What comes next? It’s one of those nice open-ended questions that you can ask and not know where the answer will take you. It’s also an appropriate theme to pick up on considering that in last month’s column, I looked at the swath of administrations that cut through the printing industry over the beginning of this year.
If we circled the months of March and April in thick red highlighter to draw attention to the array of major companies that unravelled in well-documented administrations, then we would have to draw a big question mark over May. It was always going to be a big month in terms of finding out ‘what comes next’.
Paragon was bought by Print Media Group. Chippendale was sold off piece-by-piece to the likes of Blue Star and Hannapak. Pettaras Press sat ready to be scooped up by any number of rumoured new owners, only to fall at the last hurdle. Beaver simply faded into oblivion. At the time of writing, Worldwide Online Printing was (still) on the brink of finding a new owner, after what is surely the world’s longest administration. I can only guess at the fees the failed franchise’s administrators have racked up so far. So then, what comes next?
The short answer, for many in the industry over the last few months, was ‘Ipex’. The global print calendar is bookmarked by a handful of major events. In simple terms, it’s either an “Ipex year”, a “Drupa year”, or one of the long periods in between.
Print people reminisce by using these milestones. Locally, we have our own two-year cycle to count out the calendar. How often do you hear printers measure memories in the context of pre- and post-event. “We did that in the lead-up to PrintEx”. “Oh, we made that decision after PacPrint”.
Even for the overwhelming majority of printers who didn’t attend Ipex, it will help demarcate major investment decisions. If you’ve been holding off on taking a new technological direction, now’s the time to jump. When printers look back on their re-investment cycle, most buying decisions will have a ‘pre-Ipex’ and ‘post-Ipex’ complexion. For those who did attend, or who are considering any of the shiny new products launched at the show, the month of May could mark the beginning of a whole new direction for their business.
What comes next? It’s a question all printers need to ask. Businesses are constantly looking for ways to grow, so it pays to have an eye on the horizon and make decisions for the long-term. These days, the path into the future has been led towards digital. As we reported last month, the print centre of my very own alma matter, the University of Wollongong, became the latest company to make the switch from offset to an all-digital kit base.
Even though I encounter such wholesale switches with increasing frequency, it’s still remarkable when a printer decides to completely overhaul the way it does business, all in the interest of embracing new technology. But it’s clear digital is the next link in the evolutionary chain. It’s ‘what comes next’.
Digital print may not be the silver bullet solution for every business in these tough times, but it’s fair to say that it represents a natural progression into print’s burgeoning capabilities. Now then, what’s next?
Daniel Fitzgerald is a reporter for ProPrint
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