn. And of course many turned their hand to PPE products and pandemic linked print applications such as floor social distancing signage and graphics.

Even as the market began to recover, business remained volatile - orders were placed, then cancelled as Government policies changed, supplies remained problematic

(especially for certain products such as floor graphics where demand rocketed) and cashflow remained erratic, although the innovative furlough scheme helped cushion the blows.

No wonder then that, the Widthwise survey suggests, many PSPs’ morale has improved as the market returns to some semblance of normality - almost two out of three (63.6%) expect demand for wide-format print to return to pre-pandemic levels in the short to medium-term. Yet pessimists - such as the 12.8% of PSPs who do not expect demand to fully recover - feel that, to cite another Dickens novel, all this optimism is as deluded as Mr Micawber’s ingrained belief that, no matter how tough things get, “something will turn up”. The pessimists fear that, although headline economic growth in the UK will look good, wide-format printers will struggle to win

Q7. How do you feel about your business over the next two years?

41.03%

Mildly optimistic

26.15%

Very optimistic

22.56%

Neutral

7.69%

Mildly pessimistic Very pessimistic

2.56%

Q8. Have you taken advantage of any government aid (including furlough, CBILS etc.) during the pandemic?

81.03%

Yes No

18.97%

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 11

Widthwise 2021

Q9. What type of wide-format print are you currently involved in? (mark all relevant) General banners/flags/signage Posters Exhibition and display graphics Window graphics Transport graphics Floor graphics Retail/POP/POS Billboard/outdoor advertising Wallpaper/murals Building hoards/wraps Fine art/photography Textile printing for garments Packaging Textile printing for banner/flags Cardboard engineering Textile printing for home/interiors Industrial speciality (ceramics, metals etc) Other Furniture

76.92% 70.77% 59.49% 41.54% 33.33% 32.82% 28.72% 23.08% 19.49% 17.95% 10.77% 9.74% 9.74% 7.18% 5.13% 4.10% 3.08% 3.08% 1.03%

Q10. What wide-format print applications will be most important to you in the coming two years? (mark one) Exhibition and display graphics General banners/flags/signage Retail/POP/POS Transport graphics Wallpaper/murals Textile printing for garments Posters Window graphics Fine art/photography Floor graphics Billboard/outdoor advertising Textile printing for banner/flags Textile printing for home/interiors Building hoards/wraps Packaging Furniture Cardboard engineering Industrial speciality (ceramics, metals etc)

12 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

24.62% 21.54% 10.77% 9.23% 6.67% 5.13% 4.62% 3.59% 3.08% 2.56% 1.54% 1.54% 1.54% 1.03% 1.03% 0.51% 0.51% 0.51%

orders and, given the continued disruption to the global supply chain, find it even harder to fulfil them. Many of the substrates the industry relies on are imported from China where localised outbreaks of Covid-19 have recently closed ports, sending freight costs soaring.

More than eight out of ten companies in the Widthwise survey say the biggest threat to their business is the rising cost of supplies. The second greatest worry identified by 83.6% of respondents - is the state of the UK economy. The risk of further lockdowns is a serious concern for 58.0% of companies.

Although many PSPs are bullish about the future in the short to medium-term, the Widthwise survey does suggest that the shock of the pandemic has made them think hard about the long term. Nearly four out of ten (38.5%) respondents said that, by 2030, large-format print would no longer be their core business.

Widthwise 2021

It is also evident that the industry does not yet feel it has put its house in order.

Almost six out of ten (58.0%) plan to make their workflow more efficient. (This will be a challenge because, as we discuss in the technology findings, many companies probably don’t fully understand how efficient, or inefficient, they are.) Looking ahead, 26.7% of printers plan to research new markets, 20.0% will develop new applications and 19.5% expect to restructure their business.

While all that work is going on, the wide-format sector’s hopes of better times are largely pinned on the retail industry, the main source of revenue for 35.9% of PSPs surveyed. The next biggest sources

of income were manufacturing (chosen by 12.3%) and construction (10.8%). A significant minority identified transport graphics as a mainstay of their business. Only 52.3% of respondents expect large-format to account for most of their sales in the next two years which suggests that many will continue to rely on non-print work and ancillary services, such as installations.

For 47.2% of PSPs, growing turnover is their main concern. Their chances of doing so are likely to be affected by the uncertain outlook for exhibition and display graphics, the most important application for 24.6% of respondents. The exhibitions sector is optimistic about its prospects. A recent industry survey found that nine out of ten

executives expect business to return to pre-pandemic levels (although they differ on when that will happen). That said, many industry analysts predict some kind of reset, feeling that the calendar is overloaded, some shows do not deliver value for money for exhibitors and that a significant proportion of live events will only happen online.

The outlook for retail is almost as uncertain. While British consumers are rediscovering the joy of shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, millions have been forced to embrace online shopping. In May, as shops reopened, e-commerce still accounted for 27.3% of retail sales in the UK, down from its lockdown peak of 36.3%, but well above pre-pandemic levels. Before Covid-19 struck, many retail

Q11. What is the order of your priorities for the next year? (Rank 1-6, 6 being the most important) Grow turnover Enter new markets Reduce costs Acquisitions/mergers Find new customers Sustainable practices

47.18% 22.05% 10.77% 10.26% 7.18% 2.56%

Q12. In the past year, have your staffing levels…

51.28%

Remained the same

47.69%

Decreased Increased

1.03%

Q13. Over the next two years, do you expect to employ…

67.69%

The same number of staff

28.72%

More staff Fewer staff

3.59%

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 13

Widthwise 2021

Q14. Have you made any of these strategic changes within the past year? (mark all relevant) 45.64%

Restructured the business Improved workflow efficiencies Researched new markets Offered new print applications Invested in e-commerce Offered new non-print services

32.31% 31.79% 22.05% 17.44% 16.41%

Q15. Do you plan to make any of these strategic changes within the next two years? (mark all relevant) Improve workflow efficiencies Research new markets Offer new print applications Restructure the business Invest in e-commerce Offere other new non-print services

analysts argued that online’s share of UK retail spend would peak at around 35%. The talk now is that e-commerce could reach that milestone by 2025. After that, who knows what will happen?

Transport graphics was a key sector for 9.2% of PSPs. Here, at least, the future looks more predictable. In the past five years, technological advances have given transport operators much more scope to be creative and reinforced the importance of fleet vehicles as a means of cementing a company’s brand. Public transport remains critical to the British Government’s net zero emissions strategy and, from this autumn, will convey millions of people back to their workplace. A growing number of drivers also want to wrap their vehicles in graphics - in the UK, very basic wraps are now available for as little as £1,000.

One new market that stubbornly refuses to live up to the hype is textile printing.

In the 2021 survey, garment printing

57.95% 26.67% 20.00% 19.49% 14.87% 11.79%

was a core business for 5.1%, compared to 2.0% in 2019. A host of consultants are now predicting that the combined impact of the pandemic, faster turnover in fashion trends, and the apparel industry’s need to become more sustainable, will drive significant growth in this sector over the next five years. The continued unreliability of global supply chains may also stimulate interest in textile printing. But large-format graphics PSPs on the whole have yet have to be convinced of the ROI in developing a business model to capture relevant customers.

As the economy reopens, it is natural to celebrate the fact that we are, to use one of the media’s favourite phrases, ‘getting back to normal’. Yet it would be a waste of a crisis if we did not remind ourselves that there was a lot about the old normal that wasn’t functioning that well. A way of working pioneered by Henry Ford 100 years ago the five-day week in the same plant - had persisted even though it was obvious that it was no longer fit for purpose. The ‘take-

14 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

make-use-lose’ approach to the planet’s resources had become untenable. And in the Western economies, millions of people had come to feel disenfranchised and marginalised in their own societies as if they were living in, as Dickens put it, “the worst of times”. None of these problems will be fixed easily, but fix them we must.

It is right, too, that PSPs reflect on the state of their own business. Many things have changed in the past two years - and it is unclear which changes will endure but wide-format print businesses have an opportunity to ask themselves the simple, but fundamental questions, raised by management guru Peter Drucker. Who is your customer? What business are you in?

What have you stopped doing recently so you can do something more innovative?

And the one he asked every CEO he ever consulted for: “If you weren’t already in this business would you enter it today? And if the question is no, what are you going to do about it.”

Widthwise 2021

Q16. In the short to medium term, do you think overall demand for large-format print in the UK will return to pre-Covid levels?

63.59%

Yes

23.59%

Don’t know No

12.82%

Q17. In 2030, will large-format digital inkjet print still be your core business?

61.54%

Yes

38.46%

No

Q18. What do you think your clients’ main priorities are? (rank 1-7, 7 being the most important) Quality Price Speed of turnaround Service Environmental Latest technology Installation

31.79% 25.13% 22.05% 8.72% 6.15% 4.62% 1.54%

Q19. What are your three biggest concerns for the business in 2021 and beyond? (mark three) Cost of supplies The UK economy Further lockdowns Pricing of printed products Paying back government Covid loans Business rates New entrants to wide-format market Cyber security

85.64% 83.59% 57.95% 42.56% 10.77% 7.69% 6.67% 5.13%

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 15

Widthwise 2021

The Great Reset: sales and marketing In a marketplace where virtual meetings are becoming the OPSN IPX EP 141T ţOE BUUSBDU BOE NBJOUBJO DVTUPNFST

16 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

Widthwise 2021

H

ave you ever been forced to wave at a client in despair on Zoom because your microphone wouldn’t unmute? Or realised, as Texan lawyer Rod Ponton did recently during a court case, that you’d left your cat filter on and didn’t know how to turn it off? (The unfortunate attorney had to assure the judge “I am not a cat”). Or, worse still, have you struggled to convince hard-pressed customers - existing and potential ones - to even attend a virtual meeting?

The evidence that during the pandemic many of us struggled with ‘Zoom fatigue’ points to a more serious problem. If, as most pundits predict, we are to continue meeting virtually - even after it is safe to do so physically - how do companies sell and market themselves? That question is particularly pertinent for smaller businesses, such as print service providers (PSPs), trying to win orders from big businesses.

Given that three out of ten respondents to the Image Reports 2021 Widthwise survey are prioritising entering new markets or winning new customers in the next two years, this is a question wide-format print companies must get to grips with.

Let’s take a bit of a step back. Whatever the size of your company, the digital print sector you are in and the sales strategy you employed before the ‘Zoom boom’, your sales team will almost certainly consist of one or more of five distinct types: relationship builders, hard workers, reactive problem solvers, challengers (who use their deep understanding of the customer’s business to influence their thinking, even if it means airing controversial ideas) and lone wolves (hunter-gatherers of commissions who do things their way or not at all).

A market where virtual meetings and presentations prevail poses different challenges for each of these types. Relationships built in the offline past are harder to maintain online. Building new relationships online isn’t easy either. Hard workers can still get an edge by making the most calls, sending the most emails etc, but they will have fewer opportunities to visit in person at ungodly hours or ridiculously short notice - often the most memorable proof of their Stakhanovite ethos.

Reactive problem solvers can still do their thing, although with less face-toface contact there is a growing risk that

problems are not resolved because they get lost in the digital clutter. Challengers often need time to work their magic - and given that the average virtual meeting last 48 minutes that can prove problematic.

Still, challengers are likely to fare better than the lone wolves who risk being marginalised or ostracised as the convenience of remote meetings encourages other people to participate, either at the client or at the print service provider. In this new kind of selling process, with the emphasis on teamwork, collaboration and relationships, the ‘my way or the highway’ approach leads to one inevitable outcome.

Data will help print service providers find customers, but they also need to help customers find them.

Wide-format printing would not exist without the very digital technology that is revolutionising sales and marketing. Yet many printers see this technology through a technical prism. When it comes to other aspects of their business, their thinking is more analogue. Websites are often clunky, blogs sporadic (and unpublicised) and social media marketing inconsistent.

What makes these failings more alarming is that few print providers have mastered the art of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) well enough to be visible when a potential customer is Googling. If a buyer is searching for wide-format printers and your company name doesn’t pop up in the first five mentions you are at an immediate disadvantage.

The most troubling aspect of this digital disengagement is that many PSPs don’t recognise there is a problem. This issue is relatively easy to mitigate - by recruiting, training or hiring external expertise - but printers need to look beyond the tyranny of the urgent (the client on line one who is going ballistic) and invest for the long term.

Even before the pandemic, the sales process was becoming more complicated, which is why, across the entire sales dis-

cipline, challengers were becoming more effective than other types of seller. At the very least, many sales - especially larger orders - are likely to stay as complicated as they are now. It’s more likely, with regulators, investors and clients increasingly adopting the ESG (Environmental Sustainable Goals) agenda, that sales will get more complicated. The only way for print service providers to navigate this turbulence is to invest in data - not in prepress or the pressroom but across their operations as a whole. (This is why it is a tad worrying that only 2.6% of respondents in the 2021 Widthwise survey plan to invest in management information systems in the next two years.)

Data will help print service providers find customers, but they also need to help customers find them - and to do that, they have to, as the street artist Banksy famously put it, “Think outside the box, collapse the box and take a sharp knife to it”. Why so? Because the surest way for printers to drive that discovery process is to do something which only an enlightened few have done - invest in content.

By content, we don’t mean something mammoth, like a 100-page guide to your environmental practices (although a more compact version might come in handy in the next five years), but something more modest, putting the right photograph on Instagram, joining an appropriate online campaign (perhaps one related to a cause close to your heart or serving the local community) or even something as basic as having bothered to write a blog, promoting it with a Tweet rather than posting it on your website in the usually forlorn hope that a valuable new customer will stumble across it while Googling.

It’s important to create - and share the right content (especially with SEO in mind) but it’s also important that you create and share it regularly. The virtualisation of sales and marketing, if you can call it that, is a threat to PSPs because all your customers are in play in a way they never were before - and an opportunity for them - because everyone else’s customers are in play too.

No matter how brilliant your sales team, even if it is jam-packed with thrusting and dynamic challenger types, one of the oldest rules of selling still applies - if a buyer doesn’t know you exist - or has forgotten you do - they are not going to place an order with you.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 17

Sponsored feature: Premier Paper

Seeing the Wood for the Trees Premier discuss sustainable solutions amidst the war against single use plastics, deforestation and carbon emissions.

D

emand for products with improved environmental credentials continues to grow, amongst the increasingly knowledgeable and environmentally aware customer base.

Collectively we are more conscious of environmental impacts such as our own carbon footprint, non-recyclable single use plastics or the effects of unsustainable industrial practices. For quite a while now, the paper industry has improved its environmental standards with most paper mills around the world planting more trees than they harvest; ensuring the future sustainable supply of cellulose fibres.

For many years the mills have been utilising cleaner, more sustainable practices to ensure that the paper we use today carries the best, reliable environmental credentials such as FSC®, PEFC and EU Ecolabel amongst others. It was inevitable that the sign and display industry would follow the same path.

18 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

Premier’s product portfolio reflects the growing demand for a reduced impact on the environment and offers a wide choice of media and materials that allow their customers to make informed decisions when deciding which substrate they use to create out-of-this-world signage and point of sale displays. The growing concern surrounding single use plastics or rather the disposal of single use plastics is very real and very justified; it is estimated that over 12 million tonnes of plastic waste enters our oceans each year. In an attempt to combat this several products within Premier’s range, including PLEXIGLAS®, Ultraboard, Diplast, E-Display Board and ViPrint™ not only provide PVC-free sign and display solutions but they can also be recycled and reused.

Of course, it’s not just the oceans that need protecting, trees are also vital for biodiversity, clean air, nutrient rich soil and so many other important benefits.

Unfortunately, unsustainable and often unethical practice has led to deforest-

ation throughout the world. In the UK the woodland cover is approximately 13%, the European average is 37%. All of the paper-based products available from Premier are sustainably sourced with the majority produced using either FSC® or PEFC certified fibres; products such as Ultraboard, eTEC Hi Res Matt and eTEC Photo Gloss for example are manufactured using materials from FSC® accredited, sustainably and ethically managed forests. In addition, the vast majority of products available through Premier are manufactured in Europe, meaning the CO2 emissions produced in the transportation of these substrates is reduced heavily when compared to those sourced from further afield.

In 2012 Premier recognised the need for a new environmental initiative that not only helps with the development of native woodland but also supports businesses and enables them to improve their sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Almost ten years later, the Carbon

Sponsored feature: Premier Paper

Capture® programme which supports the work of the Woodland Trust, has grown to become the industry’s leading environmental initiative with well over 600 companies fully signed up and committed to the cause; from printers to sign makers, stationers to schools and local authorities, all directly supporting the creation and maintenance of local native woodland throughout the UK. To date Premier and their customers have raised in excess of £1.22m for the Woodland Trust and have planted enough trees to capture over 80,000 tonnes CO2.

Carbon Capture® is an environmental programme that not only provides habitat for wildlife by creating new native woodland here in the UK that is free to access for all to enjoy but also gives participating companies numerous marketing and PR opportunities to communicate their environmental values and shared values help win and retain business.

The Carbon Capture® programme is low cost, simple, easy to understand and totally transparent with 100% of the Carbon Capture® amount going directly to the Woodland Trust. There are no deductions for marketing, third party carbon trading companies or management fees.

The programme is also highly credible, operated by the Woodland Trust under the UK Government’s Woodland Carbon Code, based on emissions data calculated from approved DEFRA criteria.

The programme also offers many other tangible benefits including: • Use of a personalised Woodland Carbon logo for websites, business stationery and all jobs where Carbon Capture® material has been used.

• Woodland Carbon logo for your clients when Carbon Capture® material is used for their jobs.

• Carbon mitigation statements that can be included in annual reports.

• Certificates detailing amount of CO2 captured and the area of new native UK woodland created for display and inclusion on websites.

• Carbon Capture® brochure personalised with your company details.

• Carbon Capture® branded promotional items to help sell the programme to clients and their employees.

The Carbon Capture® programme also provides opportunities to take part in and invite your clients to take part in

tree planting events at Woodland Trust sites throughout the UK, often alongside environmental experts such as TV’s Julia Bradbury, to help create and maintain native woodland. Premier provide photographs, video content and press releases to all participants for their own marketing communication use.

The Woodland Trust’s brand profile is very high, being regularly featured on national TV news and environmental magazine programmes such as Countryfile. The brand also appears in many retail outlets and in addition there are over 600,000 registered members and supporters of the Woodland Trust throughout the UK. Like many top household and high street brands who work directly with the Woodland Trust, the brand image of companies and their clients can also be reinforced by engaging in an environmental programme that is very much associated with the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity.

With just 13% tree cover, the UK is one of the least wooded countries in Europe where the average amount of tree cover is around 35%. The Woodland Trust plants new native woodland here

in the UK, creating natural habitats for wildlife and providing places for people to visit and enjoy.

Engaging in the Carbon Capture programme and using the Woodland Carbon logo makes a clear statement regarding your company’s environmental values; values that can be shared with your target customers.

Premier is part of the OVOL Group.

Owned by Japan Pulp & Paper, the OVOL Group comprises 112 companies, operating in 21 countries. From packaging to paper, board to reels; Premier offer a next day delivery service throughout the UK on their stock items. Deliveries are made

by Premier’s own local, uniformed drivers on their own dedicated fleet of liveried vehicles. Great care has been taken to ensure that the vehicles used in the distribution process are as clean as possible and feature the latest safety and environmental standards. The latest additions to Premier’s fleet are Euro 6 emissions tested to CAZ regulations.

If you would like to turn over a new leaf and capture the CO2 emissions from your product purchases contact your local Premier team or visit www.paper.co.uk.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 19

Widthwise 2021

Talking Heads 141T SFŤFDU PO UIF NPTU UVSCVMFOU ZFBS JO UIF IJTUPSZ PG XJEF GPSNBU QSJOU TIBSF JOTJHIUT PO IPX UIFZ BOE UIFJS CVTJOFTTFT IBWF DIBOHFE BOE EJTDVTT UIFJS TUSBUFHZ GPS UIF GVUVSF

Matt Tydeman %JSFDUPS *NBHJOBUPST

I

t became a week that will not be forgotten - a week in March 2020 that impacted our industry and our business in a way we could never have foreseen.

As a large-format print provider for the music, live event and sport sectors the news of a global pandemic and national lockdown brought an onslaught of cancellations and postponements. Our bulging order book quickly became decimated as we bore the brunt of cancellation after cancellation.

We were quick to take advantage of the few industries that remained open during the pandemic and made strong gains with existing clients and developed new clients in the property sector and the entertainment industry. But the void left by the music, event and sport sectors - all continuing to remain closed - was significant, and it became apparent these markets were perhaps the first to close and become the last to reopen.

Like some others in the industry, we very quickly launched a ‘Restart Safely’ campaign for Covid-19 safety signage - including safety screens, floor graphics and sanitising stations.

This proved very successful. It strengthened relationships with existing clients and opened new markets with new clients that would not previously have considered us for various items. It was incredible to see just how quickly our business could adapt to new markets by exploiting existing technology and processes for new markets, new methods of production and new products - products I would never have envisaged us being asked to produce.

We used lockdown wisely, to embrace automation, streamline existing processes, invest in new technology, introduce new methods of production, and adapted quickly to establish new markets we never would have thought possible. We also continued employee training and accelerated our plans to strengthen our environmental credentials by researching new products, adding new processes, and engaging with clients to educate them on how our industry was finally changing.

After what has been a tumultuous, disruptive, challenging and difficult 18 months, I couldn’t be prouder of our team and

20 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

grateful for the support of our clients during the pandemic.

What a journey it has been. We’ve dug deep and have been tested and pulled together like never before. The power of our business all pulling in the same direction during such extreme circumstances is quite remarkable. Our employees have rolled with the disappointment of delayed restarts, have taken time to understand what is needed of them whilst working remotely, have stepped up to new opportunities and ways of working and continue to be incredibly loyal and provided me personally with so much pride in the business.

We used lockdown to embrace automation, streamline processes, invest in new technology, introduce new methods of production, and establish new markets.

As I look to the future, I envisage a strong economic upturn and a strikingly rapid return to normality - people are desperate to return to the freedom music, live events and sport thrive upon. I do however, unfortunately, see further challenges for our industry moving forward as businesses manage unwanted debt incurred during the pandemic, supply chains are rebuilt and the physical, psychological, and emotional challenges of people returning to the workplace after months of furlough or working from home. But I’ve been reminded that nothing is impossible and everything is possible.

We shall continue to streamline, continue to innovate and continue to embrace change.

Widthwise 2021

Richard McCombe .BOBHJOH %JSFDUPS .BUJD.FEJB

W

ithout meaning to gloat - I am not - the pandemic was like the stars coming into alignment for our business. I had been trying for over three years to move it from offering signage solutions to end users to a trade only model. I’ve struggled to communicate my vision to everyone in the business to see the opportunities we would have if we could cut our overhead in specification, site surveys, artwork, installation and of course, snagging (apparently, we are not the only ones who have re-visits).

So, bam!, Covid-19 arrives and as of 1 April we used furlough to support the business and protect the jobs of those employed by the business. However, we remained open.

With a reduced staff in the factory and customer service working from home we actively began marketing social distancing products throughout April. Our sales slumped to 40% of our turnover that month. However, I was not too concerned. I had managed to secure a CBILS loan and we had cash reserves to last six months without trading - given furlough was in place, maybe longer. We have not used the CBILS and I have not purchased any nice new shiny printers - I am not that confident.

What I did not expect was the amount of business that started to come to us in May. We were almost back to normal levels of sales by June. This was largely driven by the existing trade customer we had and new customer to arrive because our competitors were closed! Even in June, I was asking delivery drivers and some of our competitors we still closed, and many were grumbling that they could not get stocks.

Fortunately for us, in April when the industry was quiet, we purchased between 15 and 20 linear kilometres of 1600mm wide anti-slip overlaminate, before the world was going mad for floor stickers! I also remember placing an order for tonnes of acrylic with no orders on a six week back-order. The day before it was due to arrive, a lorry pulled up to deliver it, just as I was about to cancel the order. The following day we took an order for sneeze screens in six call centres and it was all used with in a week. That was nerve racking.

I am not a big risk taker - I am constantly worrying about the effects of my actions on the business and the people employed in it. But this all seemed to be working.

Because the type of work was so efficient, we were printing, cutting and packing on two shifts and were even working throughout the weekend. But we were all working in bubbles of two maximum in an area of the factory and the sales staff were all working remotely.

So why did this all work? Well largely we had all the systems, software and our large-format trade print website GraphicWarehouse.co.uk was already established. We had all the sales staff working from home by mid March 2021. By the first week in April we were all working in bubbles in the factory and by the end of May we were bring manufacturing staff back to work full time.

We did have challenges with the restrictions of the furlough agreement in bringing staff back before June and we did not know from day to day if there would be more work arriving the next day. We were literally ‘winging it’ every day for months.

However, more than a year on, with our best trading year ever, I am not sure I feel any better than I did in the first week of April 2021 sitting in my office with my head in my hands repeating, “think, think, think”.

I think we will see a flurry of optimism in late summer/ early autumn followed by a harsh winter.

I am now deeply concerned about the next 12 months. Our sales are back to normal levels, our staffing levels have reduced - we now have no installation crews and reduced manufacturing staff as we have seen projects reduce - but trade sales have now almost replaced the gap.

I am predicting inflation like I will never have seen. Currently there are shipping container shortages worldwide, a huge south China (shipping port region) Covid resurgence which is reducing shipping capacity, container prices going from $2000 to $16000 and ships running a week slower to reduce carbon footprint. Europe is running out of stock and the law of demand and supply will ensue prices are going to go up. Furlough is due to end in September when the window of opportunity for the event industry to recover is probably too late.

I think we will see a flurry of optimism in late summer/early autumn followed by a harsh winter. But this does not account for the influence of market disruption caused by reduced stocks or increases in prices.

In summary, this is not over, and today’s plan may have changed by tomorrow, but what is it they say? “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 21

Widthwise 2021

Michael Green .BOBHJOH %JSFDUPS .BDSP"SU

2

020 and 2021 was always going to be a formative and pivotal period for MacroArt - plans for growth and diversification were already drawn up, and investment in people, systems and hardware had been set in place. But contingency has also been at the core of our planning strategy. So when, virtually overnight, the tap on a large percentage of our monthly turnover was almost entirely turned off with the cancellation of virtually every single exhibition, show and ongoing project, though deeply concerning and entirely unprecedented, we had a plan.

MacroArt has had an enviable reputation as one of the leading wide-format providers in the exhibition and event sector for some years now, and it represented a significant proportion of our annual turnover - pre-pandemic plans were for us to further develop this expertise, exploring new segments within the industry and extending our reach abroad. But with the total closure of the industry due to Covid-19 restrictions and Lockdown, there seemed no prospect of pursuing this ambition for the foreseeable future.

However, strategic planning developed over the previous few years had recognised that a disproportionate dependence on a single market sector is never a wise business model, and fortunately, diversification into new business areas had been high on the agenda for our future growth plans.

Thus, this quest for diversification became our primary focus as early as the middle of 2020, with our sales and research teams focussing on the establishment of new contacts in a variety of fresh market sectors, including areas such as the museum, sport and property sectors, as well as retail, to counter the downturn in demand from the lack of live events.

It quickly became clear that, in terms of transferrable skills, our expertise in the production of exhibition graphics was well placed to provide compatible and innovative solutions to a wide array of new commercial applications, with enquiries and orders from these new marketplaces rapidly replacing our traditional (but dormant) exhibition and show work. By the end of the year, MacroArt had attracted over £1m in new business, almost exclusively from new sectors.

This refocussing on new markets was also accompanied by a resolve to further broaden our appeal by seeking out smaller, more bespoke projects and clients alongside the iconic, large scale headline brands.

This repositioning seems to be working well - already this year, MacroArt has delivered a significant number of

22 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

high-profile projects in market sectors as diverse as sport stadia, high-street retail refurbishments and heritage venues, with many of our new clients finding our existing skill sets both highly useful and able to offer a refreshing new approach to the conventional ways in which projects had previously been undertaken.

Projects like our work at Blenheim Palace supporting its sympathetic renovation, and the rebranding of one of the iconic Creams Café outlets is testament to our commitment to agility and adaptability and bodes well for the future.

However, the future is more than just survival - increasingly the importance of providing a truly sustainable service across our client base has come to the fore, and the launch of our Macro Eco programme to instil true, measurable and transparent sustainability at the core of our business, has proven of real value to many of our clients.

The importance of providing a truly sustainable service across our client base has come to the fore.

This commitment was demonstrated with a large-scale project undertaken for the English Football League at the Papa John Trophy Finals weekend in March, clearly demonstrated how we are putting these processes into action - combining greener materials, closed-loop recycling and offsetting to deliver a carbon neutral outcome for this huge graphics project.

For the future, the return of activity in exhibitions and shows will provide stability and growth, while our drive for the discovery of more new market sectors and the delivery of authentic sustainability remains at the forefront of our plans for even more opportunity. This commitment to expansion and development of our offering is underpinned by the recent appointment of our new non-executive chairman, Dominic Riley, whose experience and expertise will ensure we remain focused, and continue to invest in our employees, new equipment and fresh ideas. Above all, we remain very positive for the future.

Actively investigating and supporting the wide-format print sector Authored by former print professionals, Image Reports provides intelligent news coverage which targets those that produce and sell wide- and grandformat digital print.

Dedicated entirely to the digital print provider rather than the manufacturer or supplier, Image Reports presents information via three main filters – business, technology and the environment.

Also part of the Image Reports family is Widthwise Report, an annual survey and report on the state of the UK and Irelands wide-format print sector which is packed with facts, figures and features.

Magazine Newsletter Website Supplements Bespoke Events Roundtables Research Reports www.imagereportsmag.co.uk @imagereports Please contact Carl to discuss advertising and sponsorship opportunities: Tel: 0791 606 7589 Carl.Archer@imagereportsmag.co.uk

Sponsored feature: Antalis

Working together for a more sustainable visual communication sector Antalis is on a mission - to provide guidance to empower companies across the print, sign and display industries to make the transition to more sustainable options through understanding and education.

C

hris Green, Director of Visual Communications at Antalis looks at the issues the industry is facing and how Antalis is providing real solutions.

With the global production of plastic having tripled in the last 25 years, most countries are driving the reduction of single-use or time-limited plastic objects.

The visual communication sector, which absorbs 1% of the world’s plastic production, has a responsibility to encourage the

24 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

use of more sustainable materials - we need to reduce the impact it has clearly created across the globe.

What does this mean in practice? We all understand change needs to happen but often it is simply knowing where to start the process that can often be the biggest challenge.

As a direct result, Antalis at the start of this year, published a ‘manifesto’ outlining its commitment, alongside a support framework of products and services to guide customers through the transition towards a more eco-responsible future.

The sustainable framework includes: Responsible Sourcing - engaging in developing responsible end to end supply chain management. Our ANTRAK online platform was designed to collate, centralise and analyse supplier information relating to regulation, product traceability and CSR commitments.

Green Star SystemTM - makes it easy to identify sustainable products and helps clients to move towards easier-to-recycle and recycled materials. The system considers two key factors – raw materials used, and recyclability at end of life, attributing a

Sponsored feature: Antalis

rating from zero to five stars.

The ‘raw material’ element of the framework categorises products by their origin into either fossil fuels (hydrocarbons that are not derived from plant sources) at the lower end of the scale, to renewable and biosourced materials (plant-based), through to recycled materials at the top end of the framework. The ‘life cycle’ axis then classifies whether products are unable to be recycled due to their composition, through to products that have high recyclability such as single material polymers like polypropylene.

It is Antalis’ strategy to achieve 75% of visual communication products sold to be rated three-stars or above by 2030.

Sustainable Products - a wide portfolio of eco-responsible alternatives for most indoor and outdoor visual communication applications with the same high level of performance.

At Antalis we are constantly improving our offering which includes the Heytex Ecotex range of PVC banner and textiles and Coala Paper Stick a range of self-adhesive backed papers. These products are ideal for interior and short-term exterior displays and offer a cost effective and replenishable alternative to regular PVC-based vinyl.

Coala Magic Cling UV is a high-performance static cling made with 100% poly-

propylene which is also highly recyclable.

Antalis is also developing its range of rigid substrates such as Xanita Board, an engineered fibreboard manufactured from fibres recovered from recycled, used cardboard boxes. Katz Display Board is an excellent, environmentally friendly alternative to the use of PVC and PUR foam boards. Both provide an environmentally friendly alternative for a wide range of sign and structural applications, including POS, display, and shop-fittings.

We also have Coala Airboard, a white centred honeycomb board for 2D displays, and Priplak Recycled.

To further help reduce environmental impact, we are looking to introduce lighter weight products that use fewer resources to manufacture and require less fuel to transport.

Carbon Offsetting – In April 2021, the UK Government announced climate change targets to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. Buyers will naturally want to source sign and display products that are made with sustainable and recycled raw materials but may have to wait for the manufacturers to respond and adapt the product compositions to offer more options.

However, buyers can take first steps towards the change by carbon offsetting the unavoidable carbon dioxide emissions generated

from the products available today.

Antalis offers carbon offsetting for all visual communication products. Working alongside two leading partners – Forest Carbon and The World Land Trust, carbon credits purchased help to fund projects in the UK and worldwide.

Waste Management Support – Aligned with the waste hierarchy (reduce, reuse, recycle), customers and end clients want to minimise the amount of waste produced and often the challenge is storing sufficient segregated materials that are economic for waste management companies to collect for recycling.

Antalis is working alongside a leading waste management services provider Prismm Environmental (part of the Reconomy group) to help businesses understand and work through some of the challenges around recycling volumes and segregation of materials. Collaboration is key to tackling climate change.

In summary: Antalis is looking to further expand its range of environmental and sustainable products and services. We are determined to offer support and assistance to our customers and invest in new products, suppliers, and partnerships to help to address the many challenges ahead.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 25

Widthwise 2021

Technological outlook

W

hat do clients want now? What will they want five years from now? And what do - and will new clients want? The answers to these questions will have the biggest sway on where Print Service Providers (PSPs)

choose to invest over the next two years.

The findings of the 2021 Image Reports Widthwise survey suggest that, in printers’ eyes, customers mainly want three things - top quality (identified by 31.8%), a good price (25.1%), and a fast turnaround (22.1%).

The level of planned capital investment by the British wide-format printing

industry suggests that as many as six out of ten companies think they have all these customer needs pretty well covered: 28.2% plan to invest less than they did in 2020 (which was pretty quiet by pre-pandemic standards) and almost one in three (32.8%) do not plan to invest at all. Traditionally, PSPs have focused their capital investment on printers. That trend is even

Q20. What type of wide-format equipment do you own (mark all relevant) 55.90%

Solvent printer (inc. eco solvent) Latex printer Aqueous printer UV curable flatbed printer Finishing – laminator Finishing – contour cutter UV curable roll-to-roll printer UV curable hybrid printer Finishing – straight line cutter Dye-sublimation Print and cut roll-fed printer Inkjet 3D object printer Finishing – specialist textile (eyelet maker etc)

29.23% 27.69% 26.67% 26.67% 22.56% 19.49% 14.87% 10.26% 8.21% 6.67% 6.15% 5.64%

Q21. How much are you expecting to invest in new hardware/ software across your business in 2021 compared to 2020?

Zero spend in each period

32.82%

More

32.31% 28.21%

Less About the same

Q22. Do you expect to buy a new digital wide-format printer in the next 2 years?

6.67% 50.26%

No Yes Not sure

26 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

26.67% 23.08%

Widthwise 2021

Q23. If yes, which type of digital wide-format printer do you expect to buy? (mark all relevant) UV curable hybrid printer 34.62% Solvent printer (inc. eco solvent) 30.77% UV curable roll-to-roll printer 23.08% Aqueous printer 15.38% Latex printer 15.38% Print and cut roll-fed printer 1.92% Dye-sublimation 1.92% UV curable flatbed printer 0%

Q24. Do you expect to invest in any of the following for wideformat in the next 2 years? (mark all relevant) None of the below Finishing – contour cutter Software – design Software – workflow Software – MIS Finishing – straight line cutter Finishing – laminator Software – Web-to-print Software – versioning/VDP Finishing – specialist textile (eyelet maker etc)

77.08% 7.81% 6.25% 6.25% 2.60% 2.60% 2.60% 1.56% 1.04% 1.04%

Q25. In total, how much do you expect to invest in wide-format technology altogether over the next 2 years?

65.13%

Less than £20,000 £20,000 - £74,9999 £75,000 - £149,999 £150 - £249,999 £250,000 - £1m Over £1m

19.49% 4.62% 4.62% 4.62% 1.54%

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 27

Widthwise 2021

more pronounced in the latest Widthwise survey, with 77.1% of respondents indicating they do not plan to invest any money in software or finishing between now and the beginning of 2023.

After probably the most turbulent year in the history of digital wide-format printing, these findings are hardly surprising. Almost two-thirds (65.1%) of companies that plan to invest expect to spend less than £20,000 in the next two years. This is slightly higher than in 2019, when 64.4% planned to spend less than £20,000, but, given the disrupted and distorted state of the wide-format market since March 2020, this suggests that the sector is more resilient - and more confident about its future - than seemed likely this time last year.

Even before the pandemic, many PSPs had concluded that, having acquired new kit relatively recently, and with no

transformational leaps in digital technology on the horizon, they could afford to be cautious with their capital spend.

Investment, they felt, could be done on a

In 2019, 31% of PSPs investing in wideformat printers planned to buy a UV curable flatbed. In 2021, none of them do. ‘needs-must’ basis - to replace the odd bit of kit that wasn’t working well or to meet new customer demands. That attitude prevails in the 2021 Widthwise survey, with only 32.3% indicating they planned

to spend more than in 2020.

The industry’s preference for new printers has changed in the past two years. In 2019, 31.0% of companies investing in wide-format digital inkjet machines planned to buy a UV curable flatbed printer. In 2021, none of them do.

The most popular options now are UV curable hybrid printers (34.6%) and solvent printers (30.8%). Some of the latter will be eco-solvent but not all, and given the environmental concerns surrounding these machines, the industry’s continued devotion to them comes as something of a surprise, even though they have always been considered the ‘bread-and-butter’ workhorses of the sector. Not as high on the sector’s shopping list, but still in demand, are UV curable roll-to-roll printers (23.1%), and aqueous and latex printers (each a target for 15.4% of PSPs looking to invest).

Q26. What is the rationale behind your technological investment?

To increase capacity To improve efficiency To move into new applications/markets To improve speed of output To enhance print quality

32.82% 30.77% 25.64% 5.64% 5.13%

Q28. What is the biggest technological issue you face in wide-format? (choose one) No major technical issues Consumables (ink and media) reliability Machine reliability Colour management Equipment failing to meet expectation/published spec Workflow issues Other (please state)

28 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

61.54% 14.87% 10.77% 6.67% 4.10% 1.03% 1.03%

Widthwise 2021

Q29. Do you intend to invest in Industry 4.0/ (eg the Internet of Things, automation, AI, remote diagnostics etc) in the year ahead?

72.31%

No Don’t know Yes

The most popular rationale for investment is to increase capacity (a priority for 32.8% of PSPs) which does imply a certain optimism about their own prospects and/or the outlook for the market as a whole. Just over one in three aim to improve efficiency, while 25.6% are looking to develop new applications and/or move into different markets. Remarkably, given that most PSPs identified quality as the key customer concern, only 5.1% said this factor was driving their investments. Does that mean the industry is now at the top of its game or is it being complacent?

Ironically, one restraint on investment may be that the equipment PSPs already have is working so well. More than six out of ten (61.5%) respondents to the Widthwise survey said they faced no major technical issues. The reliability of consumables was a concern for 14.7% companies whereas 10.8% fretted about the reliability of their machines.

Outside the printroom, more than three out of four companies plan to make do with what they have until 2023. There is a modicum of interest in contour cutters (a target for 7.8% of businesses), design software (6.2%) and workflow software (6.2%).

Once again, there is very little enthusiasm for Web-To-Print (W2P), with only 1.6% of companies planning to invest in this, a third less than in 2019. The industry’s embrace of this much-hyped technology as a route to market is proving to be the slowest of slow burns.

Although many PSPs talk about the need to improve efficiency, this is not re-

18.46% 9.23%

flected in their appetite for Management Information Systems (MIS), which only 2.6% plan to invest in. Wide-format has traditionally lagged mainstream commercial print in the adoption of MIS and if anything, this year’s Widthwise survey suggests, that gap is going to widen in the next two years.

Although many PSPs talk about the need to improve efficiency, this is not reflected in their appetite for Management Information Systems Looking ahead, this does pose a challenge for the wide-format sector. The old cliché that what gets measured gets managed is still pertinent and it is difficult to see how PSPs can improve their performance if they don’t know how efficient - or how inefficient - they are now. The only upside of the wide-format sector’s reticence to invest in MIS is that PSPs are not constrained by expensive legacy systems and, if they do invest in software, will work from a blank sheet of paper.

The reluctance to measure efficiency is particularly perplexing because 85.6% of

respondents to this year’s Widthwise survey identified the rising cost of supplies as the biggest threat to their business. In that context, even incremental improvements could bolster the bottom line and escape what one wide-format printer calls “creeping cost syndrome”.

The other risk inherent in the British wide-format print industry’s approach to investment is that it may be too cautious.

This may sound absurd given that, only last summer, many PSPs were so quiet they took on non-print work to keep the wolf from the door and that, even before that, some had expressed concerns about overcapacity.

That said, consultant EY is predicting that the UK economy will grow by 6.8% this year (up from its previous forecast of +5.5%) and by 5.0% in 2022. It is not clear whether that will translate into a similar growth in wide-format (questions remain over two key markets: retail and exhibitions) but there is a view that, in general, those businesses that act fastest to accelerate growth after a recession are the most likely to thrive, rather than merely survive.

Even as the British economy - and the wide-format print market - rebounds, there will be significant volatility. Many of the industry’s traditional customers will keep pressing to reduce costs, suppliers will look to raise prices and many printers seek to diversify into new markets. Fierce competition for orders will put a premium on efficiency and some PSPs may well discover that the biggest risk is to take no risk at all.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 29

Widthwise 2021

The Great Reset: automation 5IF OFFE UP EP NPSF XJUI MFTT BOE UIF IFBMUI CFOFţU PG DPOUBDUMFTT UFDIOPMPHZ DPNCJOF UP NBLF UIF DBTF GPS BVUPNBUJPO FWFS NPSF DPNQFMMJOH 4P BSF XJEF GPSNBU QSJOU QSPWJEFST XIJDI IBWF BMSFBEZ JOWFTUFE JO EJHJUBM USBOTGPSNBUJPO SFBEZ UP TFJ[F UIF EBZ

A

utomation is a good thing - but don’t forget that it all began with Frankenstein.”

The anonymous wit who said that was only about two thousand years out. Automation really began, not with Mary Shelley’s novel (published in 1818), but in around 350BCE in Syria and Egypt when some bright sparks, convinced there must be a better way to irrigate crops, grind

“

grains and supply drinking water, invented the water wheel.

That is one of the problems with automation - it is such an amorphous term. To many, the word evokes images of robots.

Some envisage it as a factory without people - as long ago as the 1980s, Japanese graphic arts suppliers were talking of a completely automated print plant. A few see automation as AI-driven decision making.

Yet it can also be something far more basic - a machine, or a piece of software that

30 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

takes a simple repetitive task that doesn’t need to be done by a person (who might well do it wrong) and automates it. Any and all of these - and much more besides - are embraced by the equally vague term Industry 4.0 (aka the Internet of Things).

If we accept that - as has often been suggested - automation is the future of the business, what does it say about the British wide-format print industry that only 9.2% of companies, according to the Image Reports 2021 Widthwise survey, intend to invest in

Widthwise 2021

Industry 4.0 in the next two years? Or, for that matter, that 72.3% say they have no plans to?

To be fair to the UK’s print service providers (PSPs), such reticence may reflect a national characteristic. Although, as discussed, robots do not define automation, investment in them is a useful benchmark of progress. In 2019, a not so grand total of 2,000 robots were installed in the UK, compared to 2,600 in Poland, 6,700 in France, 20,500 in Germany, 33,300 in the US and 140,500 in China. As the House of Commons select committee on business noted in September 2019, having led the Industrial Revolution, the UK has missed the opportunity to drive the automation revolution and these figures suggest that the gap between this country and its global competitors is widening.

Does this matter? Yes, because it poses a serious threat to the UK’s long-term economic prospects and, by extension, to the businesses that operate in it. Let’s take productivity for example. McKinsey estimates that automation

could grow productivity by between 0.8-1.4% a year. (As a point of comparison, the steam engine boosted productivity by 0.3% a year and IT by 0.6%.) This is particularly relevant to the UK which, according to the OECD, is the least productive economy in the G7 (which includes us, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US).

In a market such as wide-format print, which isn’t growing dramatically, where margins aren’t brilliant, and the costs of supplies increasingly volatile, that extra productivity, accrued annually, could prove a powerful competitive advantage. The importance of productivity is implicitly recognised in the 2021 Widthwise survey - 30.8% of companies that intend to invest in the next year or two say their aim is to improve efficiency.

The quest for efficiencies became a matter of life or death for many PSPs during the pandemic - and some of their customers. Consultants such as McKinsey, KPMG and PwC report that the pandemic ignited corporate interest in digital transformation in its own right but also as a prelude to automation. The drive by large companies to digitise and automate procurement so they can control spend, increase efficiency (by reducing waste, duplication and time taken) and save costs is rapidly gaining momentum. Cumulatively, these trends suggest that if the wide-format sector doesn’t act it may be forced to automate by its customers on their terms.

Automation is daunting. Yet some of the barriers to investment are coming down. The advent of cloud computing and Softwareas-a-Service (SaaS) mean that businesses no longer need to invest in expensive servers, adopting pay-as-you-go models that reduce risk. Expertise remains a challenge although this will become more widely available and increasingly automated.

No PSP would be rash enough to think that automation is going to be ‘seamless’, a term used by many technologists. Large-format digital print works with a wider variety of substrates and formats than conventional commercial print and often the most valuable jobs are too complex to proceed from initial order to finished product without any human intervention. Many business cases for automation also unrealistically assume that, all or almost of all - of the time, the client knows precisely what they want and has specified that clearly.

Even the pioneering minority of PSPs that have adopted Web-to-print (W2P), a relatively narrow application of automation,

report that it takes significant amount of time and money to succeed. One problem these innovators have yet to resolve is connectivity.

In some instances, the challenge can be as basic as making sure the system that runs W2P talks to the management information system and the accounting software.

There is also a question of corporate philosophy. When the idea of a completely automated, unmanned digital print plant was mooted at a round-table meeting to discuss the findings of the 2018 Widthwise survey, Andy Wilson, managing director of PressOn, said: “It’s just not palatable to our generation.

The likes of me enjoy the craft part of the business. At what point do we just sit at home pulling in the cash?”

Trends suggest that if the wideformat sector doesn’t act it may be forced to automate by its customers on their terms That isn’t as extreme as it sounds: KPMG predicts that by 2030, AI will be sophisticated enough to take operational decisions for managers. Some say that 2030 is too soon, others that it will never happen, arguing that such consultancies have a vested interest in hyping AI because they can charge hefty fees for advising on it.

In truth, automation is not an either/or.

Using remote diagnostics to predict when a printer needs maintenance, rather than just waiting for it to break down, will reduce running costs. Automating many mundane, repetitive tasks could actually create the time and release resource for PSPs to improve their craft. A good place to start for companies is to identify where they waste the most money on repetitive processes and where they could derive the most value from automation. One of the fashionable clichés used to describe any programme of change - be it customer-centricity or sustainability - is to say ‘This is a journey, not a destination’. When it comes to automation, that cliché is actually true. And, to extend the metaphor slightly, PSPs that don’t embark on that journey may find themselves stuck at a ‘No through road’ sign.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 31

In association with: AGFA

Ink as key element to wide-format printing

L

everaging decades of experience and chemical knowledge, Agfa designs, develops, and manufactures high-performance UV and water-based inks for a wide range of applications. When manufacturing inks, we always take the entire print system into account. As part of the full ink development cycle, we optimize the jetting performance of our inks so that they work perfectly together with printheads, substrates and the entire print system. Thanks to our multidisciplinary teams that understand all processes of ink integration, Agfa inks help you achieve the best system performance.

Research & development The development process of Agfa-made

32 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

inks is truly unique. Adopting a pharmaceutical approach, Agfa develops its inks the same way medication is manufactured.

Only by rigorously screening and testing every component, variable, and possible formulation, are we able to offer you such premium ink performance.

High-throughput screening From the countless pool of ink formulations, the most appropriate candidates are rapidly identified and selected according to specific criteria in our High-Throughput Screening (HTS) labs. Thanks to automated HTS techniques, each combination is tested for viscosity, surface tension, colour value, curing speed and more. This allows for a reduction in the development time of new and promising ink formulations.

Concentrated pigment dispersion Pigment dispersion is the first and most important consideration of the ink production process. Agfa’ world-class pigment dispersion milling processes deliver pigment dispersions of superb quality with very fine and narrow particle size distribution. This advanced dispersion method is also one of the reasons why Agfa inks have such an extensive shelf life.

Ink preparation and filtration The dosages of different raw materials and ink compounds are carefully measured out and mixed under controlled conditions to prepare ink compositions that are identical from batch to batch. The next crucial step in the production process is ink filtration, which guarantees that the full batch is free from any oversized particles.

In association with: AGFA

Filling & packaging Agfa has invested in an advanced packaging and labelling line that allows for the precise and automated filling of specific, anti-contamination and UV-protective containers with its inks.

Every step of this filling process happens under perfectly controlled conditions in Agfa’s own facilities. Ink containers are carefully selected to enable the flawless preservation of ink quality and are sealed off by both a sealing film and a plastic cap. This double closure ensures that the containers do not leak, and that the inks maintain their longevity.

Extensive quality control Because we take quality control of our ink formulations very seriously, we extensively test the raw materials, pigment dispersions, jetting reliability, and other characteristics of each ink batch we produce. Only when the ink parameters meet our strict requirements for quality and performance do we market the ink batch.

Agfa inks – Always spot on Excellent prints begin with the best possible ink solutions. Leveraging years of experience and chemical knowledge, we design and develop unique high-performance UV inks for a wide range of applications with the lowest consumption on the market.

Find out just how we do this by visiting our new UK Inkjet Competence Centre in Rugby, Warwickshire. To book your demo visit www.agfa.co.uk, email icc.gb@agfa.com or call 020 8231 4027.

FIVE REASONS TO CHOOSE AGFA WITH AGFA-MADE UV LED-CURABLE INKS Agfa UV LED inks are developed, tested, and manufactured in-house by Agfa’s dedicated ink teams that use only the latest technologies. We don’t just invest in state-ofthe-art equipment, tools, and processes to develop and produce our high-performance ink solutions. We also recognize the importance of highly skilled people who are experts in pigment dispersion, ink ting, jetting, curing, production and more.

1. Lowest ink consumption on the market Agfa UV LED inks are formulated to deliver a wide colour gamut with the lowest ink consumption on the market. In addition to being both economical and eco-friendly, this results in a considerable advantage in terms of the cured ink layer’s physical properties, e.g. adhesion, flexibility and scratch resistance.

2. Consistent from batch to batch Our UV LED inks boast outstanding, stable jetting performance – including controlled ink drop formation, great ink latency and long-term jetting reliability. Perfectly tuned to applications, piezo print-heads and print system requirements, Agfa UV LED inks deliver identical results time and time again.

3. Longest shelf life Thanks to their composition and pigment dispersion qualities, Agfa UV LED inks are number one when it comes to longevity. When stored under normal conditions, ink can be conserved for up to 24 months, depending on the ink set.

4. Unique ink technology Agfa UV LED inks are designed using highly innovative ink concepts. Our Pigment Shield Technology, for example, is a patented pigment dispersion technology specifically for UV LED inks. It guarantees high colour strength and ink stability, which also contributes to the ink’s long shelf life. Thanks to our technological know-how, our ink formulations are optimized for lowest ink consumption for our selected industrial piezo print head. We offer full ink sets, which include high-performing white ink, primers, and varnish.

5. 100% customer-oriented Whether we are researching, developing, producing, or testing our ink formulations, we always prioritize our customers and their needs. Tuned to specific and functional application requirements, Agfa UV LED inks offer tailor-made solutions.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 33

Widthwise 2021

Five for Five

Q1

Asked to identify their three biggest concerns for 2021 and beyond, the cost of supplies was chosen as the biggest worry by whopping 85.64%. Should we expect to see machine costs rise too – and how significant an impact do you think price hikes across the kit/consumables spectrum will have on the sector?

Q2

Many print service providers are on an efficiency drive.

Almost two thirds (32.31%) said they improved workflow efficiencies during the last year, and 57.95% said they will do so over the coming two years. How much further do you think there is to go on that front?

Phil McMullin

Peter Bray

Sales Manager, ProGraphics, Epson (UK)

Managing Director, Durst UK and Ireland

Epson takes the long view on pricing and hasn’t put RRP prices up in the UK for the past four plus years. There are no plans currently to introduce a price rise.

The global microchip shortage is driving up chip prices and print equipment manufacturers are not immune to this issue. If you add in the massive rise in the cost of a shipping container you can see that upward price pressure is becoming intense. Again Epson has long term supplier relationships in place that help mitigate some of these issues. Where possible increased raw material and logistics costs will be absorbed by ongoing improvements in internal processes and productivity.

From a UK and Ireland perspective, after some uncertainty in the wake of Brexit we have seen currency exchange rates stabilise over the last few months and confidence returning. Globally there is an historic shortage of nearly all commodities, and we have seen this reflected with inflated prices. So far, Durst has not increased prices. The company manufactures down to component level, which helps to control costings.

Knowing they can consistently reproduce the quality required quickly and easily with little set-up allows PSPs to invest in technology that supports efficient operation. Simple interfaces and built-in user guides enable faster set-up times and reduce print problems. Power down functions allows systems to turn off when not in use saving electricity.

Smooth, reliable, set-up is paramount - dedicated print drivers for Windows and OSX support this, allowing the job to be set to print.

Durst offers end-to-end digitalisation involving all stakeholders. Working in close partnership with our customers, we encourage them to find complete solutions involving product management and software as part of Durst’s mission to provide the complete smart factory concept, which helps them improve workflow efficiencies.

The goal is full automation of repetitive tasks and self-optimising production. However, the scope is not limited to the digitisation of production and print data workflows or to automate production lines with smart and connected machines, but includes the sales process, customer communication and enterprise resource planning.

34 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

Widthwise 2021

8F BTLFE ţWF LFZ TVQQMJFST ţWF LFZ RVFTUJPOT BCPVU UIF GVUVSF PG UIF JOEVTUSZ CBTFE PO UIF ţOEJOHT PG UIJT ZFBSōT 8JEUIXJTF TVSWFZ )FSFōT XIBU UIFZ IBE UP TBZ JO SFTQPOTF

Kevin Jenner

Bobby Grauf

Jane Rixon

European Marketing Manager, Fujifilm Wide Format Inkjet Systems

Sales Manager UK/Ireland, Inkjet Large Format Production Sales UKIE, Agfa Business Development Manager, HP Inc.

The pandemic has affected the entire supply chain - we have seen changes in production output and demand, while raw materials, components and shipping costs have surged in cost. At Fujifilm are acutely aware of striking a balance between absorbing some of those costs and passing some of them on where necessary.

Fujifilm believes that post-pandemic there will be a return to basics. Print companies will be looking for printers with the best possible price/performance ratio, which include all the essential features but leave out some of the non-essentials in order to keep costs as manageable as possible.

We have seen a significant increase in our costs, predominantly in raw materials and freight. It’s hard to estimate how permanent the current situation is, and whether we will see a change any time soon. We continue to monitor the situation closely and we will try to mitigate the impact to our customers as much as possible.

HP doesn’t comment on the cost of products or supplies, as this will be affected differently in every market.

Right now, driving down running costs is more critical than ever, and MIS and RIP software systems continue to break new ground in optimising production.

As a systems supplier, our focus is on designing machinery with the user and the service team in mind to ensure they can operate with maximum uptime. At the same time, we ensure ink usage and particularly ink wastage is kept to an absolute minimum.

The last few months were indeed a good time to reflect how a business can improve its efficiencies - we have done the same at Agfa. There is no defined end to this as we must constantly adapt and drive change through our companies. Today’s efficiency gains will need to be reviewed in future otherwise we stand still. That’s why at Agfa we want to continue to lead the conversation about workflow and operational efficiencies with our customers.

In 2020, when customer demands changed overnight, PSPs had to experiment with new formats and workflows to remain competitive. For many, the sudden switch to remote working highlighted workflow inefficiencies, and having a workflow solution that’s able to cater to multiple scenarios became a critical tool.

While adoption rates of workflow solutions have increased over the years, we expect to see an even greater implementation, as PSPs accumulate year-on-year data of their performance while using such technologies. At HP, we continually assess ways to improve and advance the range of workflow solutions that are available to all HP large-format users, from HP SmartStream software to the Print OS app all designed to help PSPs maximise their profitability and get the most out of their printer.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 35

Widthwise 2021

Five for Five

Q3

Phil McMullin,

Peter Bray,

Sales Manager,

Managing Director,

ProGraphics, Epson (UK)

Durst UK and Ireland

Epson’s large-format series firmware enables paper/boards to be automatically collected but from a manufacturing perspective there are no current plans to automate with robotics. Epson will continue to invest in developing solutions that make the user experience more efficient and productive. It has introduced features such as Epson Production Monitor (one of the services offered on the Epson Cloud Solution Port). It allows you to monitor equipment across several sites, or several printers on one site, from the production floor or remotely.

The prospects for automation across wide-format will significantly increase in a post-pandemic world. We believe that we will be able to predict the future with clever, intelligent algorithms. As first reported in Image Reports earlier this year, we are currently developing a technical infrastructure with machine-learning technologies that will enable predictive maintenance measures in production environments to soon become a reality. Our aim is to have no unplanned service requirements by 2025. We believe we will be able to say with some certainty what will happen in real-time in terms of the potential for breakdowns. However, it is not just about automation - versatility is also increasingly important as lead times for orders continue to decrease, which, in many cases, means only digital production can deliver.

‘Greening-up’ is now a strategic necessity - 70.77% of those PSPs polled say it’s more important for their company to be seen as environmentally-friendly than it was two years ago.

The definition of ‘green’ is changing too, with an emphasis on the entire value chain (eg including emissions from suppliers and partners, not just the plant itself). What is your view on this trend?

Epson has very recently set out its sustainability-focused vision for the future. It includes a commitment to reducing carbon emissions in line with the 1.5ě scenario by 2030. In April Epson announced it is joining RE100, a global collective of businesses committed to achieving 100% renewable electricity by 2023. It followed news that all sites in the Nagano Prefecture (where Epson HQ is situated) would transition to 100% renewable electricity by April 1, 2021 and the March announcement that by 2023 all worldwide group sites will meet their electricity needs from 100% renewable energy sources.

Epson is working towards becoming carbon negative and underground-resource free by 2050, too, and recently announced Epson 25 Renewed.

Epson currently ranks in the top ten of all companies measured by industry intelligence provider IDC’s sustainability framework for our sustainability commitments and achievements.

We collaborate and create products or share solutions that serve a real social purpose and exceed expectations. This includes developing increasingly sustainable technologies and responsible ways of working. It includes supporting sustainable trends such as reshoring with flexible and responsive solutions. And, as all our components are produced in Epson-owned factories, we can better guarantee the sustainability of our products at every stage of the product lifecycle.

From a UK and Ireland perspective, we know that our customers are under pressure from retailers to ensure they have green credentials.

Durst has always pursued an ecological and sustainable approach, which is also firmly entrenched in our corporate philosophy. This goes hand in hand with our concept of sustainable print solutions. This starts with considering the ink technologies but also considers minimum substrate waste when feeding the machine and minimum waste generation, energy and water consumption in the machine manufacturing itself.

It can also be expected that much more standardised testing procedures for recycling will come up in the next years, with a special focus on inkjet-printed recycled media.

We are very proud of driving innovation in the field of Water Technology (WT). The inks are used in textiles (eg the Alpha series or P5 TEX) and packaging (eg P5 WT series or Single Pass Corrugated line).

Because of the choice of raw materials and the applied technology itself, Durst has been Greenguard Gold-certified for several years.

Q5

Epson has such a diverse product portfolio covering signage, textiles, photography and technical plotters, and we’re continuing to introduce new solutions such as UV flatbed, A4 dye-sub, entry-level direct to fabric, and that’s only in the last year. Through its dedicated R&D programme Epson is addressing what the demands look like across different customer audiences so technology can be offered wherever it has societal value.

Although investment levels dropped, we have seen encouraging signs and a clear growth in demand with the economy opening up again in the UK and Ireland. At Durst, we are fortunate in that our business is spread across a diverse number of sectors where many have indeed flourished during the pandemic, including labels and packaging. Other sectors ripe for digital transformation and showing positive growth opportunities include corrugated packaging, folding carton, ceramics and decorative markets such as wallpaper and textiles.

The pandemic has focused many companies on automation, yet, when asked ‘do you intend to invest in Industry 4.0 (eg the Internet of Things, automation, AI, remote diagnostics etc.) in the year ahead?’, 72.31% said ‘no’. In your view, what are the prospects for increased automation across wide-format?

Q4

Anticipated investment levels are low within the professional largeformat PSP at the moment.

Does that mean you, as a company, will diversify to seek new types of customer or markets for your wideformat print technologies?

36 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

Widthwise 2021

Kevin Jenner,

Bobby Grauf,

Jane Rixon,

European Marketing

Sales Manager UK/

Large Format Production

Manager, Fujifilm Wide

Ireland, Inkjet Sales

Business Development

Format Inkjet Systems

UKIE, Agfa

Manager, HP Inc.

We are entering an age of enormous change, which will open up huge possibilities for all industries, and print is no exception. Suppliers need to harness the power of what new technology offers to develop more print-related solutions and, perhaps more importantly, to communicate and educate the customer base on what exists and how they can exploit it.

Over the last few years, Fujifilm has focused very much on developing smart automation systems including the use of robots that work in conjunction with high-end flatbed systems to dramatically improve output and efficiency when compared with manual loading. As print speeds increase, these systems will become even smarter and more efficient.

Perhaps the topic of Industry 4.0 sounds too daunting to contemplate for some. Especially SME’s may struggle to see how they can integrate such a big topic in their business. But automation comes in much smaller chunks than people may realise, and it can be integrated step-by-step without much upheaval or disruption. A great example is file flow and processing from concept to print, where an automated workflow solution such as Asanti Production can take care of the mundane tasks and ensures error-free creation of print-ready files and cutter data.

With reduced workforces and social distancing measures in place, remote tools and software became indispensable during the pandemic. Though total automation may not be the preferred solution for many business owners, for many this was a wake-up call in regards to the power of connectivity tools as a means of evolving their business.

In the years to come, we expect to see a natural rise in the use of intelligent connectivity solutions to manage endto-end workflows. Connectivity and intelligent automation solutions such as the HP Applications Centre proved imperative for staying on top of production and helping to make data-driven decisions throughout the pandemic. As a result, we expect to see a rise in the adoption of tools that encourage seamless interaction between print hardware and the user.

The print industry needs to have the environment and sustainability at its heart across the entire value chain.

Print companies certainly have a role to play and should be encouraged to have the ‘green’ discussion with their suppliers. As an example, ink systems must be developed and produced with conformance to the tightest industry guidelines and ways should always be sought to minimise the impact on the environment. Fujifilm has had a strong environmental ethos across the business for many years but we strive to improve further still. To that end, Fujifilm Ink Systems has appointed its first director of sustainability.

Furthermore, media suppliers have a significant role to play in this and it is encouraging to see the dramatic shift away from PVC and the introduction of more ecofriendly solutions.

On a wider print industry scale, however, the inkjetbased PSP industry has already made incredible progress in environmental terms. There are still many products that are printed. Fujifilm is devoting significant investment and manpower to developing appropriate, inherently ‘greener’ inkjet systems to replace analogue.

Of course, environmental and ecological aspects play a key role when developing, manufacturing, and supplying products and services. We are careful which materials we use, the technology we chose and how we best distribute them around the globe. A nice example is how we have significantly reduced ink waste through our patented Thin Ink Layer technology, which has a tangible benefit on our environment and our customers’ profitability. But there is more that needs to and can be done!

At HP, sustainability is incorporated into the development of all our technology - we are recognised as one of the world’s most sustainable companies, driving towards a circular and net zero economy through our products and solutions. In fact, HP’s water-based inks transformed the industry years ago, and the newest Latex Technology carries a broad set of credentials addressing ink chemistry and indoor air quality to lifecycle considerations, earning recognition for products as environmentally preferred overall.

In order to generate a ‘green’ value chain, PSPs and OEMs must work in tandem and make use of cutting-edge equipment and solutions. For example, the use of cardboard HP Eco Carton cartridges reduces plastic use per litre of ink by 80% and decreases life cycle GHG emissions by 66% compared to a plastic ink cartridge, due to savings associated with manufacturing and transport, and the HP DesignJet Studio is the first net carbon neutral HP plotter. We see a growing need in conveying these sustainability benefits to print buyers and PSPs, helping them to differentiate from lesser sustainable offerings and remain competitive in this rapidly evolving market.

Just as PSPs need to remain flexible and look for new opportunities, the same is true for companies like Fujifilm.

The sign and display sector is at the heart of our business and will remain so, but we have also always had a strong presence in ‘industrial’ markets with both out analogue and inkjet technologies. The more we drive those technologies forward, the more industrial markets are becoming accessible to us and the opportunities for future growth here is substantial.

Agfa’s vision and mission is being an imaging solution provider spanning numerous industries and markets. Our Digital Print and Chemicals division, which serves the wide-format sector, is here to succeed with its customers and there is no doubt that we will see continued growth in our core as well as adjacent segments. Any expansion

by Agfa into new markets will help our current customers benefit from our learning like we have proven over the last 153 years.

In the coming year, we see growth potential in the digital décor arena, driven by the switch to a hybrid work environment, and the recognition that wellbeing indoors is becoming of critical importance. That’s why this year, HP has helped its customers investing in HP Stitch and HP Latex technology to move into these growing markets such as interior décor, by providing webinars designed to educate PSPs on emerging trends.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 37

Widthwise 2021

Environmental outlook

38 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

Widthwise 2021

Q30. How important is it for your company to be seen as environmentally friendly?

70.77%

More important than 2 years ago

12.31%

No shift – not important

10.77%

No shift – important

6.15%

Less important than 2 years ago

Q31. Do you have environmental accreditations?

67.18%

Yes

17.44%

No

15.38%

Working on it

Q32. Do clients ask for your environmental credentials/policies?

43.08%

Few

27.18%

Around 50/50

21.03%

None

8.72%

Most

W

e have less than three decades to reinvent a global economic system based on a ‘takemake-use-lose’ approach to resources, which is failing us as people and the plant we call home.

Five and a half years ago, the leaders of more than 180 countries struck a deal in Paris to save the world from catastrophic climate change. This November, the world’s leaders will meet again in Glasgow, knowing that the crisis has, if anything, got worse and that they need to be more ambitious in the targets they set and the measures they take to implement them. (Although the deal, known as COP21, was a big step forwards, none of the countries responsible for most industrial emissions have met their targets.)

It seems timely then to ask whether British wide-format printers have done any better than the politicians. The answer, as provided

by the 2021 Image Reports Widthwise Survey is probably yes, but they could - and need - to do much more.

The good news is that the proportion of PSPs with environmental accreditation has more than doubled in the past five years - from 34.4% in 2016 to 67.2% today.

This is reflected in the fact that 70.8% of companies say it is more important to seen as environmentally friendly now than two years ago. (In 2016, only 23.9% of respondents felt like that - and 23.5% believed it had become less important.)

There has been a similar, if less emphatic, shift in customer concern: in 2016, 55.1% of printers said that customers never asked them about their environmental accreditation or policies. This year, only 21.0% said their clients never mentioned sustainability (although a startling 43.1% said that few buyers bother to check).

This does put PSPs in a bit of a quandary.

The business press is full of stories about

organisations making net zero pledges (promising that their value chain will have zero net impact on the climate through greenhouse gas emissions), which is good because if we don’t achieve that target by 2050, we have zero chance of restricting global warming to 1.5C and little hope of avoiding calamitous climate change.

Yet the companies buying wideformat print don’t yet seem to share that urgency. To be fair, they probably have other priorities in the short term, such as rebuilding their businesses after the pandemic. In such circumstances, how far should PSPs lead the customer? Some companies are determined to have a go - 11.7% of respondents are focusing on upselling greener print options and services. One reason that PVC, which is hard to recycle, remains one of the industry’s most common substrates is that a print buyer will still often have to spend more to use a greener alternative.

www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2021 | 39

Widthwise 2021

Q33. What are your three top environmental priorities over the next two years?

28.7%

Use recycled/recyclable materials

25.1%

Reduce/recycle in-house waste

17.4%

Measure/reduce your carbon footprint

14.4%

Reduce your energy consumption ‘Upsell’ end print solutions that are recyclable Provide customers with a print/waste take-back/recycle scheme Improve your in-house energy generation (install solar panels etc)

Big businesses are leading the way on net zero - by March 2021, more than one fifth (21%) of the 2000 largest publicly quoted companies in the world had made pledges.

To achieve them, these groups will need to look beyond their own operations to assess partners, suppliers and sub-contractors.

In other words, print buyers and PSPs will need to take decisive action in the next three to five years.

What are printers doing to make their businesses greener at the moment?

The most popular priorities are using recyclable materials (a focus for 28.7%) and reducing/recycling waste (25.1%).

Just over one in six respondents (17.4%) are at square one, looking to measure and/or reduce their carbon footprint.

Using less energy was a target for 14.3% of companies. This agenda is not that different from what it was five years ago and, although all these measures will help, they do raise the concern that PSPs are not thinking bolder and greener enough.

“What we need is a new kind of systemic thinking about climate change,” says Daniel Boettcher, a journalist and environmental consultant who reported on the Paris climate change conference. He does not deny that greener materials and new technologies can make a difference but, in his view, we cannot rely too heavily on

them. The kind of change required is, he argues, far greater and deeper. Instead of focusing on one individual part - such as a more recyclable substrate - business leaders need to look at the company’s system as a whole and understand how different elements interact so they can design a new system that makes much more efficient use of resources - and might help save society as we know it.

If we don’t take that step, Boettcher says, there is a risk we become complacently content with low-hanging fruit. “Many small businesses want to be more sustainable but they aren’t sure how. Many of the companies that have taken a lead on this issue - such as Unilever - are so big it’s hard for smaller businesses to see how they can learn from them. Many SMEs will start out with the obvious steps - reducing waste, recycling, electric vehicles, and renewable energy - and these will all help them do less harm to the environment - but maintaining momentum after that can be much harder, without systemic, strategic thinking.”

There is already a groundswell of support for the circular economy, a model incorporating renewable energy and founded on three core principles: designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. To properly apply this

40 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

11.7% 3.5% 2.5%

model, PSPs will need to reappraise - and quite likely reinvent - every aspect of their operations. The print process itself - from inks to substrates to print kit and finishing - is an obvious focus, but there are also more obscure ones.

How often, for example, does your company upgrade or buy smartphones?

This sounds trivial but if we used smartphones and other electronic devices for a year longer than we presently do, the European Union says the annual decrease in carbon emissions would be the same as taking two million cars off the roads. And next time you invest in your website, ask yourself whether it is being hosted using renewable energy and also how elaborate the design itself - as a rule of thumb, a website with such features as video auto-play will generate mote than 40 times as much CO2 per page view as stripped back one.

Companies have come to an inflection point where doing less harm than they used to do will no longer be enough to satisfy customers, Governments, consumers, investors, citizens and employees. The 2021 Widthwise survey suggests that most British wide-format printers understand this - but also that the 17.4% who don’t yet know what their carbon footprint is really need to sort themselves out.

Widthwise 2021

The Great Reset: on purpose Before the pandemic, companies could get away with clichéd sound bites about purpose. Not any more. As this article explores, employees, customers and investors expect businesses to have an authentic purpose that matches words with deeds.

T

here’s a lot of rubbish talked about corporate purpose. With climate change and the pandemic, the thought leadership industry has become obsessed with such memes as the Great Reset, the New Normal, No Normal and even The New Abnormal.

Don’t be distracted by the tacky terminology, corporate purpose is a benchmark by which all businesses - yes, even privately owned ones - will increasingly be judged by customers, consumers, citizens, communities, investors, regulators, journalists and employees. Leaders tempted to think they can get away with the old ‘razzle dazzle’ such as ‘Our mission is to be best in our markets’ - really need to think again.

A compelling statement of corporate purpose must answer four critical questions: • Why does your company exist?

• What does your company do?

• Who does your company do it for?

• How does your company do it?

Twenty years ago, it was enough to identify what line of business you were in and saying: “We exist to make money for our owners”. Economist Milton Friedman famously argued that a business’s social responsibility was to make “as much money as possible” and many CEOs, consultants, investors (and even politicians) believed that right up until the Great Recession of 2008-10.

The gathering storm of climate change and the trauma of Covid-19 have forced many of us - as citizens, consumers and employees - to reconsider what occupations, and which organisations , are indispensable to society. Public trust in Government, for so long the go-to piñata for disenchanted voters, grew during the pandemic - and public trust in business, especially big business, fell sharply. In

the hysterical courtroom of social media, companies were not just being lambasted for damaging the environment, they were condemned for the way they treated their staff, slammed for the bonuses awarded to their leaders and criticised for not paying enough tax on their profits.

As the pandemic subsides - we hope - it is possible that this hysteria will die down.

Yet for many of us, questions will linger.

A very basic one, thrown into sharp relief when the pandemic was at its worst, was: why am I working? The traditional answer - to make a living - still satisfies many but studies suggest that, especially among Generation Z and younger Millennials, who grew up in the shadow of the Great Recession, there was a shift away from money and towards meaning.

American psychologist Patricia Greenfield said: “In harder times, people have to work together to survive.” Her research

42 | Widthwise 2021 | www.imagereports.co.uk

found that these demographic groups were more supportive of giving to charity, more concerned about inequality and the environment and less concerned about owning expensive stuff than their slightly older cohorts. Collectivism was prized, individualism criticised.

As these groups form the majority of the world’s workforce - and, for that matter, of the world’s consumers - such shifts are not to be taken lightly.

Individualism may come back into fashion - although Greenfield’s work suggests this will only happen after a sustained, significant economic recovery - but the Friedmanist idea that what’s good for business is good for the world has been rendered obsolete by global warming.

Knowing why you exist, what you do, how you do it and who you do it for will become an increasingly powerful weapon in the war for talent, investment and sales.