Printers wanting to tap into the rapidly growing and profitable wide format sector should get moving to secure their place in the industry and avoid getting squeezed out as others join the race to go wide, according to a white paper published by Fujifilm.
The new white paper, How to make money from wide format printing – A Better Business guide, highlights how the wide format sector is not only one of the fastest growing sectors in the local and global printing industry, but is also one of the few areas that has been able to maintain very healthy margins.
With continuing advances in wide format press and consumables technology, the product scope for wide format players is increasing while its point-of-entry costs are diminishing, the report suggests.
With online and mobile devices capturing more of the marketing dollars out there and newspaper circulation waning, a lot of printed marketing and advertising material is being shifted to media such as outdoor banners, posters, point-of-sale and wraps – all which lie in the wide format production realm.
Fujifilm, one of the global industry’s biggest wide format equipment manufacturers, has been able to take a snap shot of the inside of the industry for the new white paper, and is urging those wishing to expand their business, product offering and profit margins by getting into the wide format game to move quickly, as the shift to wide format is fast becoming an industry-wide phenomenon.
“Early adopters among the litho community have already ventured into wide format print,” the report says. “A recent industry-wide survey found nearly two-thirds of respondents already had some wide format capability, which on average generated 10-20 per cent of their sales. Over time, the cost of entry may not fall – manufacturers tend to hold prices and increase the performance of new models.
“The key lesson from the screen industry was that waiting for the right moment was wrong. The perfect machine, like Godot, never comes. Wide format is flexible, profitable and growing. Not only is that desirable in itself, but also reputations stand to be built – latecomers may be squeezed out. Fujifilm is encouraging offset litho printers to take seriously the opportunities presented by wide format, in addition to suggesting other business-building initiatives,” it says.
It is no surprise that the industry is seeing a shift to wide format, with the sector being one of only a handful of areas within the printing industry that is experiencing rapid growth and expanding profit margins.
“Wide format print offers bigger margins to the producers. At a time when offset margins languish in single figures, wide format opens up a world in which value exerts a stronger pull,” the report says. “Advances in technology allow wide format companies to offer a broader range of print and enjoy increasing revenues.”
Unlike most offset print and a large proportion of digital print, lowest price is often not a primary consideration for a wide format customer. The end product and what it can achieve is generally more important.
“One Fujifilm customer, for example, with a reputation for printing on textiles, especially carpet, was approached to produce and fit a 1681 square metre Monopoly board design on carpet for an exhibition, the report says. “Price was not the main consideration – getting it fitted in time and being able to take it to other venues were more important.”
Not only does wide format production offer a printer a broad range of product offering, healthy margins and an expanding customer-base, the sector also has a remarkably affordable point-of-entry cost when compared to the offset or digital commercial sectors, where press prices can run from hundreds of thousands of dollars into the millions.
“Most firms focus on the start-up costs or cost of entry. If so, wide format machine costs should be a pleasant surprise: inkjet printers range from the sort of prices litho presses command all the way down to models suitable for a one-man shop,” says the report.
Fujifilm – which has several wide format printing presses to its name, including the Onset S20 and new Onset S40i, the Uvistar and the Acuity series, among others – has looked closely at its existing worldwide customer base to draw out some of the fundamental lessons laid out in the white paper.
The company even included some of its wide format equipment customers’ comments in relation to making the most of the medium.
“Forget about running inkjet presses for five or ten years. You will be looking to upgrade your printers or get more machines in two to three years,” one customer wrote.
“The investment in wide format inkjet is nowhere near a litho press and digital is straightforward to get finance on,” said another. A third said, “we initially targeted retailers hit by the recession who wanted to advertise their way out of it. A lot of our work was outdoor and banner.”
This feedback helps reinforce and inform the central thrust of Fujifilm’s white paper – that wide format is a way forward for printers looking to increase their margins and maintain a profitable business, but that no time should be wasted in making the leap to the wide side.
To download a copy of the Fujifilm How to Make Money from Wide Format Printing - Better Business Guide, visit www.fujifilm.com.au and click the download tab on the Fujifilm Graphic Systems homepage.