Strong belief in the global market

Jo Cornu, CEO Agfa-Gevaert

You arrived at the show this morning. What are your first impressions?
Well, first, it’s a very big show and second, it’s very international. The third impression is that there is a lot of attention on inkjet.

On inkjet, how do you see that market progressing?
You can only look forward five years. I think inkjet will be very complementary with offset. We see two applications for inkjet. First for short runs, and second in a range of niche markets.

You’ve just announced a 15m euro investment in Brazil in a
platemaking line. How important is that, as a litho investment, in your strategy?
It shows that we are still very strong believers in that market and that it will exist for a long time. It’s a piece of our strategy to have local manufacturing in all the major economic zones in the world.

And how has drupa been for the Agfa team so far?
There’s a presence of customers who are willing to buy that is stronger than expected, expecially in the newspaper sector. And as I said, the show has become so international – especially the high number of visitors from Asia.

Finally, what is the current position on the plans to break up Agfa?
The idea of breaking the company into three in a big bang demerger had advantages but also drawbacks and this is why we have shelved this plan to look at other ways to have a separate future for the healthcare business. That doesn’t affect our graphics business. But with the economic climate and the credit crisis, we are not really in a hurry.