A powerful new partnership promises to be a major player in MEA as is combines a familiar approach with the newer trends for sustainability and short-run customisation
HP and Dynagraph have announced a collaboration to introduce HP Indigo and PageWide Press (PWP) technology to the UAE market. HP Indigo 7K digital press offers endless applications using the widest range of media and more than 30 specialty inks.
Mass customization is the next frontier for both global brands and smaller companies, and HP is already helping brands such as Shutterfly and ePac take their customisation further. Design runs that used to number in the tens of thousands can now be customised by unit, which makes labels, cases, POS materials and direct mail more personal.
Packaging MEA chief editor Ben Daniel spoke with Adir Ariel, Central Europe, Middle East, Africa Regional Business Manager at HP, and Ronnie Louw, Product Manager: HP Indigo at Dynagraph about the collaboration and what the future holds.
Ben Daniel (BD): Briefly tell us about this new association and your plans for the Middle East?
Adir Ariel (AA): The country [UAE] is beautiful. The economy is vibrant. People are nice, smart and kind. There is a lot of appetite for good quality. I decided we need to do business with these people.
We assembled our team here. We looked for a business partner and Dynagraph stood out immediately. Their new facility is amazing. When you see their investment, you understand these people are here to stay. Dynagraph is here since 1952. They have a large portfolio. I think what the market needs desperately is digital printing. HP Indigo in all areas is the pioneer and the market leader.
We are not here to only offer our products but we are come to help the market develop itself. We have offered the customers a wider choice to choose from.
BD: What products are you offering the MEA market? What’s your strategy across the three platforms of labels, flexibles and cartons?
AA: Our portfolio extends across both commercial printing and packaging. In the packaging arena, we have products for every segment. No single product will be excluded. The most popular ones will be the narrow-web product for labels, the 6K, the 25K wide web product for flexible packaging and for some applications of labels as well. We see a lot of interest in this platform. We also have customers interested in the 35K for folding cartons.
BD: How sustainable are your photographic process inks, and what’s HP’s message on sustainability?
AA: They are all zero-emission inks. We are committed to sustainability. Our factories have solar panels installed; we work with recycled water. We are doing a lot to reduce and to balance our environmental footprint.
The most important thing is the concept of digital printing that is you print just in time; short runs, small quantities, which means the waste can reduce significantly. When a company prepares the campaign for a season, there is a lot of wastage after the campaign but here, we are working for just-in-time, which means the waste level is significantly reduced.
BD: What is HP’s message to brand owners?
AA: We are working with major brands for FMCG products, for cosmetics. We work with them on personalised campaigns. The brands have started to know we are now available in the GCC area and we are getting a lot of positive reaction from them.
BD: What is your message to packaging printers?
AA: You have now a wider variety of technologies to look at and choose from. Many customers said they have seen our technology in Drupa and they were waiting for us to come here. So, our message is: We are here now, we are ready and we have a full infrastructure. We have invested in training. Dynagraph has invested in recruiting engineers with experience. Our core team, the sales and support people are experienced. We are standing with Dynagraph and we will make sure our customers are happy and that they can see a difference in their bottom line.
INTERVIEW WITH RONNIE LOUW:
BD: Digital print is largely a virgin market in UAE. What potential do you see
Ronnie Louw (RL): The majority of our customers already know about Indigo. That being said, you are right, it’s a 100% virgin market. Flexible and folding cartons did not really need a good sustainable solution prior to Indigo. The digital print for the folding cartons market sector hasn’t happened. But that doesn’t mean the need is not there.
The need is definitely there. The pandemic and ongoing supply chain challenges have only emphasised that need to the point that we have now customers from the commercial printing side that have started labels and flexibles businesses and are doing well. They are now talking folding cartons. A very big majority of our daily activity is now based on folding cartons. So, I see a really good space and growth for digital print in folding cartons.
BD: Embellishment plays a big role in this region.
RL: Yes, definitely. In some cases, embellishment adds more value than the actual print. But the printed item needs to be able to receive all those embellishments. With Indigo, there is not an embellishment that cannot be added. Apart from the print features you get on the Indigo, whether it is the security features, or the stretch or the variable data or mosaic imaging, we have features to add embellishment to add more value to packaging. So, the embellishment market is extremely important. On the folding cartons presses, we can even add certain in-line finishing and HP has a good collaboration with a majority of the finishing solutions. We are also educating our customers about spot varnish, drip varnish, hologram, over printing on white, and we have samples of each and every case.
BD: What sets HP apart from its competition?
RL: It’s the partnership. We are careful in selecting our partners. We are not box-movers. We sell partnerships, which includes solutions, equipment and education. For us, education is an absolute key point. Our solutions are driven by education and a 70-year market-value. Indigo saw that value and that why we automatically became a good choice to work together.
We love competition because it drives us to do our best. Why Indigo? Customers have been waiting for this solution, for what it brings to the market, and because it is proven worldwide. We realise many customers have waited for Indigo without investing in competition.
BD: How are Dynagraph and HP educating converters and brand owners not just to use an HP machine but to make them understand the need for digital print, and where they can get it?
RL: We are actually partnered with HP on 3D printing as well. The education for us two-way. We educate the customers and the customers educate us, so we keep developing.
How do we do that? We go to our customers’ production floors. We see their existing printing and embellishment solutions. Then we bring them to our demo centre with their applications and files and we produce for them live in our demo facility and for additional solutions; we link them live to the Barcelona Graphics Experience Centre and we produce it for them, record the videos and send them. After this, we get into discussions with our customers. We even go to the point of brand engagement. HP helps you to engage your brands.
BD: Tell us a bit more about why HP’s technology is different to that which was previously available.
RL: Our customers, from the offset, come from a background of flexo and gravure technologies, which are proven and which work for them. Now they’re moving to a different technology. Brand owners need to maintain corporate identity, so it’s something we need to control. Almost all flexo, gravure and other technologies do that. To do that in digital, it becomes a minefield of grey areas.
The reason HP Indigo technology with the electro photographic inks is so important is if you look at the inside of the press, it is based on an offset-like digital technology. So, it’s something they are familiar with, something that can translate and move to something that’s so much easier. In the packaging space, we have G7 colour controls. So, brand owners can confidently know my colour controls are there and the method by which I process them is a familiar one.