Widthwise Discussions
RED TAPE IS NOW A MASSIVE ISSUE WORKING IN EUROPE AND INCREASED COSTS WILL MAKE UK FIRMS LESS
COMPETITIVE. SHEVY KAPOOR
prohibitation when it comes to switching to greener products. There are good alternatives but it’s very difficult to get them to move away from PVC-based solutions. We have made a lot of videos and blogs to try and promote it but engagement is low - as yet. I feel cost is still the driver and the perception of more eco- friendly solutions been costlier is the problem. Kapoor: There’s a lot of noise around this and we have made great strides by having a impact assessment carried out showing our carbon footprint decreasing by 46% and our plan to get to net zero by 2035.
Investment in technology is quite flat across the sector according to the Widthwise data. Are you spending money on your business - and if so, where is it going? Forster: We’re investing time and money in developing our website. Likewise, in keeping on top of the sustainability of the business. We are not currently investing in new print machinery etc. McCombe: Our investment in technology is continual. Our operations director is a software developer and we have spent, and continue to spend, a lot on developing software that runs the backend of our Graphic Warehouse website. Apart from automatic workflow it
ties in our CRM, social media, webchat support etc. But we’re also looking at Cap-Ex, and considering a 3.2m hybrid printer for delivery pre-move in March 2024, and the following year we’ll look into getting a wider dye-sub machine and associated finishing kit. Kapoor: We have spent significant on plant and technology. Our new Clarity workflow went live in February and has been a great move. Data collection on jobs much better that allows us to make better decisions.
If you could ask for one key development, what would it be?
McCombe: I don’t have a massive wish at the moment. I’m a bit of a pessimistic optimist in that I’m constantly looking at where our gaps are. I think the thing we’re looking at is packaging - by which I mean how to package our print consignments - because that does give us some real headaches due to each delivery being a unique size. Forster: My ‘wish’ would be for more time. Having enough hours in the day to convert leads into business is where my frustration comes. Kapoor: To educate politicians on how to run a business.
VIEWS OF SPONSORING VENDORS
AS ALWAYS, THE WIDTHWISE 2023 DATA THREW UP QUESTIONS BEGGING A RESPONSE FROM SUPPLIERS TO THE SECTOR, HENCE A DISCUSSION WITH SOME OF THE REPORT’S SPONSORS. HERE’S THEIR TAKE…
Let’s start with investment levels, because to do otherwise would be ignoring the elephant in the room. Data shows that spend on new kit and systems across the UK’s professional large-format print sector has flatlined. How are you responding to that? Fitch: I have to say that we’re going against the trend there. We are seeing very good growth here in the UK/Ireland this year across our full portfolio of products - from entry-level to high volume. Rixon: I echo what Paul has said. We’ve probably had one of our best years in the sector, where companies coming out of the Covid pandemic and not having invested have started to do so again. I’d say the entry-level end of the business is more challenging, but having recently launched the Latex 630 Series printers we hope will address that. But overall, it’s been a good year for us. Webb: Times are tough for many in the industry, and in the economy more broadly. That’s why we recently completely redesigned and relaunched our entire Acuity range, focussing on delivering maximum value and strong ROI. The market response has been very positive and we’re seeing steady sales.
Staying with the technology investment theme, there’s still relatively little interest in what print chiefs understand as the Internet of Things (eg. automation, AI, remote diagnostics), with under 7%
10 | December 2023 / January 2024 The participants:
L-R: Paul Fitch, head of inkjet, UK and I, Agfa Jane Rixon, business development manager, signage and decoration, HP Andy Webb, head of wide-format sales, Fujifilm
having said they would be investing in such areas. Yet, improving workflow and efficiency were key reasons for technological investment. So how are you handling that challenging dichotomy? Rixon: Well, HP has the platform PrintOS, which is available free of charge with our printers. When the Latex 630 Series was launched, we also introduced PrintOS Design and eCommerce, which is bringing Web-to-print to companies that perhaps can’t afford to invest in their own Web-to-print software. There is also a component called HP Learn which helps operators actually learn on the job - so we’re really trying to bring as much as possible into the
technology of the printer. We know that for small businesses it difficult to have a continuous learning programme, we we’re trying to help them get as much as possible out of the devices they already have, in terms of the data on what they’ve printed and how things are running when they’re not on site. Fitch: Agfa has always been at the forefront of automation, going back to offset and the world of commercial print. Our engines are driven by the Asanti workflow, the baby brother of Apogee, and with that it’s about speeding up the pre-press department so that the print engine is running as much as possible. Bolted on to this we have had
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