Production Printing And Its Future
Commissioning editor of Smithers Pira, John Nelson has given some analysis on the future of production print industry. Here in his analysis, he highlighted that though the volume of printing has been decreasing but the value of printing is on a high rise.
Production printing pertains a concept that a data resides on a person’s or an organisation’s PC and it is further digitally printed and send over to another person or an organisation.
This could be due to the fact that online books and resources are available and many readers inclusive of students, teachers and general readers use online resources for reading. Through online resources, readers get books free of cost or the cost associated with them is very low as compared to printed books and resources.
Moreover, environmental factors take into account as for the production of papers, companies have to cut down the trees. Also, recycling of paper is a big issue. If used papers are burnt over, they could cause environmental pollution.
In connection, there is a decline in postal service activities as well. As per statistics, there is a decline of 2.6% in 2014 as compared to 2013. People are more relying on emails and messengers.
Moreover, the analysis shows that the use of inkjet printing will increase as compared to toners. The industry will envisage a growth of 4.9% from the year 2016 to 2021.
The Future Of Production Printing
Majorly production printing has demand in the financial sector where analysts do analysis on financial records and future forecasts. Moreover, in government offices, regulatory authorities it has a great demand.
Though the companies are moving towards paperless offices and different software publishers are providing digital signature’s facility. This is to ensure that, you don’t have to print and sign the document. You can simply do it by using your computer.
Sustainable Advantages Promoted by PEFC
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) is showing great focus on sustainability within printing industry and will promote the benefits of sustainable sourcing at the recent year’s packing innovations.
Sustainability has been hot discussion within print industry and that is what printing companies are looking to achieve. Sustainable practices have a great impact on environment, if these practices are adopted they can provide safeguard to natural environment and habitats. PEFC is promoting concept of purchasing products from well-managed forests. Through social awareness programs, people are becoming more aware about sustainable practices.
Ross Bradshaw, PEFC UK chairman said “PEFC’s last global consumer survey found that more than 80% of respondents wanted to see companies sourcing materials from well-managed forests, to use a label on product to provide them with assurances of responsible sourcing,”
The event will take place from September 14 to 15 at London’s Olympia and at D8 PEFC will stand. PEFC, SFI and AB Group Packaging will take part in this event. All of these companies work in association to improve the concept of sustainability and purchase products from well-managed forests.
AB Group Packaging is supposed to provide services with flexible packaging. The company is a renowned manufacturer of high volume paper packaging and flexible bags and providing services to almost every industry.
Its manufacturing of paper and flexible packaging is hundred percents recyclable. Its manufacturing processes are approved by PEFC and FSC.
PEFC provides an interface through which manufacturers can purchase raw materials from forests which are well-managed. People are more concerned about purchasing products from responsible sources. This could help manufacturers in their advertising campaigns as through public awareness programs, people are more conscious about such things.
If forests are not well-managed, they could harm habitats and natural environment. With increase in productions, the trees will become lesser.
Park Communications Invested A Great Deal In Finishing
The London based company Park Communication has almost invested £200,000 for in house lay-flat binding and die-cutting.
The company contains 130 staff members and is growing rapidly. It has purchased a Kisun Digi Binder DB-440 and a Heidelberg SBD Zenith and they are installed in the company premises.
Kisun digi binder db440
Heidelberg SBD Zenith
Alison Branch, the managing director of Park Communication explained that besides outsourcing these operations, they have brought in their own machine to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost. The firm said that they have rigorously tested these machines before bringing these in house.
Branch said: “A lot of our customers are in the property and fashion markets, and particularly in property they love to use double-page spreads because this really maximises the impact of the imagery.
“So property developers, builders and design agencies love lay-flat binding and we were finding there was an increased customer requirement and it’s much easier for us to keep the process in-house; it’s faster, more cost-effective, we reduce carbon emission and it’s just much easier to control the process.”
The lay-flat binder provides strength to binding as the binder sandwiches the two sheets and performs its tasks perfectly.
“The Zenith was brought in as we were finding volumes building up, so we said, ‘Right, this is the chance to internalise’,” added Branch.
“The BBC rang me and said there was good news on unemployment figures and they wanted to present those against the backdrop of a busy, efficient manufacturing facility,” said Branch.
“Their research team had identified companies that might be appropriate and through that they had identified Park.”
It is a good notion to have further investment in bringing up-to-dated machines in-house. It saves time and considerable cost for the company.
Lithgo Press enhances its capacity with Horizon
Lipthgo has procured Horizon StitchLiner 5500. It will help to create a more flexible bindery and help improve the efficiency of its operations. Horizon StitchLiner 5500 is a fully automated solution and it comes in 03 VAC-1000 tower collators. Also the product comes with icon based colour touch screen establishing quick setup, an ACF-30 Accumulator having scoring along with, plow-folding feature and a heavy-duty HTS-30S 3-Knife Trimmer.
Horizon StitchLiner 5500
The managing director of Lithgo, Mike Atkinson, said: “We also have a Heidelberg ST300 but with both systems we can now choose quite late in the day which one to use. As the StitchLiner is quick and easy to set up it is perfect for short runs but its quality and robustness means it can also handle longer runs too.
“We liked the StitchLiner because it takes sheets that were planned in a such a way that they could be traditionally folded. That means we can plan work with traditionally folded sections. We looked at other solutions but they didn’t do that.”
Baroness Dean Becomes President Of The Printing Charity
Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde was the general secretary of SOGAT, Society of Graphical and Allied Trades and now she has been selected as president of The Printing Charity for the year 2017.
With her great serving to the printing society, Baroness Dean earned a great repute and privilege and now she has been selected as a president of the printing charity. This news was announced at the 189th annual event of Printing Charity held at Stationers’ Hall in London. On this occasion, she expressed her feelings “Once printing is in your blood, it never leaves you. I am looking forward to continuing my association with what is still a great industry as the charity’s 2017 President and supporting the annual Print Futures Awards.”
Rt Hon. the Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde
Here at this event, trade journalists, different manufacturers and renowned printers participated. There were discussions amongst participants on the challenges printing industry is facing and effects of Brexit were also discussed.
Lord Blunkett the printing charity’s president for 2016 and the guest speaker for this year, says: “The industry has grown beyond recognition since the charity was set up in 1827, but its work is as important today as it was then. Its welfare support for people in the industry and focus on championing new talent in a sector that continues to innovate are vitally important.”
The charity’s major focus is to help people who are already working or want to join the printing industry. It works for the education and welfare of professionals.
Jon Wright, the chairman of the charity expressed that if this charity was not founded, he would never be there at the annual event addressing people. Perhaps, who was amongst one of the beneficiaries of this charity. Also participants emphasized that the role of this organization is even more important today as it was in the past.
Tradeprint’s New Offerings
Bespoke-size display board is a new and unique offering by Tradeprint. It will help customers a great deal to reach out to new markets.
“When we brought in the fixed sizes it was a bit of an experiment,” said Barrett-Bunnage, “but what we’ve done now is brought in bespoke sizing and pricing with our simplest and quickest interface yet and we are able top offer some of the lowest prices in the UK for large format products.” From Now onwards, the products will be priced in square metre instead of pricing per product, he further explained.
Tradeprint Bespoke-size display board
“We see huge potential in the large-format market. We want to be a one-stop shop for our customers and so we need to carry a full range of products. We are introducing this to small commercial printers and showing them that there are other markets to tap. We want to grow with those businesses,” he explained.
“Because we are part of a group like Cimpress we can leverage that to maximise our volume discounts from the supplier and then pass it on the customer,” he said. “Our price point looks to be competitive but not hugely disruptive – we want to fit in with the rest of the market,” he added.
He explained: “We are a trusted name, our standards and quality are well-known and we’ve been growing exponentially. The major market difference between us and others out there is the price point, but we don’t want to be cheapest because a large element of what we supply is the whole package. We make a lot of effort not to be value-oriented.”
“Price wars are a huge issue and it’s inevitable people will start them, which means the rest of the market has to respond, but it’s not something that helps the industry. It’s not sustainable.”