Netherland-based SPGPrints has strengthened its commitment to the textile printing industry by doubling the size of its digital ink production facility at its Boxmeer headquarters for the second time in two years. Scheduled to open in the final quarter of 2017, the expanded 1000 square meter production facility is part of an EUR 8 million capital investment program. This will also include the building of the new Experience Center, dedicated to driving innovation in digital textile printing. The company manufactures reactive, acid, disperse and sublimation inks for use with digital inkjet printers, covering the full range of textile applications.
The expanded facility is in close proximity to both SPGPrints’ research and development laboratories, and the corporate headquarters so that communication chains are short and decisions can be made quickly.
The investment in the ink plant expansion is another step towards SPGPrints’ goal of making digital the mainstream printing technology for textile applications.
SPGPrints’ subsidiary company, Veco B.V., of Eerbeek, Netherlands, develops precision metal parts for a wide range of markets, including the design and production of nozzle plates for inkjet print heads. The synergy enabled by the relationships with the major suppliers for print heads in the textile market means that inks and print heads can be designed to work optimally, and deliver the best technologies to the customer.
Jos Notermans, commercial manager of digital textiles at SPGPrints said, “The increase in the volume of our ink production means that we will continue to be able to serve the expanding digital textile printing market that we have helped to build over the last three decades.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
– Naresh Khanna
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