Growth high on the agenda at Fespa 2023

Richard Stuart-Turner Friday, June 23, 2023

After years spent in recovery post-pandemic, many wide-format printers have now finally broken free from the shackles of Covid and – despite, or perhaps because of, the other many current external economic and political challenges – have their sights set on growth.

While Fespa’s last two flagship shows, Amsterdam in 2021 and Berlin last year, were well received, the 2023 Global Print Expo in Munich felt like a definitive return to the buzz and excitement last seen in… Munich, back in 2019, the final pre-Covid outing for the event.

There was a real sense at the show this year that visitors wanted to learn, invest, and do everything they could to make their businesses stand out.

Running with the theme, ‘New Perspectives’, Fespa and the co-located European Sign Expo and new Personalisation Experience welcomed more than 500 exhibiting companies and attracted 14,776 unique visitors, up 26.9% on the number that visited Berlin last year, albeit 28.9% down on the 2019 Munich show. 54% of delegates attended over multiple days, bringing total attendance to 22,757, up 42.5% on last year.

Many of the returning exhibitors were Asian businesses that were unable to make the prior post-Covid events due to travel restrictions, and they appeared happy to be back.

Yuwei Hsu, founder of Taiwanese Perspex picture frame specialist Crystalframe, said there had been groups of people on the company’s stand talking about authorisation to use its patent.

“I was so glad to have four days at Fespa – enough time to explain the product. Without an explanation, people just walk on.”

Daniel Yang, director at Chinese sign materials supplier Vallen Decoration Materials, added: “It’s perfect, because after three years of Corona time, we have a chance to talk face-to-face. Everything has gone very well, and we have met a lot of our own clients and new friends here, which means there is a lot of new opportunities in the near future.”

Returning features included the final of the World Wrap Masters and the Fespa Awards, as well as the Sustainability Spotlight showcase of innovative sustainable textile and graphic substrates. This unsurprisingly proved popular, with many exhibitors also pushing their green products and initiatives at the show.

Texo Trade Services director Floris Jan van den Heuvel said visitors were “very interested” in the company’s new textile recycling service.

“We were also showing that we’re in the pilot stage of recycling the silicone edge on the graphics, which will be recycled as filling for the furniture industry.”

He also praised the quality of Fespa visitors: “If you’re serious in visual communications and digital printing then you should come here, and they mostly do.”

Simon Daplyn, product marketing manager at Sun Chemical, added: “Sustainability has always been there in the background, but people are taking it more seriously now in terms of looking at the different ways to use product to reduce waste, or make sure printers have got a lot of uptime, or change their processes. There are a lot of people talking about new technologies or cleaner ways they can achieve the same result.”

Other key trends at the show included automation, the call from users to print onto more difficult substrates, like leather and non-porous materials, the rise of direct-to-film (DTF) technology, and the burgeoning personalisation trend.

Arjen Evertse, general manager sales at Mimaki Europe, said: “People want to be unique, which is not something new. The desire for people to have something of their own – for personalised products – has always been there but the technology to make it wasn’t, so when the technology arrived people started to realise what is now possible.”

Mimaki was showing its first DTF printer, the TxF150-75, at Fespa but Evertse said textile printing has been an important part of its business for around 20 years. He added both personalisation and sustainability are driving the continued growth of its textile business unit.

Mathew Faulkner, EMEA director, marketing and innovation, Wide Format Printing Group, Canon Europe, hailed Fespa for introducing the Personalisation Experience event.

“With the opportunities and this new dawn in the era of personalisation, it’s fantastic to see them bringing those ideas and opening those conversations.”

He added: “We’re fully back to live events which is great to see because people in our industry are very tech savvy; they really roll their sleeves up and understand the technology and what it can do for them, and they’re eager to think about new services they can offer, what the applications are, and what the available media is. This environment is really great for that.”

HP Large Format global strategy director Oscar Vidal was also positive: “Fespa is a natural fit for an industry that is very connected; it’s like a big community that likes to come and get together. Face-to-face in these industries is crucial and Fespa provides a unique opportunity to put all these things together in a very organised way.

“We do quite a lot of business at Fespa, both closing business but also generating business; it’s very important as it helps you to get to know new customers.”

Adrian Zesiger, eProductivity Software (ePS) sales director EMEA, felt the show had gone “very well”.

“We met a lot of interesting customers, who are really looking to streamline their workflow and find smart solutions. We have more leads, more people came through, and we did more demos [compared to last year].”

He added: “It looks like the market is picking up again. Last year, people didn’t know what was coming to them with the energy price [increases]; this year they see further down the road and say ‘okay, we want to reinvest, we want to move forward’. So that’s all really positive.”

Fespa’s 2024 Global Print Expo will be held from 19-22 March at the RAI exhibition centre in Amsterdam. European Sign Expo and the Personalisation Experience will both return while Sportswear Pro, which was first announced in 2019, will receive its belated launch at the event.

OPINION

Quality of visitors is key

Michael Ryan, head of Global Print Expo, Fespa

"People were happy to be back – for many people it was four years since they had been able to go to a Fespa show because we have had restrictions of travel and it’s been complicated, but it seemed that everyone decided to come to Munich. We had very positive feedback from exhibitors, stands were busy – some people were busy every single minute of every day, and machinery was being bought.

The quality audience is what I think makes Fespa different from other events. We do specifically target the right people to come, and our collaboration with everybody is here in the results.

Our campaign this year was ‘New Perspectives’, so we had to look at the variety of applications, and many manufacturers were showing the future of the industry – there was lots of innovation. It was interesting to see the new exhibitors – web-to-print, software, and front-end companies were attracted by new areas like the Personalisation Experience, and it was also good to have the Asian exhibitors back again and engaging with the industry.

Sustainability is a topic you could see everywhere throughout the event. People were introducing new materials, but it was also about highlighting efficiencies – whatever you can do to run your business more efficiently is good for the future. Personalisation was another major trend – customisation was everywhere, in every hall – that is an area of development for Fespa, which is why it was great to have exhibitors here for the Personalisation Experience.

Munich is a central European destination, so it’s well placed, and operationally and logistically the venue has the facility to host Fespa shows – it ticked all the boxes. Next year we’ll be back at the RAI in Amsterdam, and will be using both areas of that venue, which will give us a lot more space. It will be a focused event, and we’ll be expanding further with European Sign Expo and the Personalisation Experience."

READER REACTION

What did you think of this year’s show?

Paul Manning, managing director, Rapidity

“We loved Fespa. Nearly every stand we went to had a new machine or new capabilities and that’s what we want to see at the end of the day. It’s obviously an industry that’s thriving – it was hit hard during Covid but bounced back very quickly, which is great to see. It’s interesting that all the kit manufacturers are doing different things; obviously there’s a trend of green initiatives but it wasn’t just everyone doing the same kind of thing with a different looking machine, it’s actually different, from latex to UV, to UV gels, whatever it might be.”

Nicole Spencer, managing director, RMC Digital Print

“I really enjoyed the show this year. It was busy and had a real buzz about the place. Apart from being able to see all the new technology and kit it was great to see old friends and new. I saw a lot of automation ideas, and personalisation was seen around the stands as well as with the dedicated personalisation in print area. People often think of personalisation as being something with your name on but there is so much more to it. We’ve seen, from our clients’ work, more retailers asking for personalisation within their individual stores.”

Mahmoud Samy, product manager large-format printing, Heliozid Oce Emirates

“Most of the brands brought new technologies which hadn’t been seen before, which was good. Shows like Fespa are useful because you can really find out what is happening, meet new people, and even meet new people from your own region. This was my first time at Fespa; it’s bigger than what’s happening in Dubai though Fespa is coming there next year. I would definitely come again – let’s see what happens after the Dubai show, whether they come to us every year!”

FESPA 2023: KEY LAUNCH ROUNDUP

Canon extends Arizona family

Canon used Fespa to launch two new models in the Arizona 1300 flatbed printer series that feature its productivity boosting Flow zone-free vacuum system. The GTF and XTF models, which are available now, replace the 1300 GT and XT models. Targeted at the growing mid-volume segment, the machines feature variable print speeds of up to 52.8sqm/hr and can print on rigid or flexible media of any size up to 1.25x2.5m with the GTF or 2.5x3.08m on the XTF. Mathew Faulkner, EMEA director, marketing and innovation, Wide Format Printing Group, Canon Europe, said: “With the added Flow technology and automation enhancements, these new models deliver the proven Arizona quality and versatility, but make production quicker and easier than ever.”

Fujifilm unveils hybrid

Fujifilm used Fespa as the launchpad for its new Acuity Prime Hybrid printer. The manufacturer unveiled its fresh ‘Blueprint’ for wide-format at last year’s show, and 12 months on it showcased a number of enhancements to the range. However, taking centre stage was the new Acuity Prime Hybrid, with a top speed of 150sqm/hr, which handles rigid substrates up to 2.5x1.25m in size and roll media up to 2m wide.

Durst expands P5 family

Durst Group unveiled its expanded P5 portfolio, adding the P5 350 HSR roll-to-roll for high-speed applications and a new robotic system. The 670sqm/hr, 3.5m-wide LED roll-to-roll printer can be equipped with an optional one tonne master roll and D4 specification with double CMYK. The manufacturer also drew crowds with the unveiling of P5 Robotics in Munich, showing a P5 350 HS D4 hybrid printing system with a feeder/stacker unit formed by two Kuka robots to handle the unmanned production.

Sky Air-Ship demos SkyJet

Chinese manufacturer Sky Air-Ship demonstrated its SkyJet double-sided textile printer for the first time at Fespa. The technology can be used to print a range of products including flags and banners, backlits, and high-end luxury cottons such as scarves and claims “perfect registration”. SkyJet printers are available in 2m, 3m and 5m widths using either Epson or a maximum of 28 Kyocera heads. Pricing starts from €125,000 (£109,000).

Flora targets packaging

Flora launched its 2.5m C25h Pro inkjet press to the European market in Munich. Running at 1,200sqm/hr in single-pass production, the 600x1,200dpi press is targeted at high-volume packaging work, and was first launched in Asia in 2021. Capable of handling 1.35m-wide boards automatically, or 2.5m boards manually, it can also run three or four-pass work at 400 and 300sqm/hr respectively. With feeder and stacker, the Pro model with 12 Epson 4200 printheads costs around €200,000.

Brother extends market reach

Brother went to Fespa 2023 with a trio of new machines, including its first entry into wide-format, the WF1-L640 latex printer. The sub €20,000 WF1 is a 1.6m-wide, 15sqm/hr resin printer that uses Brother’s inkjet technology and proprietary inks in a Roland DG frame, following collaboration between the two manufacturers. It was launched at the show alongside Brother’s new extended-colour model GTX 600 Extra Colours, and its new direct-to-film, roll-to-roll.

CarbonQuota’s new calculator

Carbon Quota launched the CarbonQuota Essentials calculator, a new software-as-a-service product. The business said that through machine learning and full integration with a variety of third-party software providers, the tool produces an automatic calculation of the carbon footprint of print and packaging products, which is then communicated to the customer through quotations or printer reports.

Azon goes ‘maintenance free’

Azonprinter premiered its new Primo Plus Neon X DTF 600mm direct-to-film (DTF) transfer printer, which replaces the Pronto Plus Neon. The new 10-colour, €23,760 machine features several “quality-of-life” upgrades which make it “maintenance free”, including automatic cleaning, ink agitation and recirculation.

Plastgrommet’s new trio

Plastgrommet launched a trio of new machines that optimise and automate various time-consuming finishing tasks. Roll2Roll Welding is a system that can weld both sides of rolls, while Roll2Roll Eyeleting Pro features an automatic eyelet setting on both sides of a roll with a motorised cutter to cut banners to a specific length. TrackXpress, meanwhile, is an automatic eyelet press that moves sideways with a track system attached to a finishing table. All three machines are available immediately.

Antigro offers smart personalisation

First time Fespa exhibitor Antigro Designer debuted its easy-to-use personalisation software which uses AI to empower consumers to create complex personalised products, such as multi-image canvases and t-shirts, and see a 3D preview of how their finished item will look. Co-founder and chief revenue officer Waclaw Mostowski demonstrated the power of the system at the show by snapping a selfie, turning his headshot into a cut-out and adding it to a fun t-shirt design using a repeated image – all within seconds.