Digital imaging giant Canon is continuing its push into commercial graphic arts, as it seeks to build on its dominant position in the New Zealand market
The imagePRESS C7000 hit New Zealand shores in July last year. Its launch was heralded as revolutionary as the C7000 promised the market the look and feel of offset for print from a digital engine.Such was the anticipation within the industry, Canon had a number of forward orders on the books. The high level of interest for the C7000 in NZ has been replicated elsewhere, for instance, in the USA, Canon has been selling in excess of 100 units per month.
The imagePRESS took time to come to the market because everything in the machine was new, and Canon planned to use it as a basis for its entire family of print production units for the future. The future is now upon us, with the launch of the next series, the C6000 (this machine has a lower output, lower cost but the same quality and complete inline finishing). There is the promise of at least half a dozen new printers to come, both monochrome and colour.
Graham McDonald, national sales manager, Production Printing Systems for Canon New Zealand, and the man whose job it is to position Canon at the forefront of digital colour printing says, “Canon has been investing considerable amounts of R+D dollars in the production print market. We believe that there is a great opportunity there, not only for our own business, but also for printers who want to keep ahead, develop new markets, and capitalise on the move to digital.”
Further, McDonald describes Canon’s current position as far as commercial print as, ‘at the end of the beginning,’ by which he means that the company has made its investments in market research, R+D, sales and service organisation, has committed itself to the print production market, and is now ready to fully engage with it. The business proposition for Canon is simply irresistible - due to the sheer number of pages printed (reckoned to be around 53 trillion worldwide), and the current miniscule number of those produced on digital colour print engines, leaving 95 per cent of those 53 trillion to go after.
Canon says that the capability of digital is endless, and the fact that you can have a print run of one through to thousands and keep your margin is something that offset cannot offer. New Zealand is typically a nation of smaller print runs with a number of the larger jobs going offshore, and digital fits the mould for New Zealand printers. Coupled with the fact these machines can print on existing offset paper stocks, giving the customers the look and feel of offset printing, the ability to print variable data adds another service the printer can offer their clients.
Canon has shown it is fully aware of the way print works and are determined to become a significant player in the print production market.
The digital print vendors reckon that the tide is turning to digital, and with such a huge market opportunity, they, as McDonald put it ‘can’t lose.’ Hence the intense effort to ensure the imagePRESS is on the money, both technically and in its applications. The new C6000 with its full inline finishing, single phase power and lower capital cost is going to prove attractive to many printers, especially as its print output quality is top notch.
McDonald says, “The C6000 opens up another entire tier to the market, it will give high-end quickprint and copy shops access to the digital print platform and allows them to compete with the offset market while remaining focused on costs and efficiency. The market knows we have a first class pedigree. What it may not know is Canon holds more than 12,000 patents, which highlights the huge amount of R+D we engage in, which results in these new solutions we now have.”
According to McDonald the company has changed its approach in recent years, he says, “Canon, like many of its peers, was a lab-led vendor, in other words when the lab developed new technologies we would take to the market. However we are now a market-led vendor, and our solutions come as a result of the needs of the market as both our customers and our own market research team see it.”
For commercial digital printing, McDonald says that the market is growing and it requires diversity of product and flexibility of production. It is characterised by quality and the need to add value to the print.
Canon believes that its new solutions are positioned to meet these demands. He says, “Canon is pushing the boundaries of capability with its solutions and raising the bar in output and operability, so that we can deliver the greatest range of opportunity for printers, as they are able to enhance their output and differentiate.”
Canon has identified the type of relationship printers want with digital vendors as one that is characterised by commitment from the vendor to the customer, and where that commitment involves an ongoing continuous development and improvement in technology. Maintenance and service is high on everyone’s agenda in these days of instant print and short turnaround, and McDonald points to Canon’s dedicated imagePRESS service team as evidence that the company listened to printers and is positioned to meet their needs. Canon has not only asked lots of questions but listened to the answer and responded. “We have a service team that guarantees to respond within one to two hours also with the ability for operators to change usable parts, enables uptimes of approximately 95 per cent for our users,” says McDonald.
It could be said that Canon has all its ducks in a row now and is totally committed to this market.
McDonald says, “We believe that printers will see the digital difference with Canon through the levels of quality we offer, and will see that Canon is the best of breed.”
Canon’s credentials cannot be doubted, and with such commitment there is every reason why with the best part of 53 trillion pages in its sights, printers will be the beneficiaries.
