EFI

Commercial printer equipment installations and other news from Printing Impressions’ March 2013 edition, featuring Mele Printing.

More than 2,000 enthusiastic HP users packed the auditorium at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville, TN last month for the opening of the eighth annual Dscoop conference. The three-day meeting included scores of educational sessions geared toward HP users, as well as an exhibit area with nearly 100 partners showing equipment and software designed to work with HP equipment.

Chris Hottle loves the clamor of heavy iron rattling the shop at Winchester Printers, a commercial business located in the town of Winchester, tucked virtually into the northernmost point of Virginia. Touching down in about a month will be a refurbished (2000-era) four-color, 40˝ Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 102 sheetfed press.

After a welcome from Dscoop officials (all sporting bad toupees with ponytails), a bluegrass band gave an appropriate Tennessee greeting by getting the crowd to sing along to Rocky Top, a state anthem. Then keynote speaker Mark King, CEO of TaylorMade gave an uplifting and humorous talk that detailed how he and his team developed a vision to become the best performance golf brand in the world, then followed through with it.

NASHVILLE, TN—More than 2,000 enthusiastic HP users packed the auditorium at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center last week for the opening of the eighth annual Dscoop conference, a gathering of graphic arts business owners and technical professionals who use HP equipment.

The new VUTEk GS3250 LX printer from Heidelberg, will support Suttle-Straus Inc.'s production of point-of-purchase (POP) and display graphics for multi-location customers that Suttle-Straus already provides with conventional printing and fulfillment. The new press will also help bolster the company's R&D side of the business.

Xerox digital front ends (DFEs), powered by Fiery, are now available for the Xerox Color J75 and C75 presses. These DFEs are among the first to market built on EFI’s award-winning new Fiery FS100 Pro platform, which integrates seamlessly with EFI's market-leading MIS/ERP software, eCommerce/Web-to-print products, and scheduling tools to complete the entire end-to-end print workflow.

What is striking about the round of installations this year over last, we are hearing about far fewer installation problems and challenges with substrates. We are hearing more about the costs and need to expand post-processing capabilities rather than installation or performance of the presses themselves. Business cases are still strong but, unlike the earliest adopters, those needs were not as acute, so they had the luxury of hanging back and biding their time until that time was right.

EFI proved that "what happens in Vegas doesn't have to stay in Vegas," especially for the roughly 800 attendees who could select from more than 150 breakout and training sessions at the EFI Connect users' group meeting held here Jan. 15-18 at the Wynn Las Vegas. Sessions covered MIS/ERP software, Web-to-print systems, industrial inkjet printers and Fiery technology.

EFI finished 2012 with a very strong quarter that marked a record year for the company, with revenue of $174.1 million, up seven percent compared to fourth quarter 2011 revenue of $163.1 million. "The fourth quarter again demonstrated tremendous execution and commitment by our team, solidifying our third consecutive year of double-digit growth," said Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI.