Features

Ok, so products shown at the major trade shows of 2018 so far highlight where manufacturers have been concentrating their development spend, but where next? We asked a cross section of kit and consumables developers and suppliers for their considerations.

What’s having the greatest impact on your business at the moment?

Wallpaper print specialist john mark is doing rather well by providing an innovative service. So could any printer with large-format digital capability follow suit?

To most business owners, selling a business is uncharted territory, and there are many pitfalls along the way. But, with his vast experience in selling - and buying - print businesses for clients, Paul Holohan leads you through this quagmire.

Is the UK large-format print sector lagging behind when it comes to environmental responsibility? Market data suggests that’s the case as Walter Hale explains.

Love them or loathe them, trade exhibitions have been serving the wide-format digital print sector since its inception. But are they the best way forward for visitors - and for exhibitors? Berni Raeside-Bell, a pr and marketing professional and also a digital print textile designer, raises the question.

While it expands its product offering and extends its markets Mimaki engineering is also undergoing an internal transition, so will that impact its professional large-format graphics customer-base?

Is yours one of those businesses that is concentrating less on the environment and more on turnover? If so, it may need to adjust its focus as Walter Hale explains.

News of an MBO at North-East-based Simpsons Group came in February. The move saw well-known chairman Mark Simpson and his shareholding brother and sister exit the business formed in 1972 by Bill Simpson. Bill McNally (MD) and John Quinn (finance director) have stayed on to “lead the new management team through a period of transition” but in August the new management team takes over. So how will an MBO affect what was a family business? I asked new commercial director Mark Jerrard.

By Lesley Simpson

What’s having the greatest impact on your business at the moment?

Digital Tyger is really one-man-band Chris Pitts. He doesn’t print, but he works with those that do - and with customers they might not otherwise reach - to deliver creative printed interiors. But could closer working relationships extend that market?

The 2018 Widthwise report on the state of the UK/Ireland’s wide-format print sector will be published alongside the next issue of image reports. But we thought you’d like a heads-up on the key findings ahead of the key trade shows, where so many investment decisions will be made. Or will they?