Shane Lucas (pictured), director of HP Graphic Arts South Pacific, said that the vendor had noticed a “trend emerging with offset printers who are adding a digital stream to their offering”, and urged others not to be left behind.

“Right now the offset printing market has a large overcapacity and as a consequence has become competitive to the extreme,” he said.

“There is no doubt in my mind that if offset printers continue to rely solely on analogue technology, profit margins will continue to be severely compromised as competition heats up.

“Digital offers the ability to open up new markets, be more competitive and save costs, particularly on short runs.”

The claim comes as the vendor announced that its Indigo business has grown 50% in the South Pacific region over the past year.

Lucas added that the digital business had also yielded “significant impressions growth” of 35% over the past year.

“In relation to the market size of Asia Pacific countries like China, India, Korea and Japan, and the combined Australia and New Zealand markets, the performance of our region is quite phenomenal,” he said.

“In our region, print service providers are using digital technology to print an expansive range of products that are generally of higher quality and more complex. We are also seeing an increase in the volume of variable data and personalised jobs being produced as marketers look for more targeted ways to communicate with their audiences.”  

“Those analogue printers who have taken on digital capacity are not only winning customers in the short run market with an enhanced value proposition, they are also increasing volume in other parts of their business,” he added.

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