New Zealand is inspired by the Kodak possibilities

Kodak GCG swept through New Zealand last week in a whirlwind tour that showed the industry the endless possibilities of its range of digital print, printing consumables, unified workflow and one-to-one marketing technology.


'Inspired by the Possibilities' tour took in dates at Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland. Kodak put out the call and was rewarded with an impressive 200 people in attendance from around 70 different companies.

(L to R: Ross Gilberthorpe, Kodak, Graeme Duncan and John Boyle, Rainbow Print, and Derek Fretwell, Kodak)

Visitors came from across all the different sectors including packaging, prepress, web and wide format with a heavy interest shown on the creative side from advertising and design agencies.

Ross Gilberthorpe, marketing manager for Kodak GCG in Australia and New Zealand, says the enthusiasm for the event indicates a recognition from the industry of the breadth of services offered by the Kodak GCG, with the theme of 'inspiration' truly represented the focus of the evenings.

“Kodak CGC is now New Zealand's largest supplier of prepress, workflow, consumables and digital print with innovative technologies that far exceed any supplier in the printing and related industries,” says Gilberthorpe.

“We wanted to show every major centre our commitment to the New Zealand marketplace and as it turned out the event was very well received.”

Kodak draws it together

Kodak took centre stage last year following a series of high-profile acquisitions when it drew its KPG, Creo, Versamark, Encad and NexPress divisions together to form its Graphic Communication Group (GCG). Last week's roadshow marked the unveiling of the 'new' Kodak to New Zealand, its new technology and a new vision for the country's graphic arts industry.







“While Kodak GCG already has a big presence in Australia, many people in New Zealand weren't yet aware of the group,” says Gilberthorpe. “The event really made for a great opportunity to head out and present the Group to the marketplace and introduce all of its different components. Many attendees were saying they didn't realise Kodak had all this fantastic technology!”


Many also did not realise the scale of Kodak's presence in New Zealand. In addition to its own GCG activities Kodak is also supported by Coates NZ and Flint Ink NZ for its consumables range, Heidelberg for its plates along with Arque Graphics for proofing and wide format offerings.

Introducing the team

Gary McCormick, renowned comedian and TV personality, was present during the tour to provide a few laughs as well as perform MC duties and introduce the different speakers.

First up was well-known industry identity, Derek Fretwell, general manager of Kodak GCG in New Zealand, who introduced his graphic arts team to the attendees. In addition to Fretwell the NZ Group consists of two sales managers, a service manager and six engineers.

“Kodak GCG offers the largest prepress service team in the country with 24/7 support available across all our sites,” says Fretwell.

Fretwell went into detail about Kodak's vision for the future of graphic arts, in which it sees digital and offset printing working side by side with unified workflow tying all the different processes together.

“This is definitely the direction that we see the industry heading, with both offset and digital playing a major part in many businesses,” says Fretwell. “And of course, Kodak will be there to provide the tools and the technology to make it all happen.”

The tour also marked the celebration of 10 years of CTP from Creo and Kodak, an event of particular significance to the New Zealand industry as three of its business have used the company's CTP for nearly that long - Rainbow Print in Christchurch, Megalith Litho in Wellington and APN Print in Manukau.

“All of these businesses still have their original CTP systems in operation, which is an extremely long lifespan for any high-tech product. Rainbow Print has only just ordered a replacement and has again decided to stick with Kodak's proven CTP technology,” said Fretwell.

Steve Pratt, general manager of enterprise solutions for Kodak GCG, then took to the stage to discuss Kodak's digital printing technology in more detail, including the recent installation of the country's first NexPress to Zoom in Hamilton.

David Patterson, technical sales support for Kodak GCG, discussed the unified workflow offerings that are available to help link together all the different components of a modern graphic arts business, before Gary McCormick returned to cap the evening off with a little more light entertainment and humour.