Packaging dominates conversation at EFI Connect

If there was a dominating theme at Connect, the annual Electronics for Imaging (EFI) users’ conference, it was that the future of print falls squarely on packaging. The keynote speakers included newly minted Xerox CEO Jeff Jacobson, making his first public speaking appearance since taking the helm in January. Printing giant Quad/Graphics also loaned their CEO Joel Quadracci for a speaking engagement.

As always, EFI CEO Guy Gecht addressed the crowd, which was reported to include over 1,000 attendees, including EFI customers and employees, as well as more than 100 members of the media from publications across the globe.

Additionally, the conference featured information on market and technology trends and an agenda of more than 200 educational sessions.

Packaging potential

Among the many themes emerging from the two-day conference, the print industry leaders each said that packaging is a growth area they are targeting.

EFI has a range of digital presses for corrugated, packaging and label printing, in addition to wide and super wide formats.  The company also has a line of productivity software for nearly all print markets.

As far as labels are concerned, EFI’s Jetrion narrow web digital press continues to be the workhorse. The press has about 250 installations worldwide, the company says, however EFI executives predicted that the number of installations will grow in 2017.

At Quad/Graphics, where books, catalogs, magazines and direct mail are kings, Quadracci has built a 200 million USD packaging business over the past three years. QuadPackaging – a division of the Wisconsin-based company – is moving into labels, tags, folding cartons and inserts with its offset, digital and flexo capabilities.

‘We knew packaging was an opportunity,’ Quadracci said. ‘We entered folding carton because that’s closest to what we know.’

At the time of his ‘fireside chat’ with Gecht, Xerox’s new CEO was less than one month in the new job, but already had outlined areas where he sees growth. ‘We’re going more into workflow automation, printed electronics, Internet of Things, packaging,’ Jacobson said. ‘There are many areas where we want to invest. We have a roadmap for the next five years. We’ve got a healthy plan that we’ve rolled out.’

It appears that the three CEOs are not the only businessmen to see potential in packaging. During his talk, Idealliance economist Andrew Paparozzi presented figures from his company’s State of the Industry report that asked print service providers in what markets they see opportunity. Of those surveyed, 37.7 percent indicated that packaging was an area of potential growth. Packaging fell second behind direct mail, an area in which 54 percent of respondents see potential. Tags and labels fell into the bottom half, with nine percent of respondents indicating they were interested in playing in that market. When it comes to new opportunities, he encouraged the audience to objectively evaluate opportunities based on a decision matrix that he provided. ‘Pass on low-score opportunities, no matter how much buzz it’s getting.’

The future is automated

Artificial intelligence was another strong theme that emerged during the two-day conference. In his opening keynote speech Gecht addressed artificial intelligence and the impact of what he called the next wave of advanced technology. ‘The next big thing is artificial intelligence. The world is moving to a place that’s more automated. At the end of the day, we’re adding more intelligence to everything.’

Gecht discussed exciting developments, such as self-driving cars and automation in the workforce. Though he acknowledged job losses due to automation were ‘a real concern.’ ‘We’re already seeing jobs reducing,’ he said. ‘A lot of the jobs can be done by machines.’

Quadracci shared similar sentiments. ‘When we were just about 1 billion USD in revenue in 1998 we had 14,000 employees. Today we have 4.5 billion USD and we have 20,000 employees. Automation is taking hold and we’re automating things we never thought we could.’

EFI Connect was the company’s 17^th annual users’ conference and was hosted January 17-19 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 2018 event will be January 23-26.

This article appears in L&L issue 2, 2017, and can be read online here