As industry suppliers scramble to stay on top of a rapidly developing print landscape the PrintCity Alliance sought to reassure the assembled editors and the wider print community that print has a bright, albeit different, future.i
PrintCity president John Dangelmeier opened proceedings by commenting that printers needed to think and work smarter, and adapt to the evolving media landscape. PrintCity produced a host of statistics to show that print is not in terminal decline, although it conceded that in the western world it was undergoing structural changes that are irrevocably impacting sections of print, mainly in the commercial and newspaper sectors.
There was strong debate within the conference hall on the nature of the print industry in the coming years, with various views proferred, with the upcoming drupa seen by some as a watershed event. PrintCity itself is promoting the industry as Seen, Lean and Green, and called on printers and publishers to do more to promote the benefits of print.
Among the suppliers Peter Kuisle, sales director of press giant manroland web systems, sought to assure the industry that his company had been bought by an investor with a long term plan, and was able to commit to long term partnerships. Kuisle said the drupa stand would feature a manroland folder on the end of an Océ digital inkjet press, as well as manroland press technology.
Océ itself is set to launch a trio of new high speed inkjet webs at drupa, including a compact version, a monochrome version that will produce 4,000 A4 pages a minute, and an upgrade of the 3500 that has just been installed at On Demand in Melbourne, which will be the ColorStream 3700.
Three of the world’s biggest paper companies – Sappi, Metso Board (formerly M-Real) and UPM – all presented thier different strategies for coping with a downturn in volume, with Sappi buying a rival fine paper company, UPM ditching packaging and expanding into graphic arts, while Metso is following the exact opposite tack.
Kurz announced it would have a foil for digital printing to launch at drupa, while Trelleborg said it would follow the print processes in its blanket manufacture, with a greater emphasis on flexo and digital, in addition to its offset products.
There was much talk of the new dynamics that print could use such as QR vcodes and augmented reality, with the projected growth in inkjet, which Océ had at 45 per cent CAGR, also commanding attention.
A full report of the PrintCity Alliance event will be in the March issue of Australian Printer. Next stop for trade press editors is Dusseldorf, then Shanghai, followed by Lisbon and finally on to Tel Aviv.
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