Wide-Format & Signage News - April 2019

APRIL 2019

Industrial Printing: The Digital Tower of Babel p.42

39 W ide-Format Printing: Still a Compelling Business Opportunity and Investment Category 46 W orld on Windows: The Changing Face of Window Graphics 56 F iberForce Partners with Pantone to Bring Professional Color to 3D Printing Filaments

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VP, GROUP PUBLISHER Kelley Holmes kelley@whattheythink.com PRODUCTION EDITOR & MANAGER

Amy Hahn amy@whattheythink.com

EDITOR Jessica Taylor jessica@whattheythink.com MANAGING EDITOR Richard Romano richard@whattheythink.com SENIOR EDITOR Cary Sherburne cary@whattheythink.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Paul Zimmerman paul@whattheythink.com PRESIDENT Eric Vessels eric@whattheythink.com 740-417-3333 COO Adam Dewitz adam@whattheythink.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tom Crouser Jennifer Matt Dave Fellman Heidi Tolliver-Walker John Giles Deb Thompson Elizabeth Gooding Joann Whitcher Andy Gordon David Zwang CREATIVE SERVICES Bobbi Burow, CreativityTank LLC bobbi.burow@gmail.com SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE For change of address or subscription information email: help@whattheythink.com Published by WTT Media, Inc. 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116 ARTICLE REPRINTS Please contact your account executive PrintingNews.com PrintingNews.com—the web portal representing content from Printing News, Wide-Format & Signage, and Inkjet’s Age—is devoted to delivering you timely news and multimedia content on a daily basis.

WhatTheyThink (USPS 500-850) Volume 42, Number 6 is published ten times per year in January/February, March, April, May, June/July, August, September, October, November, and December by WTT Media, Inc., at 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116. Periodicals postage paid at Saint Paul, MN and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WhatTheyThink, PO Box 3257, Northbrook, IL 60065-3257. Subscriptions: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. to qualified subscribers.

Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Annual subscription prices in the U.S.A $95; Canada $125 USD; all other countries $150 USD. Printed in the USA. Copyright © 2019 WTT Media, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recordings or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission. WTT Media Inc. does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of causation. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not those of the publishers, unless indicated. The publishers do not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, or of any views or opinions offered by the authors of said articles.

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According to John C. Maxwell, Change is

Inevitable, Growth is Optional

T

he Printing Industry continues to experience change and growth (if you know where to look). It started for me years ago when Benny Landa launched the Indigo to compete in the digital printing arena.

My production director was the first to compare the prints looking through his loupe and quick to say digital would never replace offset. While it hasn’t yet replaced everything, digital is a huge part of the market today co-existing with offset to create unique jobs allowing for higher ROI on print with savvy marketers using smart data to send a more personal message to their customers and prospects.

We are going to get more personal with our clients and subscribers and are planning a personalized content strategy by taking small steps in this direction.

As a customer of the USPS, we are also at the mercy of postal regulations that require magazines with periodical rates to only version 20 percent of the magazine content. In keeping with these requirements and playing into the strategy of growth in the areas of Labels and Packaging, Industrial Printing, Textiles and Marketing Technology, while satisfying our Wide-Format & Signage readers as well as our Printing News readers, it has become clear that we require a broader magazine brand for our print edition that can meet the needs of all these areas.

Beginning with the April edition, you will now see the WhatTheyThink brand as the print masthead logo, and we will version the unique segments with imagery, content call outs and the associated demographic logo in the design. This will assist us with a better, more informative, highly targeted magazine that satisfies postal regulations. At the same time, we will work with regulators to attempt to drive change that will better reflect the current marketing opportunities magazine publishers could have if they were not restricted by outdated postal regulations.

We foresee a day when the magazine is highly targeted and versioned with very detailed information delivered to just the right person.

Printing News and WhatTheyThink will continue to be the associated web portals for our subscribers with the content that’s print worthy making its way into the versioned print magazine. See this editorial for more detail: www.printingnews.com/21046016 As always, please reach out to us with your comments or questions regarding how we can better serve you, and we would love to hear what you think about the new print magazine branding! ■

Kelley Holmes VP, Group Publisher kelley@whattheythink.com WhatTheyThink - Printing News

3/15/19 11:55 AM

For more information, visit Printingnews.com/10013323

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CONTENTS

APRIL 2019

PRINTING NEWS COVER STORY

8 Annual Print Franchise Review 21 Secure Printing is an Industry-Wide Challenge

8

24 Sustainability and E-Commerce Driving Growth in Luxury Packaging 26 Uninterrupted Time in a Print Business 28 Going Live with Print Software

21

30

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Departments 4 Editorial 7

Printing Pulse

36

New Products

32 Watch List: Video

34 Production Inkjet: It’s Not Just About the Technology Anymore

In the Know- Events

42 Industrial Printing: The Digital Tower of Babel

60

Classifieds/Supplier Directory

INPrint USA ISA International Sign Expo Fespa

April 9-11 April 23-26 May 14-17

IPMA 2019

June 2-6

EskoWorld

June 24-26

Search for us… twitter:

46 World on Windows: The Changing Face of Window Graphics 50 Sell, Sell, Sell...The Most Important Thing A Printer Can Do

6

62 Association Insights: ISA

55 Wide-Format & Signage News

39 Wide-Format Printing: Still a Compelling Business Opportunity and Investment Category

52

58 I s the Offer One of Your Database Variables?

30 When Did High Speed Inkjet Become Just Another Capital Investment?

WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE NEWS

46

56 FiberForce Partners with Pantone to Bring Professional Color to 3D Printing Filaments

52 FastSigns Project of the Year

@PrintingNews; @WideFormatSign @whattheythink facebook:

Printing News; wideformatsignage @whattheythink linkedin:

Printing News linkedin.com/groups/1780044 whattheythink youtube:

PrintingNews.com

WhatTheyThink - Printing News April 2019

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PRINTING PULSE Kodak Names Jim Continenza Executive Chairman The Board of Directors of Eastman Kodak Company announced the appointment of Jim Continenza as the company’s new Executive Chairman, effective immediately. Continenza, who has served as Chairman of Kodak’s Board of Directors since 2013, will continue as Board Chairman while also assuming the responsibilities of Jeffrey J. Clarke, who is stepping down after nearly five years as Chief Executive Officer. In his role as Board Chairman, Continenza, 56, has led the Company’s efforts to improve its capital structure, execute strategic M&A transactions and drive investment in growth engines. He brings robust experience and a proven track record guiding several leading, innovative technology companies through transformations. Continenza said: “I am thrilled to build upon our Board’s strategic vision and become an integral part of day-to-day operations as the Company continues to execute on its previously announced initiatives. Importantly, I look forward to helping Kodak build long-term value for shareholders as we continue to deleverage our balance sheet, increase operational efficiencies, and maximize the potential of our key growth drivers. I’d like to thank Jeff for his strong leadership and I’m optimistic about the future of Kodak given our team, our assets and the opportunities ahead.”

www.printingnews.com/21048487 Xerox Restructures Business to Create Holding Company Xerox has announced via a filing with the SEC that it plans to implement a structure in which the existing company will become a wholly owned unit of a new holding company. The 8-K form states: On March 6, 2019, Registrant’s Board of Directors approved a reorganization (the “Reorganization”) of Registrant’s corporate structure into a holding company structure, pursuant to which the Registrant will become a direct, wholly-owned subsidiary of a new holding company. The purpose of the Reorganization is to provide the Registrant with strategic, operational and financial flexibility. The business operations, directors and executive officers of the Registrant will not change as a result of the Reorganization. The Reorganization is subject to shareholder approval, regulatory approval and other customary conditions and is expected to be implemented in mid-2019, though there can be no assurance as to its completion or timing.

www.printingnews.com/21050127

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Xante Names CyanX UK Dealer Xante’ has announced that it has selected CyanX, Ltd., as its dealer in the United Kingdom. “I am extremely excited to have CyanX as part of the Xante’ team. They will bring a wealth of knowledge and support to their customer base in the digital print production and wide format marketplace. They are well respected in the UK and we are thrilled to have them as the face of Xante’,” said Mark Priede, Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Xante’. CyanX will represent the Xante’ En/ Press Multimedia Digital Press, Excelagraphix 4800, X-32 Industrial Production UV Printer and their consumables to printing establishments of all sizes and will be certified to provide parts and service as well.

www.printingnews.com/21050711

Canon Solutions America Launches Océ PrintSight Software Canon Solutions America, Inc. announced the launch of the new Océ PrintSight software developed

by Canon Solutions America to provide print-forpay businesses an effective tool to monitor their Océ Arizona, Océ Colorado, and Océ ColorWave printers.

The Océ PrintSight software will enable print-for-pay business owners and their production staff to closely monitor many important aspects of their Océ Arizona, Océ Colorado, and Océ ColorWave printer fleet from anywhere on their network. Océ PrintSight displays a range of data in an intuitive user interface, allowing for real time reporting on ink usage, media type printed, square footage, print time, machine status, and more.

To help better determine production schedules, machine utilization, and identify the printers that still have capacity should print volumes increase, Océ PrintSight provides the amount of time it takes to print an image.

Overall, the combination of Océ printers and the Océ PrintSight software makes for a valuable addition for print providers interested in quickly and easily knowing exactly what is going on in their production environment. Océ PrintSight gives print shop owners details to make informed decisions, allowing them to better utilize their printers and improve profitability.

www.printingnews.com/21059471 April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Printing News

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW

2018

ANNUAL PRINT

FRANCHISE REVIEW Story by Cary Sherburne

O

ver the last decade, it’s no surprise that there have been significant changes in the printing industry as we continue our journey down the path of the analog-to-digital transformation and see the ongoing impact of alternative media on print volumes.

A combination of these factors, plus the 2008/2009 recession, has taken a toll on the industry. The good news is that commercial printing shipments overall ticked up in 2018. And profits, while not back to their Q42007 levels, have recovered significantly since the 2008/2009 dip.

The number of establishments, however, does continue to decline as we continue to face consolidation.

In 2008, there were 32,697 printing establishments (NAICS 3231) in the United States. By 2016, the last year for which we have data, that number had declined to 25,521, a decline of 22 percent, with an average net loss

8

of establishments per year of nearly 900.

In the space that more closely aligns with the franchise business – establishments with less than 20 employees – there were 26,508 commercial printing establishments; in 2016, there were 21,107, a decline of 5,401 establishments, or 20 percent -- an average of nearly 700 establishments per year over the period.

In preparing this Annual Franchise Review, we wanted to take a look at the last decade in print franchises to see how that segment was tracking as compared to commercial print and to draw some conclusions about the value of franchise networks versus an independent small commercial printing firm operating on its own.

We chose less than 20 employees in commercial print as the benchmark for comparison since few, if any, franchise centers have more than 20 employees. So it’s not a 100 percent

statistically accurate comparison, but does paint an interesting picture.

Franchise Networks: Then and Now

Back in 2008, there were seven franchise networks in print: ■■ Allegra Network ■■ AlphaGraphics ■■ Franchise Services ■■ ICED ■■ LAZERQUICK ■■ Minuteman Press ■■ Signal Graphics These networks accounted for 2,509 establishments (centers) in 2008, with revenues of $1.9 billion.

Today, after a series of mergers/ acquisitions/closures, there are five remaining networks.

■■ Allegra Network (including Allegra, American Speedy Printing, Insty-Prints, KKP Canada, Speedy Printing and

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW independents are declining.

Based on what we learned in speaking with franchisors and as outlined in this article, we fully expect to see franchise network growth to continue to exceed that of general commercial print (less than 20 employees) over the coming years.

2017 vs. 2018 in Franchise Networks: A Brighter Picture

Zippy Print) ■■ AlphaGraphics ■■ Fortusis (formerly ICED) (including Kwik Kopy Business Centers, The Ink Well, Franklin’s Printing and American Wholesale Thermography) ■■ Franchise Services (including PIP, Sir Speedy, Multicopy, Signal Graphics and EastNet Print) ■■ Minuteman Press International These networks accounted for $1.35 billion in sales in 2018 with 1,918 centers. That’s a 23 percent decline in the number of franchise centers, and a 29 percent decline in revenues. During that same period, then, commercial printing establishments with less than 20 employees declined by 20 percent, while franchise centers declined by 23 percent.

Printing shipments by size of establishment are difficult to determine based on government data.

However, we were able to acquire some good data from APTech’s PrintStats program reflecting that total commercial printing shipments (including pre- and post-press) for companies with less than 20

08-18_AnnualFranchiseReview.indd 9

employees were just over $15 billion in 2008, declining to $12.5 billion in 2018. That’s a decline of 17 percent.

However, when comparing 2018 to 2017, the franchise networks’ systemwide sales grew modestly at 1 percent while PrintStats estimates that printing shipments for commercial print firms with less than 20 employees declined by 2 percent.

Revenues were a little trickier since we were unable to break them down by number of employees … but in 2008, total printing shipments for companies of all sizes in NAICS 323 were at $98.6 billion, declining to $82.7 billion in 2018, a decline of 16 percent, compared to 29 percent for franchises.

With this admittedly non-scientific analysis, it would appear that commercial print overall performed slightly better than franchise networks over the period, but not by that much, meaning franchise networks were roughly tracking with the industry in terms of numbers of establishments, but not performing as well in terms of printing shipments over the past decade. However, franchises appear to be on a growth path, while shipments by small

But the comparison in performance for franchise networks from 2017 to 2018 tells a different story.

The five existing print franchise networks, as stated above, racked up $1.35 billion in sales in 2018. While this is below franchise sales from a decade ago, these networks are again on a growth path following the decimation of the recession that everyone in print – and many other industries – sustained.

In fact, 2018 was a growth year for franchises, with total systemwide sales increasing slightly over 2017’s reported level of $1.3 billion. This is good performance in a world in which commercial print shipments overall continue to be under pressure and still remain below levels reached in 2015 and 2016.

It is also worth noting that growth was achieved in spite of the fact that the total number of centers has declined slightly from 1927 in 2017 to 1917 in 2018. Two of the five networks (Allegra Network and Franchise Services) reported higher average sales per shop, with reported revenue increases of 12 percent and 3.6 percent year-over-year growth, respectively). We are showing Fortusis as flat, since they did not report financials last year due to the Fortusis acquisition. AlphaGraphics reported a 1.6 percent year-overyear growth in systemwide sales, and Minuteman reported a slight (4 percent) year-over-year decrease in systemwide sales despite an increase April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Printing News

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW

in the number of centers.

Most networks also reported our interviews with franchisor executives from the five networks shed a great deal of light on the reasons why each of these networks delivered their respective performances. Let’s take a look at the strategies and tactics each is employing to drive future success, and then we’ll discuss what this means for franchises and for the industry at large. We’ll take them in alphabetical order.

Alliance Franchise Brands LLC The Marketing & Print Division of Alliance Franchise Brands LLC (parent company of Allegra Network LLC and KK Printing ULC) comprises the brands Allegra Marketing Print Mail, KKP, Insty-Prints and American

Speedy Printing. The company’s Sign & Graphics Division supports the brands Image360, Signs Now and Signs By Tomorrow.

Kevin Cushing, Marketing & Print Division president, is a veteran of the print franchise business and a former franchise location owner who brings a broad and interesting perspective to the business. He has been in his current role for four years.

To help guide strategic planning and direction, Cushing and team have engaged 15 of the top franchise location owners who operate highvolume centers.

“We all benefit from the exchange of ideas,” Cushing said. “As a network, we gain important insights from a highly successful and motivated group when we explore

initiatives in data services, workflow and more. They are welcome partners in formulating new programs that can be tested and refined prior to network-wide rollout.

“We also seek feedback from all of our franchise members through annual surveys, our Network Advisory Council and day-to-day interactions. Part of our stated mission is to deliver high-impact programs and support, and each interaction with franchise members helps us refine where we focus our energies.”

The company’s total center count in the Marketing & Print Division declined from 299 in 2017 to 289 in 2018, mostly a result of consolidations. The network’s systemwide sales grew from $231,519,989 in 2017 to $254,041,198 in 2018.

Two programs are available to independent printers and entrepreneurs looking for a proven franchise model.

“The Allegra MatchMaker Program allows entrepreneurs to purchase an established business with an existing customer base, cashflow and staff,” Cushing said. “Owners of independent print shops looking to retire or sell their businesses can work with one of our merger and acquisition managers to find qualified buyers or match with existing franchise members looking to expand in other markets. A re-branding to Allegra Marketing Print Mail allows

Allegra

AlphaGraphics

Fortusis

Franchise Services

Minuteman

Total Systemwide Sales 2017

$231,519,989

$305,000.000

$24,500,000*

$286,787,000

$490,000,000

Total Systemwide Sales 2018

$254,041,198

$310,000,323

$24,500,000

$297,0000,00

$468,676,500

Percent Increase/Decrease

+9.7%

+1.6%

0%

+3.6%

-4.4$

Network

* It should be noted that in 2017, Fortusis declined to report financials due to the acquisition of ICED brands by Fortusis. We used 2018 numbers for Fortusis, keeping revenues flat for comparison purposes.

10

WhatTheyThink - Printing News April 2019

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW Network

Allegra

AlphaGraphics

Fortusis

Franchise Services

Minuteman

Total Centers 2017

299

281

59

337

956

Total Centers 2018

289

273

61

330

965

Allegra

AlphaGraphics

Fortusis

Franchise Services

Minuteman

$11,421,887

$15,678,132

$1,291,724

$11,000,000

$7,000,000

Network Highest Revenue Shop

the new owner to capitalize on the power of the network and hit the ground running.”

The Allegra Advantage Program is designed for independently branded print services providers who want to grow the value of their company by gaining access to a host of franchise network resources plus develop a strategy for when they are ready

to sell.

“They are often facing issues with sales, sales management and technology,” Cushing said, “and having all of that vetted for them by our Home Office Team is a big benefit. It allows them to focus on growing instead of on infrastructure.

When it’s time, exiting the business is easier to achieve because we can

work with them to better position their company for sale. We’re out talking to entrepreneurs all the time.”

Another interesting opportunity for franchisees is the ability to dualbrand.

“In the signs business,” Cushing said, “Image360 is our growth brand.

We have 29 Allegra centers that are dual-branded as Allegra and

For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10006791

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April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Printing News

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW

Image360, and our goal is to have 80 in the next five years.”

Finally, as many executives leave the industry’s OEM/supplier businesses, either through retirement or consolidation, the organization offers qualified executives a grant to help ease them into a new business.

A referral program compensates anyone referring an entrepreneur who signs a franchise agreement.

Over the past six years, the company has made extensive investments in services and infrastructure to support its franchisees, including its WorkStream technology package. Technology is a centerpiece of the company’s long-term vision for growth. The integrated system is designed to reduce the time associated with estimating, order entry and production activities through automation, shifting the focus to client services. Strategic partnerships with a variety of industry suppliers have helped to develop a fully integrated solution that includes e-commerce, MIS, marketing technology and more, much of it cloud-based.

Its corporate Marketing Resource Center includes graphic designers, copywriters and web developers, committed to helping the network deliver marketing services. The company also conducted 489 sales training and coaching sessions in 2018.

A corporate-owned center serves as a test bed for new business opportunities and technologies. Most recently, this includes equipment for heat transfer dye sublimation, 12

beginning with the production of promotional items.

“We would like franchisees always to be able to say ‘yes,’” Cushing said, “and to rely on corporate operations to handle complicated projects.

“The acid test for the value of a franchise is when the owner has to choose to renew or not. We consistently run over 90 percent on renewals.”

AlphaGraphics One of the themes for 2018 across most of the franchise networks was weeding out non-performing centers, and AlphaGraphics was no different.

The company had 279 centers in 2017, declining to 273 in 2018.

Average sales per shop were up year over year, from $964,000 in 2017 to $1,152,749 in 2018. AlphaGraphics had the best performing shop across all networks in terms of revenue at $15,678,132. The network reported net profits of 10 to 11 percent for the year.

“We have an aggressive growth plan in place for our existing owners and for net new centers in our network,” said President,

Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer Ryan Farris. “The growth we are driving for our owners is attractive, and by showing the value of the brand to independents, we are attracting more each year who what to improve sales or are looking for an exit strategy. With our strong operating model, AlphaGraphics provides the ability to drive growth for operators as well as provide qualified buyers for those who want an exit.”

AlphaGraphics has rolled out a number of infrastructure improvements for franchisees over the last two or three years.

This includes the 2018 rollout of PrintSpeak Business Intelligence and Marketing Automation for the network. The entire network is using this tool, which comes from an Australian partner and has been Americanized, giving owners and sales people real-time information with insight into actions they should be taking, including estimating, win/ loss analysis, checking in on and providing offers to customers.

“This is not just an operating tool,” Farris said, “but a sales

WhatTheyThink - Printing News April 2019

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW enablement tool.”

PrintSpeak is fully integrated with the network’s preferred MIS, EFI PrintSmith Vision. Other initiatives include a new web site and XMPie e-commerce capability and the update from PrintSmith Classic to PrintSmith Vision. Adobe Experience Manager has also been integrated into the new web site.

“We are also working to push the network to software as a service for our operating platform,” Farris said.

“We have 30 to 40 percent there already and expect to get to 50 to 60 percent this year. And we are almost doubling our infrastructure investments to deliver better value to the network.”

One management tool this has enabled is a useful CRM tool powered by PrintSpeak.

“It will pull the customer SIC code, D&B information, number of employees, etc., for customers and prospects,” Farris said. “It’s also integrated with email – every email sent or received across the organization is tracked. And this makes customer communications more effective. You can, for example, ask the system to find every customer who placed an order today, or hasn’t within the last 90 days. You can then send emails to those groups with one click. The system even tracks email opens. And it can be viewed from the desktop or phone.”

While AlphaGraphics partners with a number of OEMs, Farris said that all new centers will ideally be equipped with a Xerox Versant 180 with inline booklet-making, a Duplo cutter/slitter, a roll-to-roll Latex printer for signage and a Colex flatbed cutting table. For higher

08-18_AnnualFranchiseReview.indd 13

volume centers, the options expand to include a Ricoh 7100 or 9100, or Xerox Iridesse, and even higher volume centers are likely to have a Xerox iGen or HP Indigo 5 Series.

Farris points out that all centers are required to have large format production capabilities.

“Signs are over 10 percent of our business today, but growing in the 25 to 30 percent range. While digital print accounts for the highest percentage of our business, we think signs will run a close second soon.”

One interesting campaign the company conducted to promote its signage capabilities was a promotion for a complete business makeover, awarded to Chicagobased Slice of Pie, a pizza restaurant.

AlphaGraphics worked with an agency to help redesign/refresh the business branding and used a local AlphaGraphics center to produce and install new signage and branding.

The updated window, wall, floor and related branding refresh and makeover will be captured on video for promotional use.

Some AlphaGraphics centers offer direct-to-garment and heat transfer capabilities, primarily for T-Shirts, a capability likely to spread. Labels and

packaging for small businesses are on the docket as well.

Fortusis Fortusis – that our readers will remember as ICED – has been in transition since the passing of Bud Hadfield in April of 2011. According to Vice President of Operations Jay Groot, the family decided to put the brands up for sale early last year, following the sale of Parcel Plus in 2015 and Kwik Kopy Canada to Alliance Franchise Brands in 2016. In early 2017, the family was approached by Curtis Cheney, the manager of the network’s largest center located in Utah, and purchased the remaining brands (Kwik Kopy, Franklin’s Printing, The Ink Well and AWT) effective Oct. 1, 2017.

“We are looking at a brand-new start, redeveloping the business model, working to ensure growth in our core group of owners and starting to sell franchises again,” Groot said, “and are excited about the energy Curtis brings to the business.

By the end of 2018, we will have sold all remaining ICED assets, and ICED will be no more.”

The company expects to develop a new brand that will encompass its business during 2019.

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW but would rather direct someone else in doing the work and focus on working with clients.”

He noted that an entry level center can be started for as little as $500,000 with equipment, furniture, working capital, etc.

“If we can get it down lower, perhaps even as low as $250,000 including working capital, that opens the door to a lot more people to get into a franchise.”

Fortusis is also committed to giving back 25 percent of franchise fees to help franchisees grow their businesses.

Franchise Services

Groot said that Fortusis means to build on strength, adding, “We plan to take the good we have in the system today and build off of it.”

There are 61 centers currently in the network with systemwide sales of $24,500,000 in 2018.

A goal of the new owner, according to Groot, is to redevelop the business model to better attract millennials.

“We believe millennials will want coaching and guidance, and a good structure to follow, and that they fit better into franchising than people who are getting out of corporate America who have established ideas about business practices and may not want to follow the franchising plan.

We will put more focus on marketing services, since there are many millennials who have graduated with a marketing degree and are not quite sure what to do with it. Print isn’t going away, and millennials like print, too. But you also have to tie in screens as well. So we expect that we will be offering an increasing portfolio of digital services as the model develops.”

What does Groot see as the center of the future for Fortusis?

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“I see them with a lot less equipment. I see them as more focused on customer solutions and using outsourcing as a means to do that, through the various trade services available. With this model, new centers can start out at a lower cost, grow, and when it makes sense, add equipment to do work themselves.”

He said that Fortusis centers are trending out of offset, so a new center might have a digital color press with good finishing capabilities and a 48” wide format printer for fast turn work on-site.

“We want to allow our people to focus on working with customers and finding solutions. Millennials are less interested in operating equipment

Franchise Services celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018 and is still going strong. The systemwide sales for the network in 2018 were $297 million, compared to $287 million in 2017, with the highest performing center generating $11 million in sales.

Franchise Services includes several brands: Sir Speedy (in business for 50 years), PIP (the oldest print franchise brand at 53 years), Multicopy, Signal Graphics and EastNet Print. The number of Franchise Services centers has declined slightly, from 337 in 2017 to 330 in 2018. Clearly, with the growth in systemwide sales, the strategy has been beneficial.

Average sales per shop in 2017 were $1,017,420, with the average rising slightly to $1,055,000 in 2018.

CEO Don Lowe is still active in the business. His son, Richard, is President and COO, and the third generation of family management is on its way with Zachary Lowe actively involved in the business.

The key business strategy at Franchise Services is to have a sales culture from the counter all the way through production, including both printing and marketing services.

“We encourage our franchisees to get out and talk to customers,”

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW Lowe said, “to better understand what they are trying to do. It can be difficult because of the competitive nature of the business and how communications have changed with so many alternatives. But we have lots of exciting products to sell.”

In 2018, the network added 11 sales people for a total of 144.

Sales among existing sales people grew 12 percent. The organization focuses on training customer service representatives, a position that Lowe said can often be left behind as the organization introduces new products.

Lowe said that the network’s signs business grew 25 percent in 2018.

“Our objective is to get to signs being 25 percent of total revenue in the shorter term, with a goal of 50

percent longer term. It represents about 16 percent of our business today. Without the growth we are experiencing in signs, our business would be flat.”

Lowe also sees a comeback in direct mail.

“While the price of postage continues to go up, which is a challenge, customers are still going back to direct mail.”

Another opportunity Franchise Services has in its sights is packaging.

“That business is more challenging than we originally thought,” Lowe said. “But we are doing template carton business with all sorts of precut templates for carton packaging available online. This is a business area that will continue to grow and not be displaced by the

internet. The label business is good for us, and we are also excited about apparel and wearables as a business opportunity. We are offering database management service as well, helping customers buy, clean and manage databases.”

The digital transformation in the network is almost complete, with less than 15 percent of franchisees owning offset presses.

One means of encouraging change among franchisees is the organization’s Application Innovation Award.

“We ask our franchisees and sales people to send in their best applications and it’s amazing what they submit. We see great online storefront implementations, unique signage solutions and innovative

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW

integrated marketing campaigns topping the list. So we recognize our innovators and share the ideas across the network to spur new excitement in the business.”

Like many organizations in the printing industry, Franchise Services is seeing many owners retiring. As a result, the company sold more of its centers to new owners in 2018 than ever before, with two of the centers selling for more than $1 million.

“The average franchise has been doing this for 20 years, and it is a highly competitive business for someone with no industry experience to start up a new center. Buying an existing center gives them cash flow, employees, equipment, customers and a lot of knowledge that can help ensure their success. Plus, we get the benefit of new blood and new ideas injected into the system. We also find that converting existing commercial printers to franchise locations has significant challenges, although we have done a few.”

Despite retirements, Franchise Services sees an average of 96 percent renewal rate among existing franchisees. In fact, two of its PIP franchises have been in the same family for 50 years.

“We ended the year on a high note.

Business is good, and we are chasing it hard again this year. Our objective is to see greater than 3 percent comparable center sales growth in 2019, and I think we will beat that number. Even after 50 years, we are still enthusiastic and having fun!”

Minuteman Press International Minuteman Press International has the most centers of any network at 965, up from 956 in 2018.

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The company also has the most international presence with about 75 centers in Canada, 55 in South Africa, 60 in Australia and more than 60 in the United Kingdom.

Systemwide sales are down slightly, from $490 million in 2017 to $469 million in 2018. Its highest revenue shop generates $7 million in sales, and its average sales per shop has climbed from $593,000 in 2017 to $621,383 in 2018. It is also the most affordable for new franchisees with an estimated investment of $150,000 to start up a new center.

International President and CEO Bob Titus said the owners set Minuteman Press apart.

“They are good people who listen.

We have 150 stores that are being run by the second generation, and we have people who have owned franchises for 30 and even 40 years.

We have added so many different services. The owners who jump on board and take advantage of these additions do well; they grow and they build.”

Minuteman Press has a two-week sales training that everyone attends.

The company holds its World Expo

convention every other year and does local meetings with franchisees around the world in between to ensure strong relationships and to seek feedback on what the system can do better and what new products franchisees would like to offer.

“More than 10 percent of our U.S. system does more than a million dollars in sales, which qualifies them to attend our annual 4-day recognition meeting in West Palm Beach,” Titus said. “Then, they have to grow sales at least 10 percent above that to qualify for the next year, and 90 percent of them make it every single year.”

Minuteman Press does some converting of existing commercial print operations to franchises and also opens brand-new centers.

“Over 40 years, we’ve had people from every walk of life you can imagine. It depends on where they are in their lives. Some in their 50s

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW have been laid off or taken early buyouts. Some are young kids that can’t get jobs, so parents are buying them franchises. It’s really the same places they came from 40 years ago.”

Minuteman has produced its own proprietary management software, email marketing and search engine marketing programs.

“People can spend money and buy into an optional internet marketing program developed

by Minuteman HQ,” Titus said.

“They can also use the proprietary software and get help training graphic designers, find postcards they can download and print for mailing programs, choose from flyer designs and find out what vendors to call for what products. They also have access to our branding guidelines online. All centers have graphic designers.”

Minuteman Press International has also adopted lucrative heat transfer

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60%

of respondents said their greatest challenge was finding qualified sales people. Twenty percent cited finding qualified production personnel.

sublimation applications across their network.

“We are continually looking to add products and services – anything with a name, trademark or logo, we print it for our customers or find it for them. We help our franchisees find the right outsourcing partners, and when volumes grow to an appropriate level, we help them choose the necessary equipment to produce in-house.”

The Future of Print Franchises Based on our interviews with these five organizations, the future

of franchise printing is bright. All seem to have recovered from the recession and are moving on from consolidation to growth. Everyone was excited about the business, and each organization continues to add new services.

One interesting finding is the blurring of the lines between print and sign franchises. In the case of Alliance Franchise Brands’ dual branding strategy, there almost are no lines. And Franchise Services has a goal of driving signs to 50 percent of its business long term.

Sixty percent of our survey respondents’ top challenge was finding qualified sales people. Only 20 percent cited finding qualified production personnel. Forty percent of respondents cited these challenges: ■■ Managing workflow automation ■■ Capabilities of sales personnel ■■ Consumables and supplies pricing.

None cited competition from other print providers or loss of print business to digital media as a challenge over the next 12 months.

Sixty percent of respondents cited these things as representing the best new business opportunities over the next 12 months: ■■ Customers outsourcing more work to us ■■ Customized, personalized or variable data printing jobs ■■ Adding wide format printing capabilities ■■ Automated production ■■ Hiring new sales people to drive higher sales.

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PRINT FRANCHISE REVIEW Color digital printing still represents the bulk of franchise printing revenue at 27 percent, followed by: ■■ Brokered and other services (22 percent) ■■ Offset printing (14 percent) ■■ Black and white digital printing (11 percent) ■■ Wide format signage (11 percent) ■■ Finishing and mailing (9 percent) ■■ Prepress (8 percent) ■■ Web-based (2 percent) ■■ Label printing (1 percent) In terms of products/services that have been added in the past 18-24 months or for which companies have specific budget plans to add in the next 12-18 months, 100 percent of respondents cited soft signage, further blurring the lines between print and sign franchises. In addition, 40 percent of respondents have added hard signage/sign construction, vehicle/fleet graphics/ wraps and building wraps. Forty percent added digital textile printing for applications other than soft signage in the past 18 to 24 months with 20 percent considering it, 20 percent considering it not appropriate for their businesses and 20 percent planning to outsource the work as needed. Eighty percent of respondents have added digital art printing in the past 18 to 24 months. Sixty percent have added or have specific budget plans to add commercial print, which we read as longer run, more sophisticated printed applications. The remaining 20 percent plan to outsource this work as needed. Finally, only one organization is researching dynamic digital/electronic signage, with another deciding it is not appropriate for their businesses and the rest are planning to outsource as needed.

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40%

added digital textile printing for applications other than soft signage in the past 18 to 24 months with 20 percent actively considering it.

To Franchise or Not to Franchise Today’s printing business is complex and highly competitive.

Technology is moving fast, runs and turn times are getting shorter, and technology is also enabling entry into a broader array of adjacent businesses than ever before. For a small, or even mid-sized, commercial printer, it can be daunting to stay current with technology, make decisions about development of new applications and opportunities, and keep infrastructure current while still managing day-to-day operations and putting out fires.

While it can be difficult for a business owner to make the changes required to successfully move into a franchise network, there are many benefits to doing so. As all of our respondents pointed out, the franchisor organization takes on many of the daunting challenges facing print business owners, and frees them to spend more time with customers. This not only makes the business more fun but keeps them in tune with their customers’ changing needs. These are fed back to the franchisor to guide decisions about future strategies.

Several of the networks have attractive programs in place to help commercial printers make this migration, or to help them with an exit strategy as they approach retirement or wish to leave the business for other reasons.

It will be interesting to watch the market shifts over the next year. Will

commercial printing establishments continue to decline while franchise center numbers increase? How long before the percentage of franchise centers gains critical mass? Today, franchise centers represent an estimated 10 percent of establishments for printing companies with less than 20 employees. Most of the networks are aggressively pursuing conversion of independent printers, so it is likely we will see that percentage continue to grow as independents join franchise networks and the overall number of printing establishments continues to decline.

Today’s franchisors are making significant infrastructure and investments to benefit their franchisees. They are seeing growth and renewals. Those who want to are seeing commercial print conversions.

They are typically further along in the analog-to-digital transformation, and they typically offer a wider range of services than their commercial print counterparts. For many independents, staying current with technology and emerging customer needs while still managing their businesses will continue to be a struggle.

The next big challenge will be the blurring of the lines between print and sign franchises, and how each differentiates itself from the others. Be sure to read our Annual Sign Franchise Review in the May issue of WhatTheyThink/Printing News for more insight on this topic.

Find article here PrintingNews. com/21050825 ■

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DIGITAL & INKJET

Secure Printing is an Industry-Wide Challenge Story by Joann Whitcher

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he whole point of security printing is to disrupt the efforts of counterfeiters and other bad players. While its traditional purview is the banking, financial, insurance, or government sectors, the preponderance of hacking, forgery, and counterfeiting, and the ease with which it is accomplished, means that businesses of all stripes face constant assault in the battle to keep their information or products secure.

The prevalence of digital communications in the financial and related industries, as well the evolution to a cashless society might counter some of the counterfeiters’ efforts – are printing fake banknotes still a profitable operation? – security printing is still a critical enterprise.

There is a need for a broader definition of what security printing means and for a greater amount of print providers to think of themselves as “security printers.” Maybe instead it should be called “secure printing.”

From packaging to book printers to retail to businesses that serve the ACE industry, along with financial printers, protection of files and products must be be considered.

Within the digital printing community, several vendors are Joann Whitcher Joann Whitcher has experience in creating audience-engaging content relating to graphic communications technology and marketing, foodservice, and general topics.

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tackling their customers’ rising concerns around security. Here are three different approaches.

Scodix Cast&Cure With counterfeiting on the rise, authenticating products is more of an imperative, stated Amit Shvartz, Scodix marketing VP. Scodix’s offering to solve this challenge is Cast&Cure, officially launched in North America at Print 18. Cast&Cure takes its cue from its traditional counterpart, known as cast and cure, in which a holographic effect is achieved through a lithographic/offset printing process utilizing UV technology. Film is ‘etched’ and then cured to get the effect.

Scodix’s Cast&Cure approach creates a high-impact 3D holographic

effect, the ink jetting the clear polymer directly on to the sheet before passing through a foiling unit, which leaves a micro-embossed pattern on the polymer. The light is refracted, creating a holographic effect. Scodix’s PAS (Pin Activate Secure) technologies helps to deliver ultra-fine detail and registration, says Sharvtz.

While holograms were discounted as a reliable method of security once the Chinese cracked the code, Scodix, said Sharvtz, “can control the film and by this the pattern that is printed, and in parallel have variable digital elements that are being layered onto the package, so we can achieve a double securely feature.

“In addition, he added, “there is no analog way to print cast and cure with the hight element of the Scodix effect.”

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DIGITAL & INKJET

Scodix sees a range of market opportunities for security printing beyond the financial sector, including retail, publishing, and packaging, as well for legal forms of identfications, such as passports and driver’s licenses.

End-users can choose from a variety of standard off-the-shelf holographic patterns, or customize their own designs. And that’s where the fun begins.

So Nike, for example, can create the hologiraphic effect using its logo.

One client, a publisher located in Hong Kong, is using Cast&Cure to tag all his books to fight counterfeiting.

With Scodix Cast&Cure, users can now mix and match up to nine different enhancement effects, including Scodix Sense, Scodix Foil, Scodix Spot, Scodix VDP/VDE, Scodix Metallic, Scodix Glitter, Scodix Crystal, and Scodix Braille.

Konica Minolta KM-1 Konica Minolta doesn’t yet have a commercial solution to solve the security conundrum. “We are at the beginning of this journey,” explained Mark Hinder, head of business development, Business Solutions Europe, Konica Minolta.

Konica Minolta’s concept is to leverage KM-1’s variable-data inkjet capabilities to create what it is calling variable intaglio, across the entire sheet.

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With traditional intaglio, the raised image adds tactile protection to documents. The intaglio impression pressures the ink into the fibers of the paper, embedding the ink into the paper.

How does the KM-1 create that tactile protection? “We can play around with drop heights to create the intaglio process, which is what makes us unique,” says Hinder.

“We have already tested the viability of the intaglio process using the KM-1,” he adds.

While security printing wasn’t top of mind during development of the KM-1, the company is taking a deep look at the viability of applying its inking system to implement a security layer.

“We are looking at creating something very unique for security printing, an invisible ink that leverages our unique inking system,” Hinder confirmed. “Our technology lets us play around with the intaglio process in conjunction with security.

We have the right ink set and know which substrates can be used. It’s an exciting process, “ he said..

The whole project came on the back of a customer request, said Hinder.

“We realized, with the KM-1; we have a closed-loop intaglio process jetting the UV inks and controlling the variable height,” he noted.

HP DesignJet HP is tackling the issue of security from a different angle. Noting that while IT departments apply strict protocols and security measures to a company’s computer network, similar standards are not applied to printing and imaging devices. In other words, they are as exposed as a babe in the woods.

According to HP’s research, only 22% of companies monitor printers for threats. Any unsecured device on the network exposes the entire network to the possibility of a cybersecurity attack.

In the first half of 2017, the worldwide breach level index was up more than 160%, reported HP. “The printer sits at the end of network, and is a potential source of a hack,” said Xavier Juarez, worldwide strategic marketing manager for HP DesignJet and PageWide XL printers. “If you want to hack into a network, you always go to the weakest link.”

And if that link happens to be a wide-format device…..

Hence, HP’s push to promote its security features. The DesignJet portfolio has the most advanced security features of any wide-format device, said Jaurez, and HP will continue to extend those features across the portfolio. Security features are already an integral part of HP’s

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DIGITAL & INKJET enterprise printers, including tis laser and PageWide technologies.

The HP DesignJet T1700 44-inch printer for CAD and geographic information system (GIS) workgroups is the newest HP device to feature this increased level of security.

The DesignJet T1700 prints CAD and GIS applications for infrastructure construction, urban planning, worldwide defense departments, public sector agencies, and utilities industries such as oil, water, gas, and electricity, while protecting printers and data from unauthorized access.

The company is taking a multiprong approach. The security solution, standard on the DesignJet, includes a self-encrypting hard drive on the printer that ensures it is only readable by the

printer itself, even if removed from the device. HP Secure Boot ensures BIOS protection, and Whitelisting only allows approved firmware to be installed and run on the device.

HP JetAdvantage Security Manager configures the settings of all the printers, the entire fleet of printers, whether that is one or hundred, said Celine Kamoun worldwide strategic product manager - Large Format Design at HP. “HP’s security manager software is a very important tool to be compliant, she said. “It allows the operator to perform as many automatic assessments as he wants.

The solution is designed to protect the confidentiality of the document.

If it detects a “hacker” it will stop printing, and alert the IT staff that

someone is trying to get into the network. It won’t continue until there is security clearance.

“In today’s connected world, this type of security is not an option,” said Juarez.

HP is also leveraging social media to educate the business community around security issues presented by exposed wide-format printers. Offering some insight on a LinkedIn post, Allison Dickherber, HP marketing manager, wrote, “We are hoping to drive conversations with that customers that Firewalls alone cannot withstand attacks from sophisticated hacked and that old and aging large-format printers are just as vulnerable as PCs and other end points.” Find article here PrintingNews.com/21059695 ■

For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/21059924

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LABELS & PACKAGING

Sustainability and E-Commerce Driving Growth in Luxury Packaging The demand for luxury packaging across the world continues to increase. Sustainability, e-commerce, and material trends are driving the luxury packaging market and will continue to shape it over the next five years. A new Smithers Pira report details these key products, materials and market trends.

Story by Smithers Pira

T

he demand for luxury packaging across the world continues to increase, driven by the rising popularity of premium goods in the cosmetics and fragrances, alcoholic drinks and watches and jewelry sectors.

Sustainability, e-commerce and material trends are driving the luxury packaging market and will continue to shape it over the next five years.

These trends and additional market influences are explored in Smithers Pira’s new market report, “The Future of Luxury Packaging to 2024.” According to Smithers report data, the global market for luxury packaging is valued at $15.38 billion in 2019, having risen by almost 4 percent from 2018. Growth is forecast at a rate of 3 percent year-on-year to 2024, yielding a market worth $17.83 billion in that year.

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Sustainability’s Role in Packaging Impactful changes to luxury packaging are expected due to factors such as environmental concerns. These concerns are leading to declining demand for plastic packaging, as well as increased consumption of goods from online sources, and decreased consumption of products such as tobacco.

More stringent legislation aimed at curbing packaging waste and encouraging greater recycling is appearing across much of the world. This trend is expected to continue, driven by growing consumer concerns over issues such as recyclability, biodegradability and use of natural resources. Because of this, sustainability has become a core element of strategy for packaging manufacturers, in both the mainstream and luxury sectors.

The luxury packaging industry has

been addressing the sustainability issue by reducing the amount of materials used (i.e., lightweighting), as well as striving to include more recycled material in its products.

An Increase in E-Commerce Sales Due to the enormous consumer shift to online shopping, packaging companies will increasingly be required to develop solutions tailored to the e-commerce industry. Suppliers must also address consumer concerns, such as a perceived use of excessive packaging by many online retailers, as well as the growing need for returnable packaging options to improve convenience for the consumer.

The expansion of e-commerce continues to impact the global packaging industry.

Smithers’ data shows that in 2018, online sales of luxury goods were worth an estimated $31 billion, up by 13 percent from the previous year and equivalent to 9 percent of the overall luxury goods market, a figure projected to increase to almost 12 percent by the middle of the next decade. The expansion of e-commerce continues to impact the global packaging industry, driven by the ongoing growth of companies such as Amazon and Alibaba.

Materials Trends Paperboard, glass, plastic and metal

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LABELS & PACKAGING Global luxury packaging market by region ($ million), 2014 and 2024

are the key materials in luxury packaging. Plastic growth was highest in 2018 with an increase of 5.7 percent in value terms, forecast to increase by an annual average of 5.5 percent during the 2019–24 period.

Paperboard will dominate in 2019 with value sales worth well over $6 billion, followed by glass and plastic.

In volume, glass currently accounts for a leading 57.5 percent of the global market due to its heavy nature.

The paperboard sector accounts for an additional 25.6 percent of global market volume, ahead of plastic (8.2 percent) and metal (6.4 percent).

The dominance of these materials is reflected in the widespread use of key packaging products used in the luxury market—notable examples include folding cartons (paperboard), glass and plastic bottles, glass jars and metallic gift tins.

Applications When designing packaging for luxury items, the products must be taken into account, as well as other factors, including high-quality materials,

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finishes, decoration and innovative shapes. Major luxury packaging industries include cosmetic and fragrance, tobacco, confectionery, premium alcoholic drinks, gourmet food and drinks and watches and jewelry. Some of the largest sectors in both value and volume terms are those which appeal to a wide range of consumers.

In value terms, the cosmetics and fragrances sector is the market’s largest segment, with sales worth $7.15 billion in 2019 and a market value forecast to average 4.7 percent in the years leading up to 2024. In 2019, the cosmetics and fragrances sector accounts for a leading 46.5 percent of global market value.

Also noteworthy, the market value for premium alcoholic drinks grew by almost 4 percent in 2018, but along with the tobacco industry, it is expected to decrease over the next five years.

Global Interest in Luxury Goods

in luxury products supported by the growing middle class, all regions except South and Central America experienced growth in volume sales of luxury packaging between 2014 and 2019. Western Europe experienced the most growth, ending 2019 as the largest market. With sales worth $4.87 billion, the world’s second largest regional market in 2019 is Asia-Pacific where affluent urban consumers in Chinese and Indian markets are turning toward products such as premium cosmetics and fragrances, often via e-commerce channels. Western Europe is set to slip to second place by 2024.

Sales growth is expected to remain more restrained in Western Europe and North America within the next five years. North America is dominated by the US, which remains the world’s largest single market for luxury packaging at present— however, between 2019 and 2024, growth is set to lag well below many less developed countries, slipping to second place, behind Asia-Pacific.

China remains the world’s most dynamic performer, with sales presently increasing by an annual rate of more than 20 percent. As a result, China’s share of global sales is forecast to increase to almost half by 2025. Many of the world’s leading brands of luxury goods are tapping into increased demand from younger Chinese consumers, often with the aid of social media and online purchasing.

Source: Smithers Pira For more information about the report, including a dedicated analysis of the impact of sustainability criteria and e-commerce trade on luxury packaging design, visit https://www.

smitherspira.com/industry-marketreports/packaging/future-of-luxurypackaging-to-2024. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21050734 ■

Due to growing consumer interest April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Printing News

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW

Uninterrupted

Time in a

Print Business Your print business is being invaded by software tools. These tools require a level of thinking/concentration that requires blocks of uninterrupted time for your employees. Without this uninterrupted time, your software will remain grossly underutilized and lacking measurable ROI. Story by Jennifer Matt

A

print manufacturing business operates in the “now.” There are jobs to be processed, jobs on press and jobs on the shipping dock.

The priority of the “now” makes it very hard to dedicate time, effort and brain power to make a better future. I just don’t see many people in a print manufacturing plant Jennifer Matt Jennifer Matt writes, speaks, and consults with printers worldwide who realize their ability to leverage software is critical to their success in the Information Age.

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who get any discernible amount of uninterrupted time in their day. Most of the work I do absolutely requires uninterrupted time. When building software, you have to think through things on several levels. Often I’ll have three different screens open because the feature I’m describing impacts so many parts of the software simultaneously. Even with uninterrupted time and the ability to see the connections across three screens, the user story I write still goes through three or four iterations before it’s converted to software code.

Software is invading most print businesses. A lot of this software requires time to properly learn it,

configure it for your specific business and strategize how to continue to optimize your workflows to work best with the software. Often, when printers are struggling with software, the rarest thing to find is uninterrupted time of the key people required to make the software sing.

It is frustrating to see qualified, smart people struggle only because they don’t have the opportunity to do a deep dive with the software that could result in greatly reducing the issues that cause all the interruptions in the first place.

As the print industry becomes more software-driven, more uninterrupted time is required of the people you count on to make your software

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW tools work. This requires a cultural change for most printers. Because the business is in the “now,” a lot of the print culture revolves around interruptions. You have an issue, and you simply get up and start engaging with people to solve it. You don’t think through the fact that the people you’re interrupting might be dealing with their own high-priority issues. In this kind of culture, everyone looks busy, but they are actually not very effective.

The opposite can be true for a company that operates 100 percent remotely. I’ve been working remotely for many years. My whole team works from home, and about 90 percent of our interactions with our customers are remote. I hardly ever call someone unannounced. In fact, it doesn’t make sense to me at all, because I assume everyone is busy on their own top-priority items. I request meeting times in advance.

Interruptions only happen in emergencies.

When we work remotely, we also have a much better on-time record for when we do meet. When I’m on-site with a customer, I notice that meetings don’t start on time; people show up while they are still on the phone, and often there are multiple conversations happening at the same time. When you’re remote and it’s a conference call, it is very clear if you’re late. Respect for people’s time is lost when your business is an interrupt-driven culture.

Leadership has to be part of this new need for uninterrupted time in a print business. It starts at the top.

Your people need to be able to build in some parts of their day where they will not be constantly interrupted.

We all have shared calendars nowadays, so block off some time on your calendar to work without interruption. If the interruptions are driven by in-person interactions,

hang a physical sign to indicate you’re working on something.

There is a time for collaboration and there is a time for people getting their own work done. Each of us has work we have to do

collaboratively and work we can do independently. The key is to respect each other’s time so that we can both collaborate when needed and work uninterrupted. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21040839 ■

For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10004777

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW

Going Live with

Print Software

Think of your go-live date for your Print MIS as a flood. Prepare for it by training everyone how to create sandbags and then monitoring that everyone actually applied the learning and figured out how to do their jobs in the new system BEFORE go-live.

Story by Jennifer Matt

W

hat if you had many months notice of a flood?

What would you do? You would immediately start planning for how you could protect yourself against the rising waters. Going live with a new Print MIS is like preparing for a flood.

Weather can be very unpredictable; that’s why flood preparation is usually shown in dramatic fashion— hundreds of people quickly assembling sandbag creation lines and last-minute evacuations.

The go-live dates for Print MIS implementations are planned many months in advance. So why do we have so much flooding during the cut-over in the form of confusion and chaos? Why didn’t we prepare more?

One of the major sources of flooding at the go-live date of Print MIS implementations is the confusion between training and learning.

■■ Training is the giving of information and knowledge through speech, the written word or 28

other methods of demonstration in a manner that instructs the trainee. (How to make sandbags.)

■■ Learning is the process of absorbing that information in order to increase skills and abilities and make use of it under a variety of contexts.

(Making the sandbags.)

There is always a lot of training in a Print MIS implementation. There is almost always a demand for more and more training, but training doesn’t make sandbags. You sat through a lot of sandbag training, but you’re still very wet.

There isn’t nearly enough learning in Print MIS implementations. Learning is taking the knowledge you absorbed from the training and applying it in the new system. The trainers cannot create sandbags for you nor will they be doing your job once the new Print MIS is live.

Each person in the organization has to make their own sandbags. These sandbags will protect your organization

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW

from having to deal with a flood of confusion, questions and uncertainties on go-live.

When a go-live happens and there has been no learning (only training), a big, messy, expensive, painful flood happens. This flood takes months to clean up. The people in your company failed to prepare to do their job in a new way. Often the assumption is made that if they attended all the training they must be ready. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Training is passive. Learning is active. How many times have all of us been told how to do something and thought, “That’s easy”? Then, when we’re alone trying to do it, we find we are completely lost. Learning requires doing it yourself (without parental supervision).

Practically speaking, what does this mean in a Print MIS implementation? Estimators can be trained on the software, but they don’t learn the software until they create a lot of estimates. CSRs can be trained on the software, but they don’t learn the software until they convert estimates to jobs, search for jobs, update jobs, cancel jobs and make changes to jobs. The purchasing department can be trained on creating POs, but they won’t know how to do it until they create POs. The automated schedulers can be trained on the scheduling application, but they have to practice with real jobs and see how the automation works before they will trust it.

How do you get more sandbags created for your Print MIS implementation so that you can reduce the flood waters during go-live?

You have to manage learning as well as training. We all do a pretty good job of monitoring attendance to training.

Most of us don’t do a very good job of monitoring learning. You cannot tell your people, “Go play in the system.” That’s not the way to get sandbags made in

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preparing for the flood. You have to assign them specific tasks, and then you have to monitor their compliance.

How many estimates have been created? How many CSRs have converted estimates to jobs? How often has everyone logged into the system? Learning is as important as training, yet we’re so casual about it.

All Print MIS go-lives will have some version of flooding. You can’t predict everything, and some percentage of your employees will do nothing to prepare.

That’s OK—you have experts on-site at go-live. You have email support on-call. You have your internal experts on hand to be supportive. What you cannot support is a 100-year flood of chaos, uncertainty and paralysis of your organization. You have to get the majority of your employees to build some protective barriers around the flood waters. They have to be tasked with applying the learning they received in training. You cannot leave this to chance—it has to be carefully measured and monitored over many weeks leading up to the go-live date. This is your only chance of staying dry. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21040839 ■

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3/15/19 10:01 AM

DIGITAL & INKJET

When Did High-Speed Inkjet Become Just Another Capital Investment?

Looking at a series of case studies on high-speed inkjet, the takeaway is how unremarkable investing in this technology has become. The decision is no longer about the readiness of the technology itself. It’s about market pressures and cost-justification...just like any other capital investment. How times change!

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DIGITAL & INKJET

Story by Heidi Tolliver-Walker

T

his past fall, I had the opportunity to write a series of case studies on highspeed inkjet installations. I recently went back and read them again—all at once this time. I wanted to see if any themes jumped out at me. What were the threads that tied them all together?

Something did jump out at me, but it wasn’t what I expected. Each company had its own interesting journey to high-speed inkjet.

However, unlike articles and case studies I’d written in the past, what

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was remarkable wasn’t that these printers were breaking boundaries or pushing the envelope. What was remarkable is that they weren’t.

When a printer invests in a new offset or toner-based press, other printers look to see what press they bought and why. Nobody asks about the readiness of this technology or its acceptance by the market. Now high-speed inkjet has joined the club. It has become so mainstream that the fact that someone invested in high-speed inkjet, itself, is not the news. We all just want to know which press they selected and why. In these case studies, none of the company executives I interviewed questioned the maturity of the technology, the quality or whether customers would accept it. There was no agonizing over the price point because it was so far out of reach. It was the same discussion any printer would have about any press technology.

Their businesses were undergoing significant market pressures, and at a certain point, they knew it was time to make a change.

■■ Company A was moving from high-volume monochrome packages to high-quality color packages with variable data.

With color VDP volumes up 42 percent, its existing presses just weren’t fast enough.

■■ C ompany B was seeing its volumes increase. This included VDP projects, which were being done on preprinted offset shells.

The time and cost savings of moving to a white paper workflow had become too attractive to ignore.

■■ Company C, a trade book printer, was seeing its shortrun digital volumes growing at 45 percent per month. This includes demand for color pages. Its title mix required

digital, but its toner presses couldn’t keep up.

■■ For Company D, a transactional document printer, it was a volume and speed-to-market issue. As market pressures increased, and with volumes of 20 million+, its switch from hybrid overprinting to a full white paper workflow was overdue.

■■ Company E, an inplant printer for educational books, was also seeing its volumes increase, along with demands for interior color pages. Increasing its outsourcing wasn’t tenable. It was either add a third shift or go to high-speed inkjet. So to high-speed inkjet it went.

When it came to making the decision to invest, the impetus was consistently the same: ■■ Growth in volumes ■■ Growth in color pages ■■ Cost pressures ■■ Speed to market ■■ Value of moving to white paper workflow In each case, it was about timing, not technology. Each printer hit a breaking point in which maxing out the capabilities of their existing equipment just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Because inkjet’s quality, substrates and color capabilities have become accepted and assumed, their investment decision revolved around cost-justification and timing, just like any other capital investment.

Those who remember all of the heartache and heartburn over high-speed inkjet when it was first introduced know just how remarkable that is. It’s funny when what’s most important about the story is that there isn’t one.

At least, not the one you’re used to.

Find article here PrintingNews.com/ 21050767 ■ April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Printing News

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WATCH LIST

The Art of the Finish: Foil Stamping, Embossing and Die-Cutting Techniques From foil stamping, to embossing, to die cutting, post-process techniques are tried and true.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21047357

Mars X-House: a 3D-Printed Habitat Prototype Please support us to 3D print future Mars habitat that will be built in a live technology demonstration in May! Find video here: printingnews.com/21048108

Simon Yam at HK Bus Shelter for FUJIFILM GFX 50R | JCDecaux Cityscape FUJIFILM hosted a photo gallery at our Bus Shelter in Causeway Bay. Find video here: printingnews.com/21048101

CADLink Digital Factory RIP Software for SubliMate System Working with PrintModes Step-by-step clicks working within the PrintMode manager of the CADLink Digital Factory RIP Find video here: printingnews.com/21048274

ER2 Image Group: The Mind Blowing Journey from Idea to Reality Take a wild ride with ER2 as we show you how those amazing larger-than-life projects happen.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21059534

Paper Inspiration #378: Griffiths Brothers Gin Label The award winning Griffiths Brothers Gin Label actually tells you when it is cold enough to drink.

Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21047536

Expanding Into Wide Format with FASTSIGNS Kevin Hebert, a FASTSIGNS franchisee, co-branded in 2013 to add wide-format graphics to their existing printing company in Louisiana.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21048409

Frank on All the News That’s Fit to Tweet Frank takes us from commuters reading newspapers to commuters reading mobile devices.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21050237

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3/15/19 11:58 AM

Alussa, a Synergy Between Leather and Ink. Personalized leather printing gives fashion industry new opportunities. Be amazed by this teaser video.

And contact Nuti Ivo or Agfa for more information.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21049855

Intelligent Labels: Making Things Smarter NRF 2019 Are you ready for the connected products age?

Learn more: https://avydn.co/2RXPHLV Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21050069

Benoit Chatelard on What’s Next for Xeikon Benoit Chatelard, CEO of Xeikon, talks about the future of the company, inkjet and the advantage of continuous feed and success through automation.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21049297

Canon’s ProStream Changes the Printing Game Eric Hawkinson, Vice President of Marketing for Canon Solutions America, talks about Canon’s VarioPrint i300 and ProStream printers.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21050217

Printing on Paper and Plastic Substrates with Konica Minolta’s KM-1 Inkjet Press Mark Hinder, head of market development, talks about the range of applications.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21050234

Glenroy’s Flexible Packaging Manufacturing Process See the process of manufacturing flexible packaging film including flexographic printing.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21050075

Gallery Spotlight: The Women’s Foundation “We Work for Change” The Best of Ink award is well deserved with this flawlessly printed piece on Husky® Opaque Offset.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21049071

Ricoh Introduces New Technology at Hunkeler Innovationdays Eef de Ridder, VP of commercial and industrial Printing, discusses launch of the Ricoh Pro VC 70000.

Find video here: printingnews.com/21050219

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April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Printing News

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3/15/19 11:58 AM

DIGITAL & INKJET

Production Inkjet: It’s Not Just About the Technology Anymore Story by Richard Romano

large format and ast February, Canon Solutions production print. Being a America hosted its annual Media leader in the inkjet & Analyst Event in Boca Raton, world has given us the Fla. The event also included a customer opportunity to understand panel featuring George Lawrence, where we’re going, how to president and CEO of LawrenceInk, invest in our infrastructure Angela Hipelius, CEO of Liberty and be best positioned to Creative Solutions and Adam LeFebvre, support our customers president and COO of Specialty Print and really invest not Communications, who talked about only in the technology their respective experiences with that we have to sell to our Peter Kowalczuk Francis McMahon President Executive Vice President production inkjet presses. customers, but making Canon Solutions America Canon Solutions America “The speed at which the Océ sure that technology is ProStream runs is even better than advertised,” LeFebvre working for our customers. The service organization is said. “It has really helped us boost our product offering, there to enhance that capability. When a customer invests allowing us to serve more customers and focus more time in one of our products, they insist on it not only working on growing our business in new ways.” in production, but when needed, it’s fixed quickly. They Today’s production inkjet vendors are tasked with not also ask vendors like us to support them in enhancing their just offering top-of-the-line technology—that’s become business, showing them how to grow their business and expected—but playing a more consultative role in helping how to best utilize the equipment. customers with business development.

PN: So it’s a more consultative than sales-based Last year, Peter Kowalczuk was appointed President of relationship.

Canon Solutions America, and his emphasis has been on PK: The big investment we’ve been making is in not just bolstering the services part of the organization, education and helping customers create volume and how but also integrating Canon Solutions America’s business to get the most out of these units. units (Enterprise, Production Print and Large Format) to Francis McMahon: When Pete came in, one of the be able to offer customers a holistic approach to business biggest cultural changes was that he wanted us to have the development and growing page volume. best service organization in the industry. We’ve always had Printing News spoke with Kowalczuk and Francis a really good service presence across all of our businesses, McMahon, executive vice president of Production Print but we’re doing things a little differently this year to Solutions, about the company’s new emphasis, especially support the marketplace. He also wants his business as it affects the company’s production inkjet portfolio. leaders to fully understand the other business units, not Printing News: This year has seen some changes from an internal but external perspective. For example, in what Canon Solutions America is doing as an as head of Production Print, I need to understand more organization. Talk about some of those changes. about what the Enterprise customers are doing. Our Peter Kowalczuk: Canon Solutions America is a very number of Enterprise customers is among the highest in diverse organization that’s in b-to-b, enterprise printing, the United States in this market, so how do we connect

L

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DIGITAL & INKJET those customers with our Production Print customers?

When I walk into any of our big accounts, they have a lot of printing requirements within the office outside of just production inkjet. So we need to be able to do more for that customer and be able to provide more value as it extends across our different business units.

PN: Have you found that the conversation today surrounding production inkjet is no longer the readiness of the technology itself?

FM: Everybody’s got great technology; obviously we think ours is the best, but it’s now about who’s going to support it up front, what’s going to happen on the back end and what’s the support structure?

Part of our service organization is that, for no charge, we go into a company and we figure out, “Why are you making this decision? Why do you want to get into inkjet? Is it that you’re getting requests from your current customers? Do you want to get into new businesses? Do you need automation? Are your costs too high?” We have to understand all that and then we need to translate that into not just technical requirements, but also marketing requirements, because it’s not just about installing a device. Then we spend days on-site helping them understand what it’s going to take from a data-preparation standpoint. Are they set up to manage the data? Do they currently have the skillset within the organization? How do we go about conducting training, and then how do they sell this stuff? Once you put a device in, customers are not going to just come. So how do we drive people to the device? At the end of that, they either say “I’m ready for inkjet” or “I’m not.” Then we work with them to point out all the things that they’re going to have to do in order to be successful, because it’s a major investment.

Inkjet’s here, everybody gets it. I think the only reason people aren’t getting into it is that they’re not quite ready yet; they’ve got to make some adjustments based on all the consultation we provide. Once they put it all together, they get inkjet.

PN: Who do the new crop of production inkjet customers tend to be? Are they still mostly book printers, transactional printers, or are they all over the map?

FM: Our traditional transaction customers—insurance, banking, MICR-based printer companies—are still producing a lot of volume and getting second and third and fourth and fifth devices to handle it. Our ColorStream platform is perfect for that. Once you get into marketing collateral, there’s a lot happening with the ability to do more personalization, and the drawback until recently has been the quality of the output. We’ve figured that out with the ProStream, so there’s a lot of marketing collateral or photobook-type applications that couldn’t really be done

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on inkjet prior to maybe six months ago, but they’re now realistic opportunities. Digital book printing is a great market to be in because we don’t need long runs of books anymore. We can just print on demand or do book-of-one.

But we shouldn’t lose sight of toner in this book discussion. Our imagePRESS and VarioPrint 6000 are today still two of the primary production devices for books, and we don’t see that going away. When you look at a whole portfolio, in many cases, inkjet will make sense. In many cases, cut-sheet toner will make sense. In many cases, a combination of all the above makes sense. We’re really pleased that we can offer all those things.

PN: Is there a sense that at some point inkjet will take over from toner?

PK: Our production toner is up significantly across the board. I think you need to look at the segments of the market and what they’re trying to accomplish. Inkjet is still a pretty significant investment to jump into. Toner is, from a hardware perspective, less expensive.

PN: When you’re talking with a commercial print customer who might be interested in getting into wideformat, does it help that you also have units like the Arizona and Colorado?

PK: Sure. One of my goals is to continue to make sure that the full sales organization, no matter which division, is involved with the customer, that they understand all our product categories, all our capabilities. Once a customer starts engaging us and is satisfied with not only our products, but more importantly how we service and support them, it opens the doors to these other products. I’ve gone out to a number of accounts with Francis’ team where they sold inkjet and virtually all of them also have some kind of large format, and several of them had either Arizonas or competitive products. They’re trying to expand their business and offer more and more products to their customers.

PN: What do you think the next five years has in store for the market in general and Canon Solutions America in particular?

PK: From our perspective, we’re going to double down on customer satisfaction and the service organization. We will continue to reinvest in research and development and continue to expand our product portfolio from all aspects—large format, production print, inkjet, toner. Our focus, again, is making sure that we fulfill the broadest spectrum of customers out there and what their needs are.

FM: We’re just in such a good position to grow and consistently put money back into the business. Of course that helps Canon, but more importantly, it helps our customers grow more volume, it helps them print more and it helps them open new and better applications. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21059614 ■ April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Printing News

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NEW PRODUCTS W+D’s Introduces New Generation Mail Technology

▲ Ironsides Technology Launches Nor’Star Business Intelligence System at Hunkeler Innovationdays 2019 Ironsides Technology, announces the release of the Ironsides Nor’Star System, a business intelligence offering designed to provide commercial printers and document manufacturers with valuable insights into their business and print production costs for improved decision making.

Ironsides Nor’Star combines real-time data collection with automated production monitoring, reporting and cost analytics in one central command and control dashboard. Document professionals, printing, mailing and fulfillment centers are able to understand true production costs of each job, from prepress through production, finishing, bindery, sorting, packaging, shipping and mailing.

The Nor’Star System builds on Ironsides Technology’s strength in connecting and collecting data across multiple systems and production technology.

The Nor’Star System includes Ironsides APT (Automated Production Tracking) and adds two new platforms, Ironsides AOT (Automated Order Tracking) that monitors and reports on the prepress process and Ironsides ACA (Automated Cost Analytics) that provides real-time cost analysis.

www.printingnews.com/21048568

As part of the best in class in print and automation technology, W+D presented to a worldwide audience its newest developments on its flagship W+D BB-700 S2 direct mail servo inserter as well as its new W+D Halm i-Jet 2.0 for the mailing markets at Hunkeler Innovationdays.

The W+D Halm i-Jet has quickly become the market leader in the production mail inkjet envelope overprinting market with 35 presses now sold. Powered by a Memjet production class CMYK print head it prints at 1600 x1375 dpi at 32,000 EPH and offers the best-in-class consumable costs for Memjet print technology. Complete with Auto Mismatch Recovery technology, the BB700 S2 automatically confirms and syncs personalized inserted materials to assure total mail package accuracy with the least amount of waste. W+D BB700 S2 Inserting system delivers the highest net-onthe-belt numbers for complex, high value direct mail.

www.printingnews.com/21050469 SmartSoftDQ Expands Data Quality Services With 48-Month NCOALink Service SmartSoftDQ, the trusted address validation experts, announce the launch of a new option for users of SmartAddresser, the all-in-one address correction and postal presorting software.

SmartAddresser customers can now get enhanced change-of-address processing using a new 48-month NCOALink service. The new service updates the addresses in mailing lists of those individuals, families and businesses that have moved within the past four years, using data taken from the National Change of Address form database.

With around 40 million moves made every single year, mailing lists can deteriorate rapidly, resulting in costly undelivered and returned mail.

Find out more about how the 48-month NCOALink service can benefit your business by visiting SmartSoftDQ.com

www.printingnews.com/21049382 Xeikon Unveils The Power of Dry Toner Campaign Xeikon launched “The Power of Dry Toner” campaign at Hunkeler Innovationdays 2019 with new toner, fusing, conditioning assembly and image quality technology developments.

Xeikon delivers greater productivity, higher quality and a wider application range on the duplex dry toner platforms for graphic arts and commercial print.

According to Xeikon, dry toner is the most sustainable digital print technology. It is complementary to high speed inkjet while offering the highest availability in the market place.

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APRIL 2019

Industrial Printing: The Digital Tower of Babel p.42

39 W ide-Format Printing: Still a Compelling Business Opportunity and Investment Category 46 W orld on Windows: The Changing Face of Window Graphics 56 F iberForce Partners with Pantone to Bring Professional Color to 3D Printing Filaments

FASTSIGNS

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE

Wide-Format Printing:

Still a Compelling Business Opportunity and Investment Category As we put the final touches on our Printing Outlook 2019 report, based on our Winter 2018–2019 Business Outlook survey, this article highlights a few of the findings specific to wide-format and specialty printing. Is it still a compelling business opportunity? And what are print businesses’ wide-format investment plans?

Story by Richard Romano

W

e are putting the final touches on our Printing Outlook 2019, based in Richard Romano Richard Romano has been writing about the graphic communications industry for 20 years. He is an industry analyst and author or co-author of more than half a dozen books.

12%

see “adding wide-format printing capabilities” as a business opportunity

large part on the results of our Winter 2018–2019 Business Outlook survey (as well as the usual fever dream of government charts). The report should be hitting our e-store in the next week or two, and as always, there is quite a lot in the

report, but in this article I want to highlight a few items specific to wide-format and specialty printing.

■■ In our Winter 2018–2019 survey of print businesses, 12 percent of respondents see “adding wideformat printing capabilities” as a

April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Wide-Format&Signage

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE business opportunity in 2019— this is up from 10 percent in our previous year’s survey.

■■ This opportunity rises to 17 percent of 10–19-employee establishments and 15 percent of 1–9-employee establishments.

■■ In terms of planned investments, 9 percent of respondents (up from 3 percent) say they are looking at buying a flatbed UV wide-format printer.

■■ Meanwhile, 6 percent (down from 8 percent) say they plan to invest in a solvent or ecosolvent wide-format printer.

■■ And 5 percent (up from 1 percent) say they plan to invest in a latex wide-format printer. Given the heightened interest in flatbed printers in this year’s survey, it’s possible HP’s recent introduction of a latex machine capable of printing on rigid materials was responsible, at least in part, for the increased attractiveness of latex.

By the way, we did not find very high levels of planned investment in too many categories this survey; just about one-fifth of respondents said “we have no planned investments.”

We also asked a question about respondents’ intent to add various specialty printing capabilities.

We had asked about a variety of products and services, such as production inkjet, 3D printing, printed electronics and different kinds of packaging.

In the previous year’s survey, we had found that the wide-format investment fever had largely broken, and we were getting the sense that the commercial print transition and expansion to wide format was largely complete. (I have also found to be confirmed anecdotally.) In this survey, there is the sense that 40

In the next 12 months, which of the following represent your best new business opportunities?

they plan to invest in a solvent 6% say or eco-solvent wide-format printer Do you plan to add any of the following capabilities in the next 12 months?

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ©Canon Solutions America

print business owners are thinking more strategically than had been the case in the past (in the report we caution, as always, about “survivor bias” affecting the results). Combined with what seems to be a resurgence (to some extent) in printing shipments this year, perhaps we have turned a corner.

13%

intend to add various specialty printing capabilities

This issue’s textile feature by Cary Sherburne offers examples of the analog-to-digital transformation in the textiles and apparel industry, driven by entrepreneurs disrupting the status quo. These are instructive examples as the commercial printing industry in general has long needed some status quo disruption—and perhaps that disruption is finally starting to take place. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21050741 ■

it is starting to pick up again, or that shops that started down the wide-format path are now moving into new areas. For example, someone bought a solvent printer to get their feet wet and is now adding a flatbed to expand their product offerings. And remember that UV printers—be they big flatbeds or smaller desktop units— can be used to print those “specialty printing” items. So as we remarked last year, we can interpret these planned investment figures—largely—as adding capacity and the pursuit of new applications rather than brand-new installations.

As has been the case for the past couple of years, specialty printing is becoming more and more the mainstream, especially as it becomes easier and easier to print on three-dimensional objects—or, indeed, any surface—and often using the same equipment and ink (with caveats) used for printing on more traditional substrates. Specialty printing is also growing substantially in inplant printing departments.

The survey findings in general reflect a printing industry that seems to have had a change in mindset compared to surveys we have been conducting for the past 20 years, with some of the more traditional cares and concerns of less interest than newer, more compelling issues. It’s actually encouraging to see that

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE

Industrial Printing: The Digital Tower of Babel What do we mean when we say “industrial printing”? It can depend on whom we’re talking to, but the same basic issues apply.

Story by Richard Romano

T

here is an irony in the fact that for many years—and to some extent even today— individuals and businesses involved in “industrial printing” never really considered themselves as “industrial printers”—or even as printers per se. They were manufacturers, and printing just happened to be one particular part of the manufacturing process. Think of tags and labels attached to furniture (like those “do not remove under penalty of law” tags on mattresses, for example); the gradations on medical devices or cookware; a speedometer and other dashboard graphics; the control panel on a microwave or other appliance; and so on. This kind of printing was almost always printed using an

analog technology like screen or pad printing, the two basic reasons being: a) These print processes were really the only options for the often oddlyshaped surfaces that needed to be printed. b) The print runs were long and static.

However, as with most every other aspect of the printing industry, inkjet is changing all that.

Industrial printing is such a new concept to commercial printing that articles like this inevitably require some kind of definition. We (and by “we” I mean “I”) have traditionally been defining “industrial printing” as one of two related kinds of printing: printing that is done as part of a larger manufacturing process, or “specialty” printing, where you are printing on three-dimensional objects

The many mansions of industrial printing. (Image courtesy Frazer Chesterman/InPrint)

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or other kinds of materials that are sold not necessarily as print. This is also often referred to as “direct-toobject” or “direct-to-shape” printing.

Applications such as décor, printed textiles and packaging are also often included in industrial printing.

Everyone has their own pet definition of industrial, but let’s try to find some common ground.

“Industrial printing typically means the integration of printing into the process of manufacturing a product,” said Jay Larsen, general manager/ director of R&D–Digital Hardware, for INX International Ink Co. “Industrial printing can take many forms; for example, direct printing of a label on a product, decoration of a consumer or industrial product or adding security features through serialization or specialized inks.”

“With our UV inkjet products, industrial printing is defined as output on durable chemical labels or output that is used in an industry such as construction, or where the output needs to withstand weather,” said Donna Covannon, director of marketing for Xeikon.

Xeikon’s industrial printing applications are predominantly label-based.

“We’re really targeting the markets that need chemical-resistance, durability, long-term things that need to be scratch-resistant,” Covannon said. “Battery labels, bottle labels and one of the things that we’re going to be showing at our Xeikon Café are labels that are applied to pipes—

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE Chesterman, co-founder of InPrint. “It could be packaging, but it could also be solar panels. It could be decals in cars, it could be interior décor. It could be a range of different things where print is used either as a test or for short runs.”

The word “industrial” is usually where some of the confusion lies.

“We’re not talking about ‘industrial’ as meaning ‘large-scale,’” Chesterman said.

InPrint USA, taking place this month from April 9 to 11 in Louisville, Ky., is billed as “The Exhibition for Print Technology for Industrial Manufacturing” and is a showcase for the intersection or overlap of commercial and industrial printing. InPrint also has shows in Milan and Munich for the European

This custom, digitally printed fishing lure was the result of a collaboration between CDigital and Xeikon.

(Image courtesy Xeikon)

either large pipes like pipelines, or even just household plumbing pipes.

Then of course there are the unique applications.”

Certain applications are also heattransfer label-based.

“Work that we’re doing in the heat-transfer area are on industrial buckets and pails,” Covannon said.

“We have found some customers that are interested in taking that application and expanding it into the industrial realm.” “[Industrial printing] is where print is used in some form of final manufactured product,” said Frazer

industrial printing market.

“InPrint is the place you want to go to if you’re either doing industrial printing or wanting to do it,” Chesterman said.

Although industrial printing is all over the map of applications, InPrint USA is largely—but not exclusively— focusing on décor and packaging.

“Decor is a marketplace that’s got considerable potential because it’s much more likely to have short-run production,” Chesterman said. “So whether it’s furniture, wallpaper, wallcoverings or fabric, it lends itself to bespoke production and to digital inkjet.”

The current focus on industrial printing is all part of the trend— driven largely by digital inkjet—of short-run printing on an ever-

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE increasing number of surfaces, the direction in which a lot of commercial printing has been evolving.

“It enables a commercial printer to apply what he or she is doing to a different market and expand their potential,” Chesterman said.

We should be cautions—as with so many aspects of digital printing— that today’s inkjet solutions allow the insourcing of what at one time would have been commercial work, regardless of its specific nature.

“The overlap [of commercial and industrial] occurs where a manufacturing facility wants the benefit of in-house production, but is not able or ready to do the printing inline with their manufacturing process due to issues that might include speed, reliability or the manufacturing environment,” Larsen said. “In this case, they may invest in industrial inkjet solutions that replicate their commercially printed labels with the goal of delivering just-in-time labels, nearline or loosely coupled to their main manufacturing lines.”

Another area of overlap is among wide-format, industrial printing and commercial printing—and even book printing. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of size.

“We were just at Hunkeler Innovationdays showing layflat books in sizes that are around 17½ by 17½,” Covannon said. “We’ve also had tremendous success with wall decorations and wallpaper. We have a few customers doing that. We have one in Canada called Melan who has a few Xeikon presses and all he does is these custom wall decorations.”

It’s also about understanding the needs of manufacturers.

“Commercially available wideformat and specialty printers can be modified to satisfy the decorating needs of manufacturers,” Larsen said. “These types of projects have 44

Xeikon’s heat-transfer-based label solutions allow for industrial printing on a variety of curved surfaces such as drinkware, pails, and pipes. (Image courtesy Xeikon)

been successfully implemented for printing on three-dimensional consumer products, industrial belts, various car parts, construction tools, food packaging and many other application areas.”

And let’s not forget the whole realm of specialty or “tchotchke” printing—or the vast growth area of product decoration.

“I do think product decoration in the U.S. fits into the story of industrial,” Chesterman said. “Curvedsurface printing is a big market and there are a lot of companies doing direct-to-shape now. A market they see as potentially interesting is sports products.”

Think of those foam sleeves used to keep beer cold, or printed drinkware. This can also be a perfect application for digital thanks to its short-run, fast-turnaround nature.

“When a team wins the Super Bowl, you want to be able to produce something really quickly so that it’s available the following day,” Chesterman said.

In the past, screen printers would need to mass produce, say, T shirts, for both teams, then discard those of the losing team. Digital printing can reduce waste, as well as offer more timely turnaround.

Xeikon has been working with a company called CDigital, which

offers a full range of digitally printed promotional or specialty items using a heat-transfer process.

CDigital has Xeikon presses and they also developed a proprietary process so that folks who want to get into heat transfer but are not quite sure how to do it can buy CDigital materials and inks.

That’s always been a major strategy for printers of any kind looking to get into new areas: partnering with a business that has the expertise. This of course does not preclude eventually investing in the capabilities down the road.

Challenges abound, and as with any new type of printing application, success is not just the result of plonking down some money for a press or printer and getting to it. It does require some research.

“Industrial printing requires more due diligence because of the commitment involved,” Larsen said. “Many projects take months or years of testing to qualify the ink on substrate properties, market acceptance and even aspects like modifications required to MIS systems for things such as variable data.”

“One of the barriers is just knowing where to go or how to start,” Covannon said. “What are the materials and the substrates

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE that I need to produce it? It’s not a difficult printing process; it’s just understanding the kind of workflow needed.”

Then of course there is the selling of industrial printing capabilities and projects.

“Industrial printing solutions are sold through a consultative process which involves a very strong partnership, often between several companies,” Larsen said. “The success of many projects is dependent upon finding the right suppliers for ink, substrate treatments, computer systems, integration and more. It often is beneficial for the customer to work with a vertically integrated company that can take responsibility for the ink, inkjet system and other critical components in the process.”

Specialty printing is no different.

“You need to ensure that you’re speaking to the influencer at the brand level,” Covannon said, “and sometimes it can be a little challenging getting to the right person. Talking about the technology and the application is an easy thing to do, but connecting the dots to the person that is going to influence the decision maker to work with a print provider can be challenging.”

A big part of it is establishing credibility.

“If a company wants 20 tchotchkes they’re not thinking of their commercial printer, they’re thinking of Things Remembered or FedEx Office or something like that,” Covannon said. “They’re not thinking that a commercial printer could do this.”

So educating customers is a large part of the marketing and selling of industrial and/or specialty printing.

“Take time to understand the process,” Larsen said. “Oftentimes, customers want to decide on a printhead before understanding how they achieve the basic requirement of ink adhesion and meeting market requirement for quality. Working with an experienced integrator can help speed the process and reduce the risk in implementation of an industrial printing solution.”

Regardless of whether we’re talking manufacturing-oriented industrial printing or specialty printing, they share a lot of the same basic concerns. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21060009 ■

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE

World on the Windows: The Changing Face of Window Graphics Window graphics are a growing subset of wide-format printing, and are popping up in more and more locations, both public and private, and new films and materials are making window graphics more versatile and eyecatching than ever. Printing is the easy part; it’s installation that can cause problems, and eat into your profitability. Here are some dos and don’t for working with window graphics.

Story by Richard Romano

A

friend of mine owns a gym in upstate New York. When he moved to a new location a couple of years ago, he hired a local sign shop to print and install a set of window graphics. There was a brief warm spell in mid-February (i.e., above zero) which the installers took advantage of to apply the graphics. Alas, a few months later, when the weather warmed up in earnest, the graphics started to peel off the window, and needed to be replaced, at the sign shop’s expense.

“Temperature fluctuations can wreak havoc with window

Window graphics for airports are starting to take off.

(Image courtesy Mactac.)

applications,” said Jodi Sawyer, market development manager for FLEXcon.

Deciding when to install window films, said Sawyer, is also a bit more

It was a very good year for window graphics.

(Image courtesy FLEXcon.)

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complicated than simply looking at the thermometer.1 “When it comes to windows that face the south in the northern hemisphere, however, there is an even bigger challenge to consider.

During winter, the sun remains low in the sky, with its light shining more directly on south-facing windows for longer periods of time than in summer. This allows for a unique situation where applied graphics, most notably dark-colored graphics, can absorb the heat of the sun more dramatically than at other times of the year.”

The biggest problems occur in the morning, when the temperatures of both air and glass are at their coldest.

“Dramatic temperature differentials across the face of the glass can be 1 Note to younger generations: a thermometer is what people used to use to measure outdoor temperature before the Weather app appeared on smartphones.

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE (Left) Dichroic films are multi-layer window films that feature color shifts when viewed from different angles.

(Image courtesy 3M.) (Below) Window graphics should be precisely measured and cut to the proper size—and pay close attention to the air and glass temperature at which they are being installed. (Image courtesy FLEXcon.)

generated on bright cold mornings depending on the color of the graphics. Furthermore, since graphics are typically installed in the evening after stores close, the temperature differential from morning to afternoon is much greater—roughly -10 degrees to 50 degrees sunup to

sundown in winter vs. 60 degrees to 90 degrees in summer. That’s a difference of 60 degrees vs. 30 degrees—twice the change.”

As you can tell, when it comes to window graphics, the printing is the easy part. It’s the installation that’ll get you, and like other kinds

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE of outdoor applications, temperature and weather are especially problematic when installing window films. Sometimes customers can be impatient to have their graphics installed, and it becomes the

responsibility of the print service provider to warn them not to install them before it’s time.

“Don’t be afraid to tell the client they may have to wait for a better day or temperature,” advised Jeff

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Stadelman, marketing manager for Mactac.

If not, you run the risk of having the graphic fail.

Pane Points For those new to window graphics, they are typically installed on the outside of the window; hence their sensitivity to temperature and weather.

But there is a growing trend toward window applications that are installed on the inside. These are called “second-surface” window graphics, and are viewed from the outside through the window. The major difference, from a printing standpoint, is that second-surface graphics need to be reverse-printed because the adhesive is applied to the front rather than the back of the graphic.

“Second-surface graphics can be printed with a spot white under base or with a white flood coat,” Sawyer said. “Second-surface trends for interior graphics include special effects with glitter and light that mimic movement in the graphic.

When using a white under base, it provides a certain amount of visual depth which is aesthetically pleasing and, also allows colors to appear more vivid and intense.”

Second-surface window graphics have the advantage of a longer lifespan, since they’re not subject to outdoor conditions or the possibility of vandalism.

Window graphics of all kinds are starting to take off.

“The latest trend is pretty much ‘anything goes,’” Stadelman said.

“From double-sided graphics, layering ink to give dimension, intense colors or short-term, extremely easy-toapply graphics.”

As window graphics appear more places...they are starting to appear even more places.

“Window graphics can now be found everywhere,” Stadelman said.

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Interior conference room window graphics are part of “experiential” or “environmental” graphics. They can be simple but effective. (Image courtesy Mactac.)

“Hospitals, airports, conference rooms, privacy dividers, restaurants, private homes, stores, bars and salons, to name just a few places.”

“In the areas of architectural décor in office buildings, we have seen an increase in graphics being applied to the interior glass fronts of medical and dental offices, banks and retail stores, as well as inside offices with work spaces that have been designed to utilize large sections of glass,” Sawyer said. “Perforated films are being used to provide a sense of security and privacy in addition to functionality by reducing glare, light and heat.”

“A lot of printed window graphics are for corporate security, such as privacy screens on glass wall meeting rooms,” said Mark Elvester, technologist at 3M. “In corporate offices, they’re not just for internal surfaces, but also advertising the corporation from the outside.”

As a dramatic example, 3M recently had the exterior of their own building wrapped.

The Hole Truth An important aspect of many window graphics is that the image is visible from the outside, but the film is see-through from the inside. These graphics are printed on perforated window film, a vinyl material comprising tiny holes. It’s kind of based on an optical illusion: the image is printed on white film on the exterior-facing side. The interior side is black, which keeps the viewer’s eye from focusing on the film, so you can see through it.

The transparency of a window film is a function of the number of holes, specified as a percentage of the overall material. A lower transparency, such as 20 percent, is 20 percent holes, 80 percent material (it’s also specified as 80/20—the first number indicates the amount of material, the second the amount of holes), which maximizes both image “pop,” and privacy. The higher the transparency, the more see-through, but the less vibrant the image.

“We continue to see an increased

call for the 80/20 perforated films, which yields 20 percent more light transmission while providing clear visibility for see-through viewing from the inside out and graphic visibility when viewing from the outside in,” Sawyer said.

Perforated films are also popular for vehicle graphics—particularly public transport graphics that cover bus windows. Not just for advertising, they are also being used for safety signage.

“Reflective perforated films have become a popular way for governments and municipalities to produce safety signage regulations notifying drivers of the rules of engagement with school buses,” Sawyer said. “Buses in Washington, D.C., use these films to warn motorists of the consequences of not adhering to the law of remaining 100 feet back.”

A Glass Act Effective window graphics start with good design. And good design Continue on page 59

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DIGITAL ORIGINAL

Sell Sell Sell…

The Most Important Thing

A Printer Can Do

company needs to know your best top 25 customers so they can get the treatment they deserve. If you forget who the top customers are, your customers will forget that you are their printer.

■■ Make sure you visit your top 25 customers regularly to sell them something new. When was the last time you made a real sales call to top 25 customers? Have you discussed new products and services with them? Faceto-face meetings will build a

Story by John Giles

A

round this time of year, I get calls from printers asking why their company isn’t getting bigger and better. Are there new software programs that they should buy? Is there a new workflow system available that makes it easier to get work through production faster? Is there something that successful printers have and aren’t telling others about?

There are obvious things printers can do to be more profitable. They can increase prices. They can cut costs. They can learn to read monthly financial statements and use them to measure their businesses’ ups and downs. They can organize the staff to let everyone know what their job is and who is responsible for what.

But the most important thing a printer can do is selling activities.

Printers already have technology to make it easier to sell more, they just need to use it. The common print MIS John Giles John Giles is a consultant for the printing industry who works with Tom Crouser and CPrint International to help printers prosper. Contact John at (954) 224-1942, john@cprint.com , or johng247@aol.com .

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systems compile sales information about your customers so you can make sure no sales opportunities slip through the cracks. The standard reports give you information to keep you busy talking and meeting with customers for the next six months.

■■ Review the sales of your top 25 customers monthly. All the MIS systems have a standard report that lists customers by sales that can be searched by date.

Since most printers get 50 to 75 percent of their total sales from just 25 customers, you must find out who your most important customers are. Everyone in your

stronger relationship and make sure you are the first printer they think of when they need printing. You can’t efficiently ask a top customer for new business through an email or telephone call. Don’t confuse delivering a proof or picking up a repeat order with a sales call.

Keep a record of when a top 25 customer was visited and what you discussed with them.

■■ Measure the sales levels of each of your top 25 customers regularly. The main reason customers leave is because of inattention from the printer.

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DIGITAL ORIGINAL Your first indication of problems will be when a customer’s sales start to drop. Know each month if a top 25 customers’ sales are growing or shrinking. I recently visited with a printer and found 40 percent of his top 25 were no longer buying at the same volume, and he didn’t realize it was happening.

■■ Use your customer list to prospect. You will want to call to verify the customer’s contact information. A simple call to make sure you have the right contact information may spark a selling opportunity or let you cleanse your customer list. You will also want to mail monthly to your customer list, so they won’t forget you are their printer

and what you do. If you want an even bigger response from your mailing, follow-up with a personal call about the mailing’s call for action. This gives you another reason to call and build the relationship with the customer. Successful printers take time to talk to their entire customer list at least once a year.

■■ Rejuvenate old customers.

Who on your customer list hasn’t bought from you this year? Do you know why?

Has the buyer changed and they don’t know you are the printer? Have they gone out of business? Did they have a problem with the last job they didn’t report? One of the most common reasons a customer

hasn’t bought from you is that the buyers forgot you were their printer. The phone call will jog their memory. Contacting the customers whom you haven’t heard from in six months will help them remember you when it is time to order printing.

Printers don’t have to spend all their time and money trying to find new prospects. Most can take the information they have stored in their MIS system to create a multitude of reasons to call a customer and ask for more business. The thing to remember is that people buy from people. Nothing is stronger than a personal contact with the customer and directly asking for their business.

Find article here PrintingNews.com/ 21050774 ■

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EVENTS

FASTSIGNS

of Louisville’s Museum Graphics

Are a Knockout

The Center’s directors pay close attention to how Ali is represented visually, and entrusted FASTSIGNS of Louisville to reproduce his image with meticulous image quality.

Muhammad Ali Center rebranding project wins the Wide Format & Signage Magazine/FASTSIGNS Project of the Year Story by Richard Romano

S

usan and Sam Cilone, owners of FASTSIGNS of Louisville, Ky., were the Grand Prize Winners at the Wide-Format & Signage/FASTSIGNS Awards, held during the annual FASTSIGNS International Convention in Orlando, Fla., Jan. 16–19, 2019. FASTSIGNS of Louisville won for its rebranding project for the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, which was undergoing a major renovation.

Celebrating its 25th year in business, FASTSIGNS of Louisville— with a staff of 12—specializes in graphics for healthcare facilities as well as museums. The company also services local businesses in the Louisville area. FASTSIGNS of Louisville’s relationship with the Muhammad Ali Center, the museum

honoring the late boxing great’s legacy, began when the center was founded 14 years ago.

“We began working with them way back at the beginning and initially we might work on an exhibit or an update or an upgrade of some sort,” Susan Cilone said. “So it’s kind of been an ongoing relationship for a number of years. This particular renovation allowed us to be a part of some of the main areas of the museum that were initially done as part of the grand opening. It was a pretty major restructuring renovation of the lobby area and we were really excited to be a part of that.”

The renovated lobby area included new graphics, and Cilone and her team also helped repurpose and integrate some preexisting elements.

One of the goals of the renovation

The Muhammad Ali Center’s “Butterfly Wall” acknowledges the donors who keep the boxing legend’s legacy alive. Each donor has his or her own acrylic butterfly, lit from behind.

was to better highlight the original founders of the center as well as the donors who help keep Ali’s legacy alive. Some of those older elements FASTSIGNS of Louisville had originally created.

“Five or six years ago, we designed and installed what we call the ‘butterfly wall,’ a 30-foot, acrylic lightbox that uses the butterfly as the recognition piece,” Cilone said.

The idea, of course, is based on Ali’s famous quote, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” and the butterfly image is a visual motif that is part of the museum’s branding. “The entire FASTSIGNS of Louisville won the Grand Prize for its interior graphics for the renovated lobby of Louisville’s Muhammad Ali Center.

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EVENTS

wall is kind of a swarm of butterflies that can be updated and added to as they get additional donors. Then the light shines through the acrylic and lights up the name that’s on each butterfly.”

The new lobby décor also included

metal letters placed on top of a new canopy above the Ali Center Store, and a 10-foot portrait of Ali was used to create a mural that highlights the Center’s mission statement. Column wraps also included Augmented Reality (AR) elements. Everyone was delighted with the results.

“The space turned out amazing and all the elements came together in a way that I think exceeded what we had hoped,” Cilone said.

The Center has also hosted a number of events since the renovation, including having an episode of “Top Chef” shot at the Center. More importantly, perhaps, it has led to more work for FASTSIGNS of Louisville.

“The Muhammad Ali Center has since then recommended us for a

number of projects, I think because of their confidence in us to get the project completed and being there for them,” Cilone said. “They had recommended us for work on a project for the high school that Muhammad Ali attended when he lived in Louisville. So I thought that was kind of icing on the cake for us to be able to be a part of that.”

FASTSIGNS of Kankakee, Ill., took two runner up awards, one for exterior and interior signage for Riverside Healthcare, the other for branding Hoekstra Transportation’s new corporate office. Founded in 2014 and having seven full-time employees, FASTSIGNS of Kankakee specializes in helping small- to mid-size businesses with their branding. Top verticals that FASTSIGNS of Kankakee serves

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EVENTS are healthcare and higher education, with two local colleges among the company’s client roster.

Riverdale Healthcare is FASTSIGNS of Kankakee’s biggest customer, and David and Sonya Comer, owners of FASTSIGNS of Kankakee, have developed a highly collaborative relationship with Riverdale.

“We’ve done a lot of work for them through the years,” David Comer said, “all their ADA signs and their large exterior signs, so we have a real good feel for what they want and what they’re looking for.”

This kept them in good stead when Riverdale sent out bids to local sign companies for the interior rebranding project.

“The heart and vascular images, and particularly the one where you see the lighted heart, that was their marketing campaign,” Comer said.

“They sent a blast out to different sign shops and said, ‘Give us your ideas, give us your mock-ups.’ We submitted two and those were their number-one and number-two choices.”

Project elements included ADA signage, wayfinding, murals, channel letters, refinished outdoor signs, LED lighting and more. One challenging part of the project was creating the lighted heart, which was the one part of the project that Comer had to outsource.

“We said, ‘OK, how do we get this made?’ And what’s nice about being part of the FASTSIGNS network is that we can reach out

(Above) FASTSIGNS of Kankakee’s rebranding product for Riverside Healthcare included a lighted heart, the only element of the project that needed to be outsourced to a third-party manufacturer. (Right) The Riverside Healthcare project also included exterior and LED signage.

to corporate and ask, ‘Who would you recommend as a vendor for this?’ They recommended a place in California, so that’s pretty much how we accomplished that,” Comer said.

FASTSIGNS of Kankakee also won an award for the rebranding of Hoekstra Transportation’s new location. Unlike Riverdale Healthcare, Hoekstra had not been a current FASTSIGNS of Kankakee customer. Comer landed that project through old-fashioned business networking.

“We are heavily involved in BNI, Business Networking International,” Comer said. “Business owners and salespeople from around our community meet every week, and we’ve built relationships through that.

One of the guys in that group owns his own construction company and was doing the buildout for Hoekstra.

He said, ‘Hey, they’re building a really high-end facility for their drivers and they want to make the branding look out of this world. So we met with them several times and got a feel for what they were looking to do.”

It took a lot of mock-ups and prototypes—23 different mock-ups for the front elevation alone.

“We kept tweaking it, and kept presenting ideas to them until we finally found something that they liked,” Comer said.

The project included murals FASTSIGNS of Kankakee owner David Comer landed the Hoektra Transportation account through a local business networking group, and they have since become one of the company’s biggest clients.

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throughout the building, wall graphics, wayfinding and ADA signage. To boost visibility from the interstate, which runs near the back of the building, they added a 12.5 by 62.5-foot banner with decorative frame.

“When we started doing that project, they were not a customer at all,” Comer said. “Now they’re a big customer.”

Both FASTSIGNS franchises are seeing environmental graphics and interior décor as among the fastestgrowing areas of their business.

“We’re providing custom-printed wall coverings and graphics that might be in a lobby, conference room or other area where they want to extend their brand,” Cilone said. “We’re doing a lot more work in that realm as well as adding dimensional pieces along with the wall covering. So there might be a printed wall graphic and then a dimensional logo or other dimensional aspect installed on top of that.”

“What we found is that people are wanting to make their businesses look really professional when people walk in,” Comer said. “Instead of having people walk into just a bland, open space, they are really dressing up the décor because they’re trying to sell their services and their goods to a prospective client or customer.”

Wide-Format & Signage congratulates both these FASTSIGNS franchises on winning these awards.

Find article here PrintingNews.com/ 21050728 ■

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE NEWS Contex Completes the HD Ultra X Scanner Series With Two New Models

Mutoh America, Inc. Launches New DyeSublimation Ink, “DH-21” Mutoh America, Inc., a leader in wide-format inkjet printers and cutters, has launched a new Mutoh Manufactured ink.

“Mutoh’s new Dye Sublimation ink, DH-21, is a cost-effective, high-load performance ink designed to achieve high density colors with less ink consumption while providing superior color rendition with reduced metamerism,” said Brian Phipps, president of Mutoh America. “Its fast-drying formula enables printing on thin and light papers while minimizing transfer times.”

www.printingnews.com/21043350 Roland DGA Announces Launch of New VersaUV LEF2-200 UV Flatbed Printer Roland DGA Corporation, announces the launch of the VersaUV LEF2-200 20” benchtop UV flatbed printer.

Building upon the impressive capabilities of Roland’s previous VersaUV benchtop flatbeds, the next-generation LEF2-200 incorporates innovative new features that increase ease of use and efficiency. The LEF2-200 inherits the VersaUV LEF series’ renowned ability to print full-color graphics and unique textures, including premium finishes such as simulated embossing, onto a vast array of materials and objects up to 3.94 inches (100 mm) thick. In addition, the LEF2-200 has improvements that make decorating everything from smart phone covers and plaques to giftware and personalized products easier than ever. A Start Timer Function completes print head cleaning setup and White ink circulation automatically by your designated start time, while a positioning jig makes it easy to align items on the print table. For greater maintenance efficiency and convenience, the LEF2-200 adopts a new cleaning system that helps maximize printer reliability and reduce ink consumption during maintenance procedures. Included VersaWorks 6 software provides a wealth of useful tools.

www.printingnews.com/21050160

Contex introduced two new models to the HD Ultra X scanner series.

The series now includes 36- and 42-inch models, completing the range of scanning solutions for Contex’s newest line of premium scanners.

The scanner series outperforms the competition in color matching and image scanning quality, while exceeding environmental standards. The series also boasts numerous productivity-boosting capabilities to accelerate the scanning workflow, while delivering long-term value and a quick ROI. The scanner series includes several unique features and productivity boosters, including true size detection and instant-ON capabilities, which cut valuable seconds from production time. A throttle buffer control also eliminates scanner pauses, allowing operators to continuously feed documents without waiting for scanned data to be processed.

www.printingnews.com/21048078 Nimlok Releases Newest Educational E-Book, Five Steps to Evaluating Trade Show Value Nimlok, a division of Orbus Exhibit & Display Group, is excited to share “Five Steps to Evaluating Trade Show Value,” the newest e-book in the extensive list of educational resources Nimlok provides exhibitors. This step-by-step guide aims to answer the question “What value do trade shows provide for your brand?” and includes the following guidance: • Establishing Quantifiable Goals • Tips for Refining The Audience • Essential Trade Show Metrics • Tactics for Nurturing New Leads • Analytic Tools for Determining Value To Improve Lead Generation and ROI Download the newest Nimlok e-book. All of Nimlok’s free educational resources can be found at Nimlok.com/ learning-center.

www.printingnews.com/21048258 April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Wide-Format&Signage

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TEXTILE & APPAREL

FiberForce Partners with Pantone to Bring Professional Color to

3D Printing Filaments

Last month, Pantone entered into an agreement with FiberForce Italy to bring Pantone colors into the world of 3D printing. Although color has been available in 3D printing filaments and powders for some time, there has been no standard way to ensure users achieve the color they are truly looking for. All of that changes with this partnership. Senior Editor Cary Sherburne spoke with both Pantone and FiberForce to learn more.

Story by Cary Sherburne

T

here are lots of reasons companies want 3D printed items in their corporate colors and for those colors to be portrayed accurately. With some systems, white materials are used, which then can be painted. But this can be an expensive and timeconsuming process. What if the items could be printed in the actual target colors?

This partnership between Pantone and FiberForce sets the industry on that path. FiberForce has just released its first range of solid filaments in a subset of Pantone colors.

“These initial filaments are based on a PLA compound. Later this year, we plan to release a second range of materials, including Smart ABS and Glass Fiber Reinforced nylon. We also plan to add a flexible filament range Cary Sherburne Cary Sherburne is a well-known author, journalist and marketing consultant whose practice is focused on marketing communications strategies for the printing and publishing industries.

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by the end of 2019,” said FiberForce CEO Francesco Berton.

While only a subset of Pantone colors is currently available from FiberForce, the company plans the release of 16 additional colors in March and states that this is just the beginning. FiberForce is choosing the colors to be released based on sales data and customer feedback collected over the past four years.

These Pantone-compliant filaments will carry a slightly higher cost

than non-Pantone filaments, but the company states the pricing is still in line with the average cost of highquality filaments made in the U.S. and Europe.

“We do a lot of work in materials licensing for Pantone colors, ranging from ink companies to companies producing embroidery thread, vinyl materials, plastics and textile dyes,” said Iain Pike, director of partner business development for X-Rite and Pantone. “This is the first time we have licensed colors to a company

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TEXTILE & APPAREL

dedicated to the 3D printing industry, and we expect to expand further into this application.”

According to Pike, FiberForce contacted Pantone to explore the possibility of licensing Pantone colors.

“They have a large number of colors in their standard product line.

They were interested in creating a filament based on the Pantone Color of the Year for 2018, Pantone18-3838 Ultra Violet, and that’s how we got started. Eventually, they decided they wanted to create filaments in many more colors matching colors from both our Pantone Matching System and our Fashion, Home and Interiors library. While our PMS system features a lot of bright colors and pastels, we don’t have a lot of colors in the white, cream, tan, brown and light gray ranges. So, it made more sense for them to select colors from both libraries and cross-reference each FiberForce color to the most relevant system.”

Pike explains that the intent here

Promotional items jump out as the most likely to create uptake in the market. is not to create process colors, but rather, to be able to use multiple spools, each with its own color, Pantone or standard, to create objects either in one pass on a printer that can accommodate multiple spools, or in multiple passes.

“We believe most objects, at least at this stage, are likely to be one or two colors,” Pike said.

Due to nondisclosure agreements the company has in place, FiberForce declined to comment on which 3D printer manufacturers it is working with, but one could assume that FiberForce has reached out to most

of the key players in the market.

It is likely that users will want to use Pantone colors for a variety of items. Promotional items jump out as the most likely to create uptake in the market, although there will likely also be demands for special colors in industrial products. Another popular application for 3D printing lies in the architectural market, for making models. This is another area that could benefit from special colors.

There are also potential applications in the fashion industry. For example, when Ariel Swedroe presented her fashion show at EFI connect, one of the dresses featured a 3D-printed butterfly. We also wrote a story about Israeli-based fashion designer Danit Peleg who uses flexible filaments to create 3D printed garments, including a dress for Amy Purdy to wear for her dance at the Paralympics Opening Ceremony in Rio in 2016.

As more Pantone colors become available in 3D printing materials, through this partnership and others, expect to see brands, designers and others take advantage of the opportunity to bring more color fidelity to their creations. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21050760 ■

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MARKETING TECHNOLOGY

Is the Offer One of Your

Database Variables?

To move the needle on direct mail responses, your customers may change up their copy, their images or their list. But what about their offers?

A new Bed Bath & Beyond mailer raises an interesting question.

than $50 worth of merchandise, and when they did, $10 off would be less than 20 percent. The more they buy, the lower the percentage discount would be. Suddenly, the offer didn’t look so sweet anymore.

But what I’m interested in isn’t BBB’s gamble on customers’ willingness to do the math. It’s the fact that this offer moved me, even a little bit. It moved me from complacency into contemplation simply because it was different.

How often do your customers change up their offers? To help them move the needle, do you suggest changing up things like their copy, their images and their list? If so, do you suggest that they change their offers, too? If you don’t, maybe you should. Even if “50 percent off” is essentially the same as “Buy One, Get One Free,” different people will respond to different approaches.

Story by Heidi Tolliver-Walker

Y

esterday, I received a direct mail offer from Bed Bath & Beyond. I get lots of mailers from BBB, so initially I set it aside. It’s always the same offer—20 percent off. When those offers arrive, they don’t usually spur me to make a purchase because another one is always on the way. If I don’t take this one, I’ll wait for the next. If I don’t need it now, BBB has conditioned me to wait.

But this time, I looked twice. The offer was different this time. It was $10 off a purchase of $30 or more. At $30, that’s 33 percent off. That’s a much better deal, and I started thinking about something I might need so as not to let that offer get away.

I only thought about it for a second (because then I recognized what they were doing), but it was an interesting exercise. As soon as those thoughts started to arise, I started analyzing the offer more clearly. As long as customers keep their purchase between $30 and $49, they would get a better deal than the usual 20 percent.

Of course, BBB is counting on customers buying more

Heidi Tolliver-Walker Heidi Tolliver-Walker has been a commercial and digital printing industry analyst, feature writer, and author for more than 20 years. Her industry commentary can be found in national printing publications, blogs, and marketing publications.

58

Changing up the offer can help you reach new people who didn’t respond to the original offer. Or who (like me) had become jaded to it. Even if a lot of new people don’t respond, you still learn something. It inserts a different data point into the mix, and you richen your customers’ database in a way that allows you capitalize on those insights in the future.

When was the last time your clients changed up their offers and tested them? Find article here PrintingNews. com/21050747 ■

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE Continued from page 49

starts with knowing the precise specifications of the window onto which the graphic will be applied.

“A lot of the time, a designer will design for large window walls and not take into account dividers between the windows,” Elvester said.

“Be sure to work with the graphic artist to match the actual dimensions of the window in order to prevent waste and installation delays,” advised Sawyer. “Be careful of rubber gaskets that are used to hold the glass in place.”

“The graphic needs to be trimmed away from the silicone bead around the window or you’ll get edge lifting,” Elvester said. He recommends leaving one-quarter inch between the graphic and the silicone.

Ultimately, it is during installation that window graphics can go awry.

Naturally, windows should be cleaned before installation—and there is an irony in the fact that window cleaning can cause installation problems.

Specifically, window cleaners can leave wax on the window which can lead to poor graphic adhesion. To see if a window has any waxy buildup, Elvester recommends the “water flick test.”

“Flick some water on the window and see if it beads up,” he said. “If so, there is wax on the window and you’ll need to get it off.”

To de-wax a window, he recommends isopropyl alcohol, Bon Ami or Soft Scrub.

Other chemicals may have been applied to the window, which will need to be removed before the graphic can be installed.

“Use an orange citrus-based cleanser, degreaser or highstrength cleaning solvent,” Sawyer recommended. “Test your cleaning solutions by applying it to an inconspicuous area and determine its suitability.”

It’s also important to know exactly who is doing the installation and choosing a window film.

“Understanding who is doing the install is just as important as picking the media,” Stadelman said. “For instance, a short-term graphic being applied to a fast food chain window by the fry cook probably needs to be a film that super-easy to install.”

“When we hear most window graphic problems, it’s usually because the installer has not got real experience,” Elvester said.

Then of course there is temperature.

For best results, window graphics are best installed at 50 degrees or higher.

“At temperatures below 50 degrees, bonding of the adhesive to the glass takes longer than at warmer temperatures, and, if a wet application method is used, it also takes longer for the moisture to evaporate from beneath the graphic, further increasing the bonding time,” Sawyer said. “This can lead to problems, from hazing in the adhesive caused by the retained moisture, to delamination of the substrate from the glass surface.”

Installing in the cold can cause problems, but so can installing in the heat.

“If you get too hot—say 110 degrees—the film can get stretchy so

you have to be careful not to stretch it during installation,” Elvester said.

The Words of the Profits As the song goes, the words of the prophets may be written on the subway wall, but the words of the profits can be printed on window films. What are some tips for profitably getting involved in window graphics?

“Don’t always go with the lowestprice product,” Sawyer said. “You need to select the right window film which will save you from having to reprint.”

Avoiding commoditization is also a key to profitability.

“Specialize,” added Sawyer. “Offer something that is special and unique.

Don’t compete with the commodity products. Work with a manufacturer so that you can find efficiencies and get custom finishing sizes when needed.”

“Digital printing is also an economical way to produce personalized window graphics, and don’t forget the short-term market,” Stadelman said. “Quick, reproducible, and/or repeating business is something every business desires.”

Find article here PrintingNews. com/21050737 ■

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visit, PrintingNews.com/10071343 April 2019 WhatTheyThink - Wide-Format&Signage

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3/15/19 11:32 AM

EVENTS

Association Insights: ISA Story by Lori Anderson

A

round the first of the year, a news story certainly grabbed the attention: One in four U.S. jobs will be “severely disrupted” as artificial intelligence leads to more automated work. The Brookings Institute report said that automation would be so broad and so rapid that “many or most American workers— and certainly the young—will have to repeatedly retool themselves for new work over their life courses.”

When it comes to the sign, graphics and visual communications industry, you might quickly dismiss the idea of automation. But we need to be prepared for the coming revolution, which will impact us in some way.

As workers are displaced, they will look for stable industries like ours. We are well positioned for the future—if we take advantage of opportunities to train these new workers.

People like Stephanie Wilkins, project manager for Image National Signs, are coming into the industry from other fields, bringing skills that translate. Wilkins used her project management skills in other areas of construction before coming to Image National Signs. While her knowledge in project management carried over, she did need to understand some of the nuances of the sign industry.

Her company uses the International Sign Association’s online learning program to help its employees stay

Lori Anderson Lori Anderson is president & CEO of the International Sign Association (ISA) which serves the international on-premise signage and visual communications industry.

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on top of the industry. A manager can assign an employee to complete a certain number of courses for onboarding or continuing education.

In all, 69 online training courses are available, covering a range of skills from digital signage to installation.

Learners can pursue individual badges in topic areas and those who complete six badges earn the Sign Industry Professional badge. A new course, “Intro to Signage,” is a great onboarding tool since it provides foundational knowledge.

The program is not just for newcomers, of course. Her coworker, Dave Jantz, was right behind her in earning the Sign Industry Professional designation.

He has worked in the industry for 13 years. Still, “there is always something new to learn,” he said.

“With the classes that are offered through ISA, it brought me back to the beginning, in a sense.”

Image National, Jantz said, is “big on hiring from within and encourages us to flex into other departments. They want us to find the right fit or better fit for us. By taking these classes, I got a better understanding of what others do and what they go through in their positions. I also got an idea of what I would be facing should I be moved into a different position.”

It not only prepared him for a future career move, but it also provided some insight into what is expected of his co-workers.

“I think that the biggest thing I got out of the classes is that you really should not complain about others not doing their job. Especially if you do not know what their position is.

Taking these classes will give you that understanding.”

More deeply, though, it has helped him embrace learning something new.

“I used to be apprehensive about trying something new. These classes gave me an understanding that you do not have to be scared. ISA is very thorough with the classes and content. I truly get the feeling that they want you to succeed as much as you do and have the tools to make it possible. I will be using the knowledge I received from these classes to further my career.”

Through Jantz, we see the multifaceted benefits that come from this sort of broad-based learning: He has not only developed his own skills, but he also has a larger picture of the company’s goals and how his work supplements them. His bosses now have an employee who is ready to grow into the next facet of his career.

In these days of worry about finding the next generation of workers, how comforting that the next person ready for promotion may already be sitting inside your building. And when new workers come in—drawn into a stable, growing, dynamic industry with skills that translate—how exciting that a program can help them understand the nuances of the sign, graphics and visual communications industry.

The Sign Industry Professional digital badge is just one aspect of ISA’s educational efforts. It is clear that, for our industry to continue growing, we must bring in new workers. We must also help those new to the industry learn more and push those who have been with us to continue growing. Learn more about the ways that ISA can help you at www.signs.org/online. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21050762 ■

WhatTheyThink - Wide-Format&Signage April 2019

3/15/19 11:35 AM

PRINTING OUTLOOK 2019 The WhatTheyThink Overview of the Current State of the Printing Industry The Printing Outlook 2019 report provides detailed analysis of the latest WhatTheyThink Printing Industry Survey, the latest industry economic data and macroeconomic trends, as well as industry and cultural technological trends to look out for in 2019.

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The executive report was prepared by Richard Romano and looks back at 2018 and ahead to what the industry can expect, economically and technologically, in 2019. The report features the results of the WhatTheyThink Printing Industry Business Outlook Survey conducted in Winter 2018–2019, and includes current and expected business conditions, top business challenges, top business opportunities, and planned investments for 2019. Additional questions asked about shops’ interest in adding new specialty graphics areas such as wide-format or textile printing, as well as shops’ hiring plans for the next 12 months.

The report also offers the latest government data on printing industry shipments, establishments, profits, and employment, as well as the economy in general, and includes an industry forecast to 2023, as well as some technology and cultural trends the industry should prepare itself for in 2019.

Print business owners will find the report essential for their planning, in order to put the marketplace and their strategic actions in realistic perspective. Industry suppliers will benefit from the insights into printer decision-making processes and the foundation of new industry demographic data that debuts in this report. Non-economic trends also offer ideas for what to pay attention to in the new year, and larger cultural and technological; trends indicate where marketing professionals and brandowners will likely be focusing their promotional dollars.

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS ■■ 4 2% of respondents to our Winter 2018­–2019 survey said that 2018 revenues had increased by six percent or more compared to 2017.

■■ In terms of revenues, the strongest businesses continue to be either very small or very large shops, with the mid-size shops experiencing little revenue growth, especially when you adjust for inflation.

■■ “Competition from other print providers” is now reported by print business owners as their number one challenge, with “increasing plant productivity” a close second.

■■ “Customers outsourcing more work to us” and “helping customers integrate print and non-print” were cited as the top business opportunities for 2019.

■■ Few print businesses have any substantial planned investments for 2019, but of those who do, binding and finishing equipment top the list.

■■ One-half of print businesses said they plan to hire staff in 2019.

For more information visit our store today at: https://store.whattheythink.com/downloads/printing-outlook-2019/

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3/15/19 11:34 AM

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