Commenting: Edoardo Coticini, Senior Manager, Professional Printing, Hidetoshi Omo, Head of KM-1 Competence Center, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe, and Lyudmila Zimbovich, Strategic Development Manager, Professional Printing, Konica Minolta Ukraine.

Just a year ago, few people in Europe had heard of the coronavirus, let alone that it would disrupt their normal life and work. No matter what happens in the economy as a whole, the printing industry, including digital printing, will remain resilient and will continue to play a significant role in our daily lives.

Any crisis can accelerate current trends. These include the desire for automation, online print ordering, online shopping, and, of course, the unstoppable transition from analog to digital. Accelerated automation will lead to the launch of a full cycle of the production process from start to finish, as well as the need for productive printing devices that require fewer and less skilled operators.

Digital technologies are gaining momentum

There is no doubt that digital technologies will continue to gain momentum over traditional printing methods. Commercial printers are forced to diversify their portfolio with digital printing services, as traditional offset and flexographic printing is losing its demand.

In his blog^[1], Herman Sakrystan posted “Could COVID accelerate the disappearance of offset printing?”, where he describes the positive aspects of the commercial printing industry, including the growth in demand for packaging. This means that you need to focus on your target audience and be effective in communicating with current and potential customers.

“There is a high probability that this crisis could have a favorable impact on digital technologies in some areas,” he says. – “Companies continue to allocate funds for printing. Among all technologies, digital printing is more profitable and efficient for them due to short runs and the ability to print variable data.”

The global printing market declined, but only slightly. According to the Smithers^[2] study “The Future of Digital and Offset Printing to 2024”, production volume, measured in billions of A4 prints, was 49,973 units in 2014 and is forecast to remain at 49,654 units through 2024. Digital printing is the fastest growing segment. Although it still has only about 5% of the total market share in terms of volume, it now has 20% of the total value of the global market.

Expectations for market recovery

According to IDC, in its article “Reflections on the Industrial and Productive Printing Industry in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic”^[3], the pandemic is creating new opportunities for labels and packaging, decor, outdoor advertising, and textiles in the industrial and productive printing segments. At the same time, supplies for toner and inkjet machines plummeted during the first lockdown across Europe. According to a separate study^[4], the market is expected to recover next year, but the overall annual growth rate (CAGR) will decline by 5.2%.

At Konica Minolta, we are proud to remain the leader in Western Europe in the supply of professional printing machines and office multifunction devices with a market share of 26.1%^[5]. Our flagship AccurioPress C14000^[6] prints 140 A4 pages per minute and is 40% faster than any other Konica Minolta toner system. “Our professional printing presses are designed for customers who want to expand and transform their business with improved automation, less human intervention, and higher productivity, resulting in more printed output with less waste,” the report says.

Other releases of Konica Minolta toner machines include the launch of the AccurioPrint C750i, which provides full integration with cloud services and is aimed at design studios, as well as the presentation of the AccurioPress C4080 series. Both of these models are key to our portfolio of high-performance digital printing machines.

Production of inkjet printing machines – growth of the digital printing segment

In 2021, Konica Minolta is preparing a number of important announcements that will strengthen its leading position in the sheetfed printing market. However, there is no doubt that inkjet printing will have an impact on the development of digital printing.

Significant market potential was generated by the announcement of the launch of the AccurioJet, a digital color UV B2+ press. Since its official commercial launch^[7] at Drupa in 2016, it has become a “bridge” between offset and digital printing. The new version of the Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1e, introduced in the summer of 2020, continues the trend of transition from offset to inkjet printing.

The AccurioJet KM-1e offers a wide variety of materials, including transparencies, metallic and colored materials, and enhanced printing on thin stock. There is no need for expensive priming: the AccurioJet KM-1e uses Konica Minolta’s patented Dot Freeze™ technology for even greater color stability and uniformity. The result is the instant drying of prints.

Digital decoration is a key growth driver

Digital finishing remains a key growth driver in the productive printing market and an opportunity for large and small printers to stand out from the competition. In certain areas, UV varnishing can be used to finish digital and offset printing with exceptional 3D effects. To support this approach, we have strengthened our partnership with MGI Digital Technology (MGI).

As a global provider of printing technologies, we see significant opportunities for our digital toner and inkjet technologies in the commercial and industrial printing markets in the coming years.

Hope for a return to a new reality

The current Covid-19 situation has created unprecedented challenges, but there is hope for a return to a “new normal” with vaccines under development. Our priority is to make sure that our colleagues, clients, and all their families are healthy and safe. Although the pandemic continues globally, we have decided not to participate in the upcoming exhibitions. As always, we will continue to monitor the security of our services and solutions in 2021 and beyond.

Online presence

We will continue to help create ideas for our clients as part of our partnership approach. It doesn’t matter if it’s live or virtual. We recognize the advantages of face-to-face meetings, but in the current environment, we will prefer online communication. This will mean creating more virtual showrooms that will have the functionality to interactively experience Konica Minolta products.

Undoubtedly, during the pandemic, the search for new ways to interact with customers has become especially important. However, the transition from face-to-face to virtual contacts can be a serious problem, as it is obvious that visual demonstrations are more effective: printing equipment is expensive, and customers need to be sure that they are not buying a pig in a poke. That is why, despite certain threats of the coronavirus crisis, we decided to expand the equipment fleet in our Kyiv showroom and rethought the approach to demonstrations, presenting two popular industrial solutions from our portfolio and a productive bestseller with a number of optional solutions.

“We strive to present as much equipment as possible in the showroom, to present not only digital machines but also the entire fleet of available equipment and software for various areas of activity in the printing industry” (Liudmyla Zymbovych, Strategic Manager of Professional Printing, Konica Minolta Ukraine)

Whatever happens, we remain committed to providing the best possible service to our clients. Against all odds, we will always be there for you and take care of the safety and health of everyone.

We will always provide hands-on support to our clients and help bring ideas to life around the world through our dedicated, collaborative, and partnership-based approach to clients.
^[1] Keypoint Intelligence website blog
^[2] Smithers Pira, Executive summary – The Future of Digital vs Offset Printing to 2024
^[3] IDC Out-of-the-Box Thinking: Industrial and Production Printing in the Aftermath of Covid-19, Doc #EUR146199620, July 2020
^[4] IDC Western Europe Production Cutsheet Printer / MFP Forecast 2020-2024, Doc #EUR145503620, April 2020
^[5] IDC Western Europe Production Cutsheet Printer/MFP Market Share, 2019: Growth Opportunities in Inkjet Production devices, Doc #EUR146876020, October 2020
^[6] Product details of the C14000, Konica Minolta website.
^[7] Website story – Konica Minolta officially launched KM-1 at Drupa 2016
^[8] Konica Minolta website – Rethink the Way of having a Demonstration
^[9] Background on Professional Printing – Konica Minolta Europe website