In a round of global media phone calls this morning EFI CEO Guy Gecht is saying that the rapid move to an online world is good for printers, as long as they recognise the opportunity and move with the times.
Gecht is the boss of what is one of the fastest growing businesses in print, with EFI on track to crash through the US$1bn sales market this year as it continues to achieve growth at around 13 per cent a year every year since the GFC.
Speaking to Australian Printer Gecht says, “The rapid move to the online world means printers’ customers are demanding short run, personalised, on demand work with no waste and no lead time. Digital print is perfectly positioned to capitalise on this, especially in fast growing areas such as signage, packaging, textiles and decoration, along with more traditional but still growing print areas such as direct mail.
“The world is moving forward, and for print businesses standing still is simply not an option. Our mission is to provide our customers with the best tools to enable to move forwards in the most efficient and effective way.”
Gecht was speaking from experience, describing the ‘near death’ that EFI went through at the turn of the century as office copier developers began manufacturing their own rips, leaving EFI with the prospect of no customers. It moved into the high end colour for commercial print market, and has not looked back since.
EFI had its biggest drupa presence to date at the show two months ago, launching a slew of new products across wide format, digital carton, inks, workflow, textiles, labels, MIS and web to print.
Gecht revealed that at least one Australian business will be amongst the first dozen customers for the new Nozomi 100 feet long inkjet digital corrugated carton printer that was launched at drupa and will be coming out of beta test next year.
He claims that a huge 15-20 per cent of EFI’s burgeoning revenue is being ploughed into R+D, with 40 per cent of its global workforce in its R+D department. He says, “We seek the brightest and the best, and we if find the right person we will find the budget.” The company has ink development as its primary focus, and next year will launch its AquaEndure, its proprietary ink, that Gecht says marries the ability of UV to adhere to virtually any substrate and stay there with the environmental and cost benefits of water based inks.
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