“Two years ago, at drupa we decided to go full steam ahead with the third generation of Indigo presses; but a few months ago, HP’s global board decided that the best place to
launch these would be in Asia,” Alon Bar Shany GM and VP Indigo worldwide.
Two new presses targeting the growing Asian market were launched during Dscoop annual networking meet for HP press owners held this year in Bali in Indonesia. Also packed into the two- day program attended by over 1300 persons from both Asia Pacific and the US was HP’s awards event for its best performing presses and printers.
The conference gained enthusiasm and vitality largely because a number of senior executives and customers were ready to speak about a slew of HP launches of Indigo and Scitex presses in the past few months. The launch and initial sales momentum of the Indigo third- generation digital presses could lead to a major migration of printers to HP
— Indigo premium presence could percolate to the mainstream.
Having just shown its new Scitex 15000 corrugated packaging press at interpack, HP showcased the Indigo 7800 and the WS 6800 label press at the Dscoop event in Bali. In quick succession the company is moving ahead with its strategy to launch one press for packaging and one for printing every few months. HP strength in the label segment is now increasing helped by its growing traction in the board and flexible packaging areas.
Bringing learning to its fraternity
In a bad year for HP as a whole, when printing saved its day and accounted for 40% of its global profits, it was heartening to see that the company is
taking major steps to put its firepower in the vertical that is ringing in the profits. The HP Dscoop networking workshops are being slowly transformed into an event where successful users discuss many new application areas. These will now be further researched and converted to learning modules for its customers by the newly launched Dscoop University.
Several interesting workshops included technical sessions on HP’s own SmartStream workflow solutions as well as on finishing systems such as how to change the B2 cut sheet digital printing process by using the Horizon SmartStacker. Other sessions on business building, investment, marketing, supply chain management
and on Dscoop networking were
conducted by Yukinori Okamoto the president of Pullcast, Michele Madonini MD of HP Financial Services, Jeb Hurley GM for HP supplies, media and channel business in the Asia Pacific region.
Several prepress and postpress equipment and service providers showcased their products and services at the event. Important substrate and consumable suppliers such as Mitsubishi Paper, Michelman, Felix Schoeller and Antalis showed their special coatings and papers. Onyx Graphics, Taopix and Human Eyes showed their software while Hunkeler, Tresu and Harris & Bruno showed
their finishing capabilities.
Made for Asia
The session began with HP VP and GM Gido van Praag who is responsible for driving the operations of the entire graphics segment in the Asia Pacific region speaking together with Alon Bar Shany and HP’s director and GM for sign and display in Asia Pacific Jeff De Kleijn laying down a perspective of the company’s business vision. The importance of China, Indonesia and India, who accounted for over 500 delegates in the convention hall, was the reason that HP designed the Indigo 7800 in answer to specific feedback from the region and also its launch in Bali.
Gido Van Praag announced that soon after its launch, the first customer of the Indigo 7800 was Glo Colour Labs of India. Coimbatore- based digital printer Glo’s TS Ramanan and Gamyanth Shren said their huge success with photo album production had compelled them to buy eight HP presses in the last six years. The photo album segment is the fastest growing business segment says HP Indigo’s country manager in India, Appadurai with many printers running their presses on extended double shifts to generate an amazing 8 to 10 lakhs (800,000 to a million) prints a month during the wedding season.
Emphasis on innovation
The keynote speaker at Dscoop was Azran Osman-Rani the CEO of Air Asia X who spoke on the need for innovation and efficient utilization of assets as the key to business success in the region. He talked of the low turnaround time of planes in Air Asia
X’s fleet which not only make more
trips than other airlines but also paid lower hanger charges simply because its fleet works round the clock and offered consumers budget deals during odd hours to ensure high capacity utilization. The same business philosophy can work anywhere including the digital printing business – where presses needed to be used intelligently for longer hours to yield better ROIs and profits.
The CEO of McCann Worldgroup, Singapore, Ben Lightfoot said that print was not only relevant but key to solving the toughest communication challenges. Leading advertising
companies knew that for successful brands to effectively communicate with consumers there was no better place than print media.
Later on, Bar Shany, van Praag and De Kleijn further explained HP’s Asia Pacific focus as well as their take on HP’s print media advertising since most of HP’s profit now derives from its print business. Gary Garner chairman and CEO of GLS Companies an early adopter of HP Indigo presses recounted his 17 years of digital business experience and the advantages of working with HP’s versatile, high production and
efficient Indigo presses.
