The data is in: there’s life in litho

There may well be a litho to inkjet/other forms of digital printing transition underway. If so nobody has told printers. Both Komori and Koenig & Bauer released results this week that show a steep increase in incoming orders and Kodak has shown a bump in sales owing in the main to increased demand for printing plates. At the same time Fujifilm declared that it wants to spin off its Business Innovation division which includes its inkjet and graphic arts business after a quarter in which there was no growth at all. Now Fujifilm’s Business Innovation division also contains its office printers operations and it may be this rather than graphic communications that is holding Fujifilm back, but then would it have pulled back on inkjet presses earlier this year if all were full steam ahead in commercial printing?

This set of results may well be a blip, a hangover from the global shocks that began with the internet, followed by a financial crash and rounded off by Covid. The fourth horsemen of this particular apocalypse, AI, is just getting into the saddle. The orders for litho presses is the bounce back because printers have delayed replacements for too long and are now confronting an existential choice: either modernise to regain competitiveness or step aside. 

It is telling though that they are choosing to modernise with equipment and technology that they know rather than move into a world they don’t fully understand. The suppliers that we know and trust – Heidelberg, Komori and all – are not going to withdraw from the litho press business in the way that Fujifilm already has in commercial inkjet. Might another Japanese boardroom reach the same conclusion? We hope not. The conclusion that ought to be reached is that selling high value capital equipment to a nervous and deeply conservative market like print, needs more than stunning print samples. It needs to work within a framework of marketing, service and support, advertising, exhibitions and sheer presence that has served litho press providers well over the decades. Trust is not easily won.