However, he indicated that Agfa was in an enviable position to maximise opportunities presented by the company’s inkjet and prepress innovations.

In a wide ranging presentation delivered completely ‘off the cuff’ to local trade media, Vanhooren commented that the global economic downturn would continue and have a dramatic effect on businesses around the world. Visiting Australia after a tour of China, he expressed concern that even in China the economic impact was already being felt, and that in such a market – where margins are “extremely thin” – the flow-on effects will reverberate for some time.

Vanhooren told the assembled press that he was on a visit to the Asia Pacific region to “listen to customers, to listen to the trends in the market.

“I’m visiting some of our newspaper and commercial customers, and talking to competitors’ customers too,” he added.

While he acknowledged that the Australasian market contributed only two to five per cent to Agfa’s global business, it was nevertheless an important market for the company, and he was keen to hear what local printers had to say about market indicators here.

Vanhooren pointed to “a decrease in capital equipment investment”, although consumables sales were “holding up better, but affected by lower circulations in newspapers”.

“Competition is extremely tough,” he said, “not just from competitors, but in technology too”.

However, he was at pains to point out that Agfa Graphics had already made numerous tough decisions and was on track with an ongoing regime of cost cutting in its global operations, which still has some distance to go before he is satisfied.

According to Vanhooren, Agfa had not deviated from its core strategies of growth, innovation and management, expressed at the company’s press conference at drupa 2008. Businesses that do not grow will soon disappear, he said, and that growth comes from judicious management practices, adaptability and reinvention of the business, and solid investment in R&D and technology.

While developed markets had undergone a plateau in CtP market growth, Agfa was experiencing some growth in CtP in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

“In five to ten years, CtP will stagnate,” he predicted.

But this was offset by the company’s growth in inkjet technology development and sales. Agfa had deliberately avoided the solvent and SOHO markets, he said, but was pushing hard into the UV and aqueous markets.

“It is a smaller market, but it is more promising,” he said. “Inkjet is a very challenging technology. We invest four per cent of our revenue in R&D each year. We know what we want, but we also know what we don’t want. We can’t be a global company and offer only one kind of inkjet. For us it is not a replacement for [offset] plate technologies. Industrial inkjet is not threatening for the moment, but is complemeting the prepress industry.”

Agfa was also vigorously defending its intellectual property assets in several markets where operators had taken advantage of Agfa. Vanhooren commented that intellectual property is a valuable company asset which had been accumulated through extensive R&D, and the company had no qualms about protecting these assets.

In other Agfa news, the company’s relocation to Osborne Park in Western Australia is complete. The new address is Unit 2/63 Waters Drive, Osborne Park.

Agfa’s sales manager for Queensland and Western Australia, Gavin Hartslief, said, “The move to more modern premises and the fact Osborne Park is geographically-central to our Perth customer base makes good sense.”

Long-time Agfa employee Gary Illing will take up the senior Perth-based sales role, having relocated to Perth from Melbourne some time ago to support Agfa’s newspaper business.

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