Explore More… COVER STORY Taylor Bloxham Pushes the Boundaries
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THE MAGAZINE FOR FORWARD THINKING PRINTING MAY/JUNE 2018 Explore more… COVER STORY Taylor Bloxham pushes the boundaries. CUTTING Off with their edges: guillotines and a whole lot more. DIGITAL Keep up as run lengths creep up. Explore more at printbusiness.co.uk COMMENT From the editor THE CONTINUED UNDERCUTTING OF PRICE, so called printing below cost, continues to be the No1 issue for most printers, according to the BPIF’s Printing Outlook survey. And with paper is relative short supply and expected to cost more and likewise for inks, especially UV inks, the pressure on margins is only going to increase. In economic theory this happens when there is oversupply of the same goods of equivalent quality to the market, so that buyers cannot distinguish between them except by price. The definition of a commoditised market. The solution is either to wait until supply and demand come back into balance through others moving out of the market, mainly by closing, or to increase demand. Given the rise of digital media, highlighted by the continuing decline in paper consumption and now production, demand is not going to improve. It is logical therefore to move away from the commoditised market, by either redefining the services offered or by adding sufficient value, through quality, additional features or services that buyers are prepared to pay more. The challenge is to identify what these services will be, and that will be something unique to each customer. However, there are some general trends that can be identified. Buyers want convenience. As well as speed, the other virtue of online purchasing is that it is convenient. In their personal lives, print buyers can order groceries online, can decide on a hotel and flights for a holiday, can book theatre seats. Why should their purchase of print be any different? Make it easy for someone to specify and buy eye catching formats, textures, effects and materials used. This print, to track their trading history and manage their relationship. also demands knowledge on the part of the printer’s own sales and At an advanced level the printer can deliver the sort of data about the marketing efforts to stress the difference that working with Printer impact of that print that Taylor Bloxham is providing its customers. A has over any other printer. Creativity and innovation are quali- Buyers also want something different, something that helps them ties that are in short supply. Printers need to think beyond the A4 stand out in a crowded, commoditised, market. With so many 130gsm silk coated page. This is why uncoated papers, foils and spot messages, so much digital clutter, stand out is imperative. That varnishes are popular, why letterpress appears fashionable. But these can be in any number of ways: timeliness, say. But also through are not passing fads. Nobody wants to return to commoditised products, even for ephem- Print Business goes out and talks to printers in their language in eral print. So why is it that too many printers persist in believing their own factories. Every single one is different. For this issue we that churning out commoditised products will change the margin went to Glasgow, Leicester and Rochester, Kent. We also went to pressure they are under? the Xeikon Café in Belgium and Sign & Digital in Birmingham. Gareth Ward Out and about… Now live… PackagingBusiness.co.uk examines the packaging sector and how it is changing in response to technology and to the …at Taylor Bloxham in Leicester requirements of retailers, brands and consumers. www.printbusiness.co.uk May/June 2018 3 CONTENTS PUBLISHING Print Business is published by Print Business Media Ltd 3 Zion Cottages, Ranters Lane, Goudhurst, Cranbrook, Kent TN17 1HR • 01580 236456 [email protected] www.printbusiness.co.uk Cover picture by Ray Schram Printed by Stephens & George Paper supplied by Lumipaper www.storaenso.com /lumionline EDITORIAL Editor Gareth Ward [email protected] 01580 236456 | 07866 470124 Press releases should be sent to [email protected] THE CUTTING & DIGITAL ISSUE COMMERCIAL Debbie Ward Business manager 01580 236456 Information/ Bell & Bain expands in [email protected] Technology 6 colour direction 47 ADMIN & SALES SUPPORT 01580 236500 Clays’ Italian job; high Glasgow book printer is [email protected] productivity choice for developing more colour MEDIA INFORMATION S&G; Ricoh aims at litho work with digital making a The Media Pack is available under substitution; Kodak drives the Information menu at mark. printbusiness.co.uk Uteco digital press. Delga plans to extend NEWS Taylor Bloxham grows The Monday morning News email is a on record sales 49 popular collection of a handful of the four prongs 22 week’s news, always going beyond the Delga Press intends press release and often exclusive. No Leicester group spreads third parties or selling of details. Sign to expand its carton up at www.printbusiness.co.uk/Register the load away from purely print. production with SUBSCRIPTION Print Business is free to qualifying installation of an HP printers. Subscriptions for other Cutting out the Indigo 12000 HD. interested parites are £120 pa. [email protected] bottlenecks 29 The guillotine is no longer Seeking the EVENTS Print Business is the organiser of the only answer to a apprentices 55 Forward Thinking Printing. For more details see the Events page under the printer’s cutting issues. Garry Richmond, director Information menu at of Print Scotland, printbusiness.co.uk Digital is pushing at is hoping to fill the CONTENT litho’s door 34 Content is copyright © Print Business demographic deficit. Ltd 2010-2018. All rights reserved. The new crop of digital presses are escaping the Café society 47 ARCHIVE Previous issues are available for a limitations of short runs. modest fee. See the Archive page at The Xeikon Café printbusiness.co.uk While workflows are promised applications, TERMS ripe to automate 43 workshops and Apply for terms & conditions to [email protected] Digital workflows are thoughtful presentations. enabling lights out print. It delivered. 4 May/June 2018 www.printbusiness.co.uk COMMENT nt failed, flash fusion and solid inkjet being only the Print was the winner most recent. If Xerox were a film studio it would be in definite need of a blockbuster hit. at Waterloo And it may have one. Xerox talked about a new The printing industry has a long and noble tradi- Product to journalists and analysts under Non tional as a fast turnaround, print on demand Disclosure terms in a webinar last week. The operation. Newspapers have always needed to be Product in question is, however, already at large, produced and distributed within very tight sched- having been launched by Fuji Xerox late last year ules and have single purpose plants for precisely and reported as such on this website. Others have this reason. City and financial printers also have also talked about the machine on LinkedIn where a long traditional of overnight production and Xerox itself posted a teaser video last week, talking delivery. Commercial printing can now be as fast, about the iridescent metallic colours and effects that exploiting digital presses for short runs. But when would now be possible for printers. But Xerox has timeliness really matters printers have always clamped the lid on publicity until lunchtime tomor- stepped forward. The Wimbledon programme, row – even though Fuji-Xerox is already selling the for example, has needed that day’s results and the Product, perhaps with a different front end, but next day’s schedule printed and inserted into the nonetheless to essentially the same specification. centre of a pre-printed souvenir publication. This In the Looking Glass world that Xerox inhabits, was, and remains, a challenge, but there is only one however, the Product does not as yet exist, because point of delivery, easing the complexity. it has not made that announcement. This is the 21st Forty or more years ago there was another high century where the latest gaffes by the President of profile job where printers, unused to overnight the United States zip around the world and are delivery, might demonstrate their ability to print, commented on within seconds. But Xerox believes finish and distribute within a very tight window. it can control the flow of information and commen- These were the record sleeve printers poised to tary; that what happens in Bangkok in November is print the packaging for the winner of the Euro- still not known in Europe six months later. This is vision song contest. The public who had seen Abba just one example of the bizarre thinking that is part perform Waterloo on the Saturday evening wanted of the Xerox culture and has led the business into the to walk into a record shop on Monday morning pickle it finds itself. That said Xerox may have the and buy their copy. But Abba might not win, so blockbuster it desperately needs with the Product. the different record companies had each of their 8 May suppliers on standby, presses ready to print if their customer was the winner. The press would run at a maximum 6,000sph before cut and crease, glue Bright and printed world and delivery to the pressing plant for onward ship- ment to the network of independent record shops, of tomorrow Our Price or Woolworths in order to capture the For hundreds of years anyone mentioning print or Every Monday morning Gareth Ward offers his views on the printing industry. printbusiness.co.uk/Comme industry. printing the on views his offers Ward Gareth morning Monday Every demand that would propel Abba to No 1. a printer would immediately think ink on paper.