BIG GUNS KICK OFF DRUPA

Trade show press conferences are peculiar beasts. If a definition of news is something someone doesn’t want reported, then press conferences are the ultimate marketing exercise. The punishing roll call of press/marketing conferences at Messe Düsseldorf’s 11 day print extravaganza, kicked off the day before the show opened with the traditional industry behemoth Heidelberg hosting almost the premier presser. It proved to be marketing on steroids.

Before that though was Canon, which impressed with what has become a huge investment in production printing, and one which is only going to get bigger. All the big traditional office equipment companies are facing a downturn in that side of their business, as digital documentation takes over, with Canon among those looking to a bigger future in print-for-pay.

Canon outlined how it is going to be a major player in labels and packaging, with a new packaging production line based around a Colorado M and Fotobo unwind and delivery, its new Labelstream CMYK+White, and its launching of a digital corrugated single pass press. But it was in commercial inkjet where Canon made its biggest splash, first saying it is launching a new B3+ inkjet sheetfed printer, and then a new B2+ inkjet sheetfed press, before then saying both of which will also be sold by Heidelberg.

Heidelberg history

Back at drupa 2000, Heidelberg had two huge exhibition halls to display among other things, a full-size newspaper web press along with multiple offset sheetfed machines. In the intervening years, the company, along with printing generally, has reduced its footprint, but Heidelberg still maintains a sense of being a foundation member of the industry. It has a lot of history. Which may not always be a good thing.

Its press conference began with an intro from company CEO, Dr Ludwig Monz, who after a fairly short tenure is leaving the company. He introduced his successor, Jürgen Otto, who joins from the automobile industry. It’s unfair to expect these management professionals to be as immersed in the Heidelberg history as some of the grizzled journalists in the audience. This left them able to glide effortlessly over the mantras about the rise of digital, the role of offset and the company’s entry into flexo.

The announcement that Heidelberg is joining with Canon for new inkjet presses, the soon-to-be-released Jetfire 50 B3 format and the Jetfire 75 B2, set to enter the market in two years' time, was announced breathlessly, seemingly oblivious of the long history of attempts by the company to successfully enter the digital sector. For some in the audience it was Groundhog Day.

Heidelberg already has an inkjet alliance with Ricoh and a chequered story of its own development of inkjet. As the leading offset manufacturer it has tried to get into digital, but so far with limited success. It describes its latest attempt as the launch of ‘industrial inkjet printing,’ aiming for what it calls mainstream printing.

With much more assurance, the company continues to build on its offset supremacy, releasing a new Speedmaster XL 106 that is a marvel of automation and productivity. It runs at 21,000 sheets per hour, has amazing automation, including a plate changing technology that has to be seen to be believed. The press is designed for rapid changeover while pushing through as many small printing jobs as possible during a shift with minimal operator intervention. It clearly demonstrates that Heidelberg still has the means to dominate the offset market, which is still the largest printing sector.  Its current marketing mantra is ‘unfold your potential’ - whatever that means.

It seems Heidelberg is determined to be all things to all printers, boasting of its ability to partner with practically everyone in order to present a comprehensive array of imaging technologies, from offset to toner, to inkjet, to flexo. It maintains that Heidelberg service and quality will translate into the many different technologies it is developing and presenting. With a huge customer footprint as a result of almost owning the offset market for many years, it has obviously decided to be the total supplier to those printers, no matter what, in machines, ink, and service.

As a strategy it seems to be working with Tania von der Goltz, CFO, lauding the benefits of financial discipline. Sales figures held steady for the past year although order intake dropped by 6 per cent. She said Heidelberg has a solid financial future, which for the iconic offset press producer, is as good as we can expect.

No show without Benny

Next up on the Tuesday opening morning came the great disrupter himself, Benny Landa. Ever since he strode onto the printing stage in 1993 with the first Indigo press, the charismatic Landa has set the digital technology agenda. After selling to HP, he came back in 2012 with nano ink to take on the large scale offset market. While the charisma may be dialled back from his messianic glory days, the 78-year-old proved he’s still an act worth catching.

Again the tranche of new management glossed over the years of struggle and failure that we’ve been through with Benny. To be fair, he made the point that at the last drupa in 2016, the Landa presses were really not fit for purpose, despite quite a number operating in the market. This he confessed as he announced the sale of the latest new Landa press, the SP11, to long-term waiting customer, Cimpress.

Robert Keane, owner of Cimpress, which he claims is the largest digital printing company in the world, took to the stage to praise Benny’s genius and dedication. He’s putting his money down to buy at least one of the new Landa presses. In fact, customer praise was central to the whole Landa press conference, with videos of many printers from many countries all singing from the hymn book. 

It seems genuine enough, as does the claim that after years of toil and $1bn in investment, nanotechnology Landa-style is as productive, reliable and stable as its inventor has always claimed it was going to be. Landa claims that because nanoprint is completely dry when it’s transferred onto the substrate, it leaves inkjet for dead in the range of papers it can image. Colour and detail seem to be as good as it can get. With no printing plates and 11,200 B1 sheets per hour, it seems that Benny Landa, digital has finally arrived in ‘mainstream printing.’

A blizzard of HP printing technology 

It seemed fitting to follow the Landa presser with HP’s presentation. Very much adhering to the corporate playbook, a management team led by Haim Levit VP, rolled out the company’s impressive dominance in so many different areas of digital printing. Without a trace of hubris he launched the slogan, Welcome to the next 20 years. 

He announced a partnership with Australian online design giant, Canva, aiming to provide a print service to the 185 million users that use the technology to create 5 billion images a year.  In doing so he released the sobering statistic that of the billions of images created by designers on Canva, only 0.2 per cent are designed for print. He hopes to raise that to 0.5 per cent by the end of the decade.

In announcing two new presses, the HP Indigo 120K and the HP Indigo 18K, the usual incremental improvements in speed and handling were used to justify the newness. At this stage there are 4000 print businesses across 120 countries using HP Indigo presses, with a grand total of 7500 machines. They’re operating in the A3, B2, labels and flexible packaging, and folding carton sectors.

But of course, it’s wrong to focus on the Indigo technology with HP. It has so much more. Barbara McManus, VP, acclaimed the company for zeroing in on one trillion printed pages produced using HP Pagewide presses. These are the wide width inkjet web presses for which she announced a number of new models. Direct mail and marketing material is the main format for these highly productive continuous feed machines, which are blitzing the offset web market. She pointed out that by 2029 continuous feed inkjet will account for 12.5 per cent of total print volume, while inkjet cut sheet is deemed to continue its decline to accounting for barely 2 per cent.

Finally one David Martinez, VP, stepped up for HP’s wide format, another sector where HP enjoys a level of dominance. He focused on the high end with the HP Latex 2700 machine, which was released a year ago. At this drupa it’s receiving an upgrade kit, the details of which escaped me. He was keen to emphasise that HP has the largest connectivity platform in the industry. In the information age having the data is a huge advantage. He maintains that 30,000 devices are connected to the HP ecosystem system. “Nobody has as much data in this space as HP,” he said.

HP is an industry giant, which led me reflect on its first 2004 drupa press conference where a Veep from the company proclaimed it would one day be the industry’s largest supplier. That was met with laughter and incredulity from the assembled hacks. At that stage HP was still confined to desktop inkjet printers. It had just stepped into the Indigo arena. 

Shows how much you can trust the media pack. Today at this drupa 2024, I reckon HP is indeed the industry’s largest supplier.