Driven by dynamic page growth as well as strong sales in
the Asia Pacific, Europe and North America, the division experienced continued
success as it extended the reach of digital printing and publishing platforms
across a number of segments, including HP Indigo's core marketing collateral
market and fast-growing segments such as photo merchandise printing, book
publishing, labels and packaging and direct mail.
HP Indigo page growth worldwide increased 45 per cent
overall from 2006 to 2007, with fourth-quarter page growth growing by 46 per cent
year over year. HP also completed a successful launch of its flagship HP Indigo
press 5500 in 2007 in addition to providing field upgrades of new
productivity-enhancing technologies to many of its existing users.
"A significant part of HP's Print 2.0 strategy focuses on
enhancing the print production solutions provided to our graphic arts
customers," said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo
division, HP. "In 2007, many successful print service providers experienced how
they could create a competitive advantage and drive profit using HP Indigo
solutions in a number of dynamic, growing digital printing markets."
The Asia Pacific & Japan region has recorded the
strongest page growth rates for HP Indigo. Fourth-quarter page growth in 2007
outpaced the market with a 70 percent increase over 2006, with the highest
growth in pages attributed to Australia,
Korea, China
and India.
Commenting on the growth of the business in Asia Pacific
and Japan, VS Hariharan, Vice President of HP's Graphic Arts Business in Asia
Pacific and Japan said: "There is no doubt that our customers in the region are
experiencing the enormous business opportunities promised by HP Indigo for the
production of short-run collaterals, photo specialty printing, customized
output and web-to-print applications."
In particular, he highlighted the creative use of HP
Indigo solutions by China Postage Company who has been generating new revenue
streams in personalized stamps-on-demand during festive occasions. He also
noted the achievements of the Korean Studies Information who has been growing
its on-demand publishing business for short-run school text books from its
virtual warehouse.
Describing his experience with HP Indigo digital
printing solutions, Chae Jong-joon, President of Korean Studies
Information said: "The biggest advantage of digital printing is the on-demand
model which allows businesses to produce the right number of collaterals when
they need it. When you can effectively manage inventories and boost
productivity, profits ultimately increase."
Leading firms install multiple presses for enhanced production
Globally, the majority of HP Indigo presses are used to
produce personalized or short-run marketing collateral. Several leading print
service providers worldwide use multiple presses connected through HP
IT-enabled digital front end systems for highly productive, high-volume
production of offset-quality marketing collateral. Tokyo-based Toppan Forms Co.
Ltd., which is one of Japan's
leaders in marketing collateral printing, and VistaPrint, the leading online
supplier of high-quality graphic design services and customized printed
products, both added multiple HP Indigo presses to their already substantial HP
Indigo production floors in 2007.
A
spokesman for Toppan Forms Co. Ltd., remarked, "As the commercial print market
in Japan has been witnessing momentum in variable-data printing, Toppan
Forms succeeded in doubling the page volume on the HP Indigo presses in 2007
and we expect further growth in 2008. To cater to this increasing demand, we
expanded with additional HP Indigo digital presses."
In the photo merchandise market, HP recorded greater than
100 percent page growth, spurred by a proliferation of larger multi-press installations
and competitive replacements. HP
provides digital press technology to the world's leading producers of
photobooks and other photo merchandise products, including companies such as
CeWe Color Holding AG, Oldenburg, Germany,
and Asukanet Co. Ltd., Hiroshima, Japan.
As with leading marketing collateral providers, several leading photo industry
firms installed multiple presses in 2007. U.S. firm Reischling Press Inc.
(RPI), Tukwila, Wash., was among those photo industry leaders, and added the
capacity of eight additional HP Indigo press 5000s in 2007, in addition to nine
HP Designjet Z6100 large-format printers used to print dust jackets.
"Our revenues have doubled in each of the past three
years, and HP has provided us the solutions we need to stay ahead of the
growth," said John Perez, Chief Executive Officer, RPI. "HP technology
offers superior image quality and greater flexibility in terms of the range of
products their offerings can produce."
Internally, the HP Indigo division supported its increased
demand by initiating two major operations: a new, highly efficient, Six
Sigma-governed Digital Press Systems plant in Kiryat Gat,
Israel, and a previously
announced HP ElectroInk manufacturing process that both increases the rate of
ink production and reduces the energy consumed in the inkmaking process.
With the new Digital Press Systems plant, HP is able to
scale its operations to meet demand for specific press models. Each assembly
line in the larger 5,600 sqm facility is able to produce any one of HP's
current Indigo press models. In the original HP Indigo pressmaking plant, each
press model has its own assembly line.
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