Meeting the challenges through change

Preskett: "The clear message is that we're in this for the long haul"

To many, Canon is still the new kid on the digital printing block, but to the mind of David Preskett, the firm's European marketing manager, professional print, that's, well, a little unfair shall we say.

"Doesn't anyone remember those three little letters, CLC. People forget that we've been in this market for a long time – they seem to think that we started with the imagePress in graphics arts, but that's just not true. We brought out the first digital colour copier/printer 20 years, so a lot of printers built their businesses with Canon machines."

Even though the firm's pedigree, according to Preskett, is beyond reproach, it's fair to say that the imagePress C7000VP was a watershed product for the Japanese firm when it began shipping last summer – backed up by the fact that it sold 250 units in its first six months. In fact, since its launch, the firm's flagship press has already been joined by three colour siblings, the imagePress C6000, C6000VP and the entry imagePress C1, not to mention its latest launch, the 135ppm imagePress Monochrome.

More than just products
But chemistry and MBA grad-uate Preskett, who himself has been in the industry for 14 years, is at pains to point out that Canon isn't just about technology and product launches.

"The key thing for the company is that we will continue to invest in the print industry," says Preskett. This investment he talks about it is not just in terms of product R&D, that's a given, but also in research that can help customers and act as a bellwether for the future. The most recent examples were unveiled last week at the show, the 'Canon Buzzword Buster' and its Insight Report: 'Digital Printing Directions'. The former is a booklet designed to help print buyers and printers communicate better by "demystifying the jargon" that often confuses buyers. However, the real meat in its drupa sandwich is the Insight Report, a Canon commissioned independent study on the digital print market, which was researched and written by Rochester Institute of Technology professor emeritus Frank Romano. Both can be downloaded from the company's website.

Research projects aside, of course Preskett admits that technology has to be at the heart of everything it does. "We've been building big production engines, like the imagePress machines for a while now, but equally we see big opportunities for large-format and, in that sector alone, we've launched 11 new engines in the past 12 months. In short, you will see more toner-based machines from us, and more inkjet wide-format units. The clear message is that we're in this for the long haul."

The two-pronged approach to digital, inkjet and toner, is something that Canon, and Preskett, pride themselves on. "The opportunities for most printers are in accessible, proven technology that they can use to make money, irrelevant of whether its toner or inkjet, offset or digital. Here at drupa we're focusing much more on the customer and the applications. We want to talk about business development services and how we can help printers improve their bottom line and grow, because there are so many challenges."

Adapting to change
In fact, according to Preskett, the everyday challenges that printers face are the same across Europe, and he even goes as far as to say they can be summed in one word: "change". "It's not just technology that is changing; it's the way people buy print. Some of the things that were highlighted in the report were that print volumes across all disciplines are going to continue to go down until 2020, when it will level out. Another is that digital is going to continue to grow over the same period. But the key finding, and one that 90Prozent of the 600 interviewed for the report agreed with, was that costs are going to continue to grow at a faster rate than the value of print. That's a major challenge".

Even more worrying is that, according to the Insight Report over 70Prozent of printers agreed that they could no longer combat the fall in margins by simply cutting costs and increasing efficiencies. "You can only do that for so long because everyone in print follows that same basic strategy, and many companies are already running as 'lean' as possible," says Preskett. "That is the key industry challenge across the whole of Europe: where are printers going to find new revenue and how can they make it more profitable and then, who's going to help you do it because the skills shortage the sector faces.

"In its simplest terms, the future success of the industry is dependent on two things: the relationship between suppliers and printers and the relationship between printers and buyers. And for our part, we plan to do our level best for our customers for a long time to come."