Komori has reported sales in Q1 that show a 1% increase over the same period last year. The total amounted to ¥19.4 billion (£107.2 million) thanks to a bounce back in Japan countering declines in China and Europe.
Japanese sales of Advance series sheetfed presses rose with the end of Covid restrictions and growth in personal consumption, while sales in Europe dropped against a background of high inflation and the continuing war in Ukraine. However, the company describes orders from Europe as “robust” and says that most will be delivered in Q2 and will show up in the next quarter’s sales figures.
US sales were also up despite higher inflation as the economy continues to expand. Chinese sales dropped back slightly compared to the boost that occurred thanks to the Print China exhibition last year.
Komori will celebrate its century in October. Unlike Heidelberg and Koenig & Bauer, Komori has always produced litho presses and has never built letterpress machines. To mark the occasion it has created Komori 2030, a vision for how the company will navigate the challenges of the short to medium term, a period it describes as Vuca – volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. “We have entered an ambiguous socio-economic environment where changes are drastic and predicting the future is difficult. We must survive in these difficult times,” it states in explaining the “compass for continued sound development” of the business.
It remains optimistic about prospects for printing, particularly its role in education and conveying the beauty of artworks, while the security of banknotes and other products will depend on print.
This is laid out to explain print’s, and Komori’s, contribution to society: “Print technology is a technology with many possibilities. It is said that printing is possible on anything other than water and air. Printing is used in everything from everyday items to cutting edge technology: commercial and fine art printing, package printing, currency and security printing, curved three-dimensional printing, printed circuit boards, electronic components, and semiconductor packaging, for example.
“Printing also has hidden potential in its enormous capacity, from printing a single sheet to more than a million copies, from ultra small printing of a few microns to giant banner printing. Print technology is by no means obsolete but rather a technology that will create the future.”
Komori will prioritise ESG policies in the 2030 vision, reducing the energy requirements of the technology and cutting any harmful emissions. It will build its business on solutions for customers, on the smart factory concept using open innovation and supported by strategic investments including acquisitions to get there.
There will be an emphasis on development of next generation digital print technology, but does not yet explain what this looks like, other than it will be built on inkjet. It aims to achieve “differentiation from other companies and improvement of competitiveness by improving product value” and will expand into new areas across a wide variety of industries by utilising digital printing technology.
