Gulf Print & Pack 2017 closes on high note

Gulf Print & Pack 2017 ended on a high note last week as more than 50 machines were sold during the show. Held on March 26-29 in the Za’abeel Halls at the Dubai World Trade Centre, more than 200 exhibitors participated in the region’s leading print technology show and reported high levels of interest from the visitors who attended.

Gulf Print & Pack 2017 ended on a high note last week as more than 50 machines were sold during the show

Close to 30 million AED worth of machines were sold during the event, with exhibitors including Canon, Giffin Graphics, Heidelberg, Kodak, Konica Minolta and Xerox reporting that good quality leads are in the pipeline and will be pursued in the coming weeks.

Jabir Jabbar, a director of Prestige Graphics Trading Co, said: ‘Gulf Print & Pack 2017 was a roaring success for Prestige Graphics. It is a great opportunity for us to connect with old customers and meet new ones.’

Vishwas Dharm, regional manager sales and technical support at Novurania, commented: ‘This was our third Gulf Print & Pack and we are very happy with the quality of visitors who came to our stall. We had a good number of enquiries from distributors and customers from the Middle East as well as Africa. The footfall was great and the people were looking for the innovations and the new technology where they can add some value to their existing set-up.’

Pauline Brooks, marketing development manager at first-time exhibitor Konica Minolta, said: ‘Gulf Print and Pack was a fantastic opportunity for Konica Minolta along with our partner Juma Al Majid to launch the new branding “Accurio” which continues to expand the future of professional printing through a comprehensive range of digital and inkjet technologies. We also decided it was the ideal event to launch the new C71cf digital label printing machine to the Middle East market; the region is an important part of our business strategy and we appreciate how important events such as Gulf Print & Pack are to the industry.’

There was a strong international delegation from over 110 countries, including from emerging markets such as Iran whose contingent included SPS Complex, a producer of packaging films; fiber-based packaging specialist Caspian; label company Irandar and Chakavak Printing House, a producer of award-winning holograms. Gutenberg’s Osama Diab observed: ‘It was a positive event where we had many visits from our current customers and some new customers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, India and Pakistan and we took this opportunity to introduce our company for sourcing and supplying quality second hand equipment.’

While worldwide growth has slowed in the commercial print sector, the biggest boom has been seen in the label and package field. Global demand is shifting towards digitization and short run print jobs and this was reflected in the make-up of exhibitors.

Ernest Azzam, regional business manager, large format printing MEMA, HP, said: ‘Digital printing continues to grow in the region, as industries benefit from the innovative ways the technology allows companies to reach their end customers. This year’s edition of Gulf Print & Pack gave us a platform to showcase our latest products and solutions to visitors and hear back from partners on market opportunities and challenges. We ended on a high note with leads on our PageWide XL, Latex and DesignJet products, which is a testament to the growing interest in our unique latex printing and PageWide technology.’

Lisa Milburn, managing director, Gulf Print and Pack, said: ‘We are delighted to have received such positive feedback from both exhibitors and visitors who came to this year’s show. This is a further testament to the growth prospects of the commercial and package printing sector in this part of the world, and certainly cement’s the UAE’s position as a vital hub that promotes business in this still developing industry throughout the region. We’ve had a fantastic show this year and are looking forward to welcoming more exhibitors and visitors in our next edition.’

Gulf Print & Pack will return to Dubai on 15-18 April 2019 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.