The London Book Fair always heralds the arrival of spring, pulling colourful characters to Olympia to encounter equally colourful books. Attendance once again highlighted how the book publishing industry does not have any trouble attracting youthful talent.
The threat of AI and its impact on the centuries old copyright system was very much to the for this year, squeezing out issues including sustainability that had been considered core to the exhibition in recent years. At the only conference session across four days and four conference theatres given over the sustainability issues, one audience member raised this issue.
The four strong panel was asked: “Whatever happened to the sustainability hub?” She received some support from the panel, not least from CPI Books’ Lisa Faratro. “We definitely miss it. We had been sponsors of the sustainability hub.” Among the presentations from authors, illustrators, and publishers dispensing advice, this had given an area for the wider supply chain to earn a little time in the spotlight.
Penguin Random House sustainability and compliance production manager Emilie Hames agreed: “It’s really disappointing. You could get inspiration from 20-minute sessions from different case studios. I still think it’s important to think about it.”
As the event is moving from Olympia to Exel next year, there is a faint chance that the sustainability theme will be brought back or will feature more strongly than this year.
Sustainability sits alongside supply chain resilience, both for print suppliers located in Asia and for the paper that is used. All on that panel agreed that the paper supply was ever more complex as a result of widespread sourcing of pulps as well as those mills that are vertically integrated from forest to the reel. “There are gaps in our supply chain where we don’t know where the papers come from,” said Hames. As production shifts from country to country and printers to printer, different papers may be used produced from pulp from a different country entirely, adding further complexity to ensuring that there has been no abuse of the forest, indigenous people or other contraventions of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. “It’s about legality and human rights as well as deforestation,” she added.
There was little about the fragility of supply chains for book production in the session, the bombing of Iran being too recent to cause major rethinks, but another session led by Ashley Gordon, until recently HP’s global publishing segment manager and now VP digital print solutions with Sheridan, had focused on the benefits of a distribute and print model based on digital printing. There was a full house for the session, where Gordon explained how the approach was gaining momentum especially among academic publishers.
The majority of printers present hailed from outside the UK, with Turkey particularly prominent. Some were touting to produce books for UK consumption, others wanting to meet UK publishers for production in their markets. Among these was US company Lakeside Printing discussing its investment in a 64pp Manroland Goss Lithoman and now an HP PageWide T500 inkjet press. The company was also dealing with an increase in demand for edge printing, something that seemed to be growing in popularity. Lakeside also noted an expansion in demand for books from collectors, those wanting to display their erudition and taste while reading the book, if at all, in a digital or lower cost format.
This seems to be a trend, akin to the rise in sales of vinyl music according to one comment. High production value books were on show from Graphius, owner of Park Communications in the UK. The Belgian company is taking a breather after a acquiring a dozen companies in recent years, including Geoff Neal Litho as well as Park in the UK.
It is able to share facilities across borders, enabling UK publishers to overcome customs issues when shipping to the EU by printing in Belgium. “This can also help circumvent come of the tariff issues,” says sales director Steve Palmer. Books from the UK are also heading to the US, examples on hand being hard cover titles with slip cases for the high end property market in the US.
The suggestion that US publishers look to the UK for a reliability and print quality that is hard to find in their country was repeated elsewhere. “They don’t have the quality combined with low runs that we can produce,” says Gareth Acreman at Gomer Press. The Welsh printer is a regular at the London Book Fair and does an increasing amount of work for customer across the Atlantic. “We seem to be building up a reputation in that country,” he says, pointing out that the LBF is the only marketing vehicle the company uses.
Participation in US shows would work out somewhat cheaper than being in London, at least for floor space, hence why many book printers, Clays, CPI Books, Hobbs, joined the International Publishers Guild area rather than have their own stand. The purpose though is the same – meeting people in prearranged sessions – as the publishers. Though while book publishers are interested in selling rights to overseas distribution, most printers wanted to talk projects.
The US is an increasingly important market for PrintonDemand Worldwide, present as the Book Vault, its online archive of book titles to be printed on demand in the UK or via partners elsewhere. “We are seeing a new type of book,” says managing director Andy Cork. “It’s not just about reading. The book is an experience, it’s a gift.” To emphasise this, the company had samples with heavily foiled covers and with value enhancing edge printing. These are for small publisher or self publishers rather than for mainstream publishers who are able to command a low price based on the promise of volume.
Instead the business has been reshaped around data and automation. “And we have gone from serving a few customers to having 44,000 customers,” he says. “We have doubled our turnover to around £12 million and with a better margin than we have ever had.”
One exception to the stands over flowing with books to hold and examine was Scodix. It was the only production technology company present, though there were several software businesses of one flavour or another. Scodix was working with a bundle of impressive samples of digital embossing, foiling and printing on book jackets and cloths, which VP sales Moti Vaknin was able to point out that no other digital embellishment supplier can do.
Some the high build effects are also out of reach for rivals as Scodix is the only company where the sheet does not need to be put through the press multiple times he said. Instead the sheet is held in position while being passed back under the inkjet heads on up to seven occasions.
Most interest comes from packaging companies rather than book printers, especially for the larger sheets. “We have sold more B1 digital presses than any other company,” he adds.
The next exhibition stop on its marketing tour could not be more different. It plans to be at Fespa with a 150m2 stand. Does that mean an even larger format Scodix able to embellish on corrugated for high impact display printing, say for cosmetics companies, is on the cards? He would not be drawn, at least until arriving in Barcelona.
