- A winning team in Hall 17: Steve Donegal, regonal manager Pagewide and HP Indigo, HP, with Phil Rennell, sales and marketing director, Currie Group.
- A winning team in Hall 17: Steve Donegal, regonal manager Pagewide and HP Indigo, HP, with Phil Rennell, sales and marketing director, Currie Group.
Currie Group came into its own as the digital printing equipment supplier at this drupa. Reinforcing the Group’s preeminent position in the local market, in excess of 15 million dollars of business was signed at the show, predominantly made up of digital technologies.
According to David Currie, executive chairman, the success is a result of the dramatic, long-term, realignment of the company. “Currie Group has become a very focused digital supplier over many years. The future of printing will go more and more towards digital and automation. We’ve put together a range of products and brands to meet every requirement of printers in the future,” he said.
The sizeable Currie team had a busy show escorting customers around the drupa halls, not only around the milling HP hall 17, which proved the hit of the show, but also to Scodix in Hall 4 and Horizon in Hall 6. The scope of the products under the Currie banner is one of the largest in the industry, all complementary technologies and all designed to enable the digital future.
Of all the Currie Group brands, none has a higher profile than HP Indigo. It enjoyed the greatest sales success of the show with Alon Bar-Shany, GM of HP Indigo announcing that Cimpress, the owner of international web-to-print business Vista Print had bought 20 HP Indigo 12000 digital presses, on top of an order from Shutterfly, the US-based web-to-print photo business, for 25 HP Indigo 12000s.
According to Phillip Rennell, sales and marketing director of Currie Group, a number of HP Indigo presses are earmarked for the local market with details to be announced shortly. “Our customers know what we are bringing to the show. They’ve been to see the advanced releases, so we don’t get into all that ‘show sales’ hype.
“I will say that I’m very pleased with how drupa went for us. We exceeded our targets and had success across the entire portfolio. We will release details of the sales in the months ahead, when our customers give us the nod,” he said.
- Customers came to drupa ready to buy,” Bernie Robinson, managing director, Currie Group.
He reported a lot of interest in the latest Scodix releases, making the point that the local market was one of the most advanced in the world when it comes to digital embellishing. “We’ve done well with Scodix in Australia and New Zealand. Our customers are very aware of the advantages of going digital, unlike in a lot of other markets.”
On the Horizon
Bernie Robinson, managing director, had a particular focus on the Horizon digital finishing equipment in Hall 6. He backed up the digital success story making the point that no one else has such a wide range of finishing equipment designed for digital printing as Horizon. Because of the nature of the equipment he was able to announce that items had been sold from the drupa stand.
“We’ve had a lot of interest across the board but especially in the new SmartSlitters. We’ve sold three off the stand, “ said Robinson. “They are ideal for their flexibility and ability to change product sizes on the fly.”
He pointed out that more printers are moving into automation for digital printing production, especially in small to mid-size companies. Automation was once considered only suitable for larger presses, but the proliferation of digital presses is making it a normal part of print production. Horizon moved early into this digital finishing space and the results are plain to see in the dominant market share it enjoys.
Labels and packaging
Mark Daws, GM labels and packaging division, was another member of the Currie team kept busy escorting interested label printers to inspect the HP Indigo 20000 for flexible packaging. He reported a lot of interest in its new ability to gang different jobs across the web.
- Particularly pleased: Mark Daws.
Daws was particularly pleased to be able to demonstrate the revolutionary HP Pack Ready, an on demand packaging solution with zero cure time, to a number of local convertors. “There’s tremendous opportunity in Australia and New Zealand for this system. We already work with Karlville, the shrink sleeve manufacturers, so it’s a perfect fit for us,” said Daws.
The new A B Grafic narrow-web finishing system in the HP hall was also a particular point of interest for label convertors. It has a new semi-rotary diecutter and with a speed of 150mpm is able to match the best the HP Indigo 8000 can output.
Across the way in Hall 3, the Italian-based press manufacturer, Omet was releasing its Varyflex 850mm wide offset label press. Daws reports a revival of interest in offset label production as convertors weigh up the costs and benefits when compared to flexo.
Over the years, Currie Group has delivered a dominant market share in digital label presses for HP Indigo in the local market. It maintains a remarkable footprint with little sign of any serious challenge in the near future.
It all adds up to a vibrant and forward-looking enterprise, with drupa serving to emphasize the breadth and range of digital technologies under the Currie group banner. Truly a company set for the future.