The recent edition of Gulf Print & Pack revealed “a point of change” for the industry as it adjusts towards shorter runs, greater versioning and rising costs, Roger Pellow of the Tarsus Group tells Packaging MEA.
GPP 2013, held in Dubai on 8–11 April, highlighted a series of technological shifts that print and packaging professionals cannot afford to ignore, according to Roger Pellow of the Tarsas Group, which organised the tradeshow.
“I think the industry is in a point of change,” he told Packaging MEA. “Just like a climate change, a print change is happening.”
In his view, packaging converters must now adjust to a slew of changes or risk going out of business.
“There’s a lot of things impacting the print industry today, which are causing people to have to change the way they do things. Those that do will survive and those that don’t, like dinosaurs, will be extinguished.”
Digital gathers pace
A shift towards digital is just one element of the print industry’s new context.
“We’re all being affected by digital in the print market. That’s one thing. The second thing is, we all know there are shorter runs. Well, what’s causing shorter runs? It’s being caused by the versioning changing. There are more SKUs, more versioning, more promotions and more just-in-times going on today.”
In response to the new demands, printers must reassess the presses they run and how they run them, he added.
Meanwhile, costs are ratcheting up. “Costs are rising. The cost of consumables like raw material and inks are going up because they’re petrochemical based and the cost of petrochemicals is never going to go down.”
For Pellow, printing and packaging companies must now reassess their activities amid the “perfect storm”.
“A printer today cannot just be a manufacturer of flyers, books or labels,” he said. “They’ve got to be a sales and marketing organisation as well because they’ve got to find a solution for the brand.”
Connecting print to web
In meeting brands’ objectives, printers and converters must also heed the gathering trend of interaction from print to web or from web to print.
“Today it’s very important that the mailing piece, the label, or the book or whatever you print has some way of working with the consumer. The mobile device is becoming the form of communication,” said Pellow.
“Even today I’ve noticed that a lot of people haven’t still got a QR code on their promotion stuff. It’s so easy to create one. Yes, you have to have a website to go to or a landing page with something of interest in.”
Interacting with consumers can be done with QR codes, snap tags, near field connections (NFCs), RFIDs and augmented reality (AR), he said. “So the whole industry is changing in such a degree that you really have to think about how you move today,” he said.
And digital is clearly a key strand in the sector’s future. A fifth of packaging printers are going digital, added Pellow. “Around 1,700 label presses are sold in the market and 290 are digital. The maximum sold ones are Xeikon and EFI, with about 50 or more. Stork have sold close to 14 or 15.”
Packaging surges at GPP
For packaging, GPP spotlighted the sector’s rising importance, said events manager Mike Simmonds. “This show had 48% of packaging,” he told Packaging MEA. “Worldwide, package printing grows worldwide at 100% at an average. This is a far higher growth figure than commercial print. The show too reflects that. Within the show package printing will continue to grow as a segment.”
Emerging markets also came to the fore during the tradeshow, he added. “In the show we had a lot of printers coming from Saudi, Africa and Egypt. We have had an 8% growth since the last show.”
Overall, GPP registered a 14.9% rise on the 2011 edition, with 9,408 key industry professionals visiting the four-day show. Visitors came from 93 countries – up from 83 in 2011 and 65 in 2009 – underlining the show’s growing importance in the wider MENA region. With a sharp rise in visitors from Egypt, Nigeria and Turkey, 48% of attendees came from outside the UAE.
Sales at GPP 2013
Many companies also reported closing significant sales during the event. For Canon Middle East, marketing director Hendrik Verbrugghe said the show had resulted in about 600 strong leads from the Middle East and Africa region. “This represents around a 63% increase compared to our participation in 2011,” he said.
Canon, the largest exhibitor, announced that it had signed seven deals worth ADE7m ($1.9m) on the first day alone, while Nilpeter ME valued its onsite sales and new business leads at being worth about $5 million.
GPP provided an excellent opportunity for EFI to highlight its technology with its local partners Sara Manufacturing and Saga Digital, said Paul Cripps. “Many of our customers came from throughout the Middle East and Africa to attend this event and had the opportunity to preview our latest software technology, our Jetrion 4900ML digital label press and our award-winning GS2000LX LED cool-cure super wide format printer for the first time in this region of the world,” he said.
“It is clear the region is rebounding quite well after the financial crisis and that we expect to generate a solid return from our investment at this event.”
Ian Bendy of Itec said the London-based machinery dealer had closed sales of at least two machines at its stand and had “a significant amount of quality leads to follow up which I am sure will lead to more sales”.
Prestige Graphics Trading closed deals for five folding systems of various sizes, four cutting machines, two stitching systems and two perfect binding systems, said Jabir Jabbar. “We also generated a huge number of leads that are sure to keep us busy for a few months.”