What is driving short-run printing? According to Fujifilm’s Madhav Bharule, there are a few reasons. “One is the changing face of retail and shift to online mobile channels. Second, digital presses have become more productive, and as the installed base is increasing, the cost of production and consumables are going down. And the third is the changing behaviour of consumers and corporate after Covid-19. It has set the tone for people to think about digital short-run prints.”

Bharule added, “There’s more automation, resulting in one person running one machine. It has enabled the print service provider to cater to various runs. Plus, brand managers and corporations are under pressure to improve their supply chains based on sustainability. There is a need for greater flexibility and responsiveness.”

Bharule said at Pamex he had discussions with brands to understand how they see short-run digital, and the response he got was quite surprising, he said. “Due to increasing material cost, they are under tremendous pressure to reduce their cost and hence are finding alternatives to cut cost. Printing less is one of the options.”

Shailesh Sharma of Inndus, who was the print expert, said, when one talks about high-value digital print, it can come from various sources. “There are different technologies – toner, inkjet, liquid electrophotography inks and such. “There’s wide-format printing, DTG, and in the post-press arena, with finishing equipment like the various embellishment devices available in the market.”

But how do the offset press owners look at high-value digital printing? Sharma said, “What we concluded is that digital printing can offer advantages in terms of value addition.” He explained, “It can be VDP, customisation, quick turnarounds and reduced setup costs. High-value digital printing can be a way to expand their service offerings and meet the changing demands of their customers.”

Sharma said, one of the participants was a pharma packager, and he was at the roundtable to understand how he could add value to his products. “We print pharma cartons in quantities that range from 10-lakh to 20-lakh. They are straightforward jobs, without any variation, no creativity. But we are also getting enquiries for short-run and customisation jobs,  which we are losing out on, as we do not have an option to do such jobs,” the participant said.

Sharma said, the discussion was divided into two parts. “For offset, digital was  just a complementing business that will help take its business to greater heights.

So these are two things that we can divide our discussion on. “There are offset printers who are looking at digital as a solution to complement their business, and there are purely digital players who are looking at digital as a mainstream business and taking it to the next level,” he said.

Sharma explained, “So for offset with this, the mindset of digital is in a very different way, it is just a complementing business that takes the opposite business to greater heights, digital is just a complementing part, they would not be able to work on it unless they are taking it as a compliment in the mindset of an offset.”

The solution for offset players, Sharma said, “A cutsheet kit with a fantastic post-press back-up. Look at digital from the perspective of giving short-term solutions online. For the digital print service provider, there are two ways of growing.” For the digital specialist, he said, “You either expand your product portfolio and look for the customers to come to you, or keep your existing customer in hand and supply whatever he needs. In both cases, you need to arm yourself with a business model first, and then add equipment.”