The EFI Roadmap to Asia Pacific Growth

EFI highlights its commitment to growing the Asia Pacific region with a game plan and an expanded product portfolio suited for its needs. By Sha Jumari.

As vaccine rollouts proliferate in 2021, economies are starting to recover and open up - including the print industry in Asia Pacific.

“In 2020, we did better in some markets than others because COVID-19 was in different stages in each country. Overall, the net effect is that we started to see recovery in Asia Pacific in 2020, relative to what we were expecting. In particular the areas of strength were Australia and China, and that’s expected to continue in 2021,” said Rodd Harrison, vice president of sales for Asia Pacific.

One of the key growth drivers in Australia can be credited to the increasing onshoring of work, jobs that would have otherwise been outsourced to China had to be produced locally.

“There's been a lot less offshoring of work in Australia with some people running at peak volumes even during COVID,” Harrison explained. “The Australian economy is improving with some consolidation happening. Some smaller businesses are shutting down and other bigger businesses are consolidating and taking in more work.”

“China is also on an upturn, because the country has largely got Covid-19 under control and has started recovery, particularly in the domestic economy. We’ve always had very loyal customers in China, with a strong base of over 200 installs,” said Harrison.

New product rollouts

EFI made a series of new launches in 2020 and 2021, all of which will soon be available for sale in the Asia Pacific region. Some of the ground breaking solutions include the VUTEk XT, a super high speed, superwide-format inkjet hybrid device, the VUTEk Q series, EFI’s fastest roll-to-roll printer yet, and the Pro 30h, an entry-level production hybrid flatbed/roll printer.

“We're very focused on bringing the latest generations of our technology to the existing market. We've completely revamped our technology platforms in the display graphics space,” said Harrison.

The VUTEk XT

The VUTEk XT hybrid printer is EFI’s new breakthrough solution in its superwide family. The machine has the highest throughput in the VUTEk product line, exceeding 375 boards per hour, nearly twice the throughput of its predecessor, the VUTEk HS125 F4 printer.

“The VUTEk XT is a super high speed hybrid, which fits into that space of producing high end display graphics and backlit work for multiple applications. The list of new technologies designed into this production solution is vast, from full magnetic linear drives, the latest high resolution writing systems, incredibly powerful yet flexible modular vacuum belt systems, to full pallet to pallet automation, and even robotics,” said Harrison.

The new XT model utilises the CP5G ink system which boasts complete ink

The VUTEk XT hybrid printer

The EFI Roadmap to Asia Pacific Growth

VUTEk Q5r

circulation, superior dot placement, 5-picoliter drops and grayscale imaging. Compared to other display graphics inkjet printers, CP5G provides a significant economic advantage of increased quality and speed with better ink yield. The VUTEk XT utilises the next-generation of hybrid architecture for EFI’s LED UV pin-and-cure technology, which sets the standards at high production speeds.

The VUTEk Q series

The superwide-format Q series – which is making its debut at APPPExpo in Shanghai on July 21-24 is EFI’s fastest, most productive roll-to-roll display graphics printer ever released. The new EFI VUTEk Q3r and Q5r can accomplish a wide range of challenging, high-volume applications, with premium features such as multi-layer white and in-line finishing, collection, and auto backlit and blockout options so customers can now achieve a low total cost of operation, at previously unforeseen speeds.

“The Q series is all about horsepower. We already have the VUTEk 5r+, and the Q series is significantly faster at better quality while achieving the same efficiencies,” Harrison explained.

The 5-metre-wide VUTEk Q5r printer runs at speeds up to 672 square metres per hour, and the 3.5-metre-wide VUTEk Q3r model prints up to 558 square metres per hour. “This is really attractive to businesses that need that burst capacity, instead of running three shifts, they can complete the same volume of work in two shifts or even one shift. It’s fantastic value for the money, and customers have been amazed by the industrial build quality and the output quality/speed combination” said Harrison.

The EFI Pro 30h

The EFI Pro 30h is a 3.2 metre versatile hybrid UV LED entry to mid-level production solution. The flatbed/rollfed printer is targeted at commercial print shops, sign shops and in-plant print departments looking to start, upgrade or add board and roll-toroll print jobs to their wide-format capabilities.

“The Pro 30h is perfect for customers in Australia and Southeast Asia, which are typically small to medium enterprises with less than 20 employees. These businesses need a “Swiss Army knife” that can do roll and flatbed, but with the efficiency of the higher end machines. We’re now bringing the quality into this entry level space. The Pro 30h is a cost-efficient solution that delivers on quality, at a fantastic price-point without compromising the technology,” said Harrison.

One of the Pro 30h printer’s main differentiating factors is its Continuous Board printing capability. This feature allows users to print large boards or multiple small boards simultaneously

Pro 30h

at full production speeds. The printer comes standard with two channels of white and multilayer printing.

The Pro 30h printer features dual roll printing for even more throughput, and is designed to easily alternate between rigid and flexible substrates. With speeds up to 230 square metres per hour using magnetic linear drives, customers will be able to take on more jobs and meet customer demand for faster turnarounds at an amazing capital cost.

EFI COLORS 340 and POWER 340

EFI’s two new soft signage printers help display graphics producers reach new heights in productivity and extend their capabilities. The EFI COLORS 340 printer prints at up to 850 square metres per hour (in a four-colour x 4 configuration) while providing unmatched colour capabilities for premium-quality soft signage. For even higher-volume production environments, the EFI POWER 340 prints up to 1,564 square metres per hour.

Leveraging technology from EFI Reggiani’s 70+ year legacy of bestin-class fabric printing, both new offerings give users higher quality on a wider range of material, with 100% penetration on both sides of the material. The disperse dye-sublimation printers offer added versatility and economical ink capabilities with their ability to print either direct to fabric

POWER 340

or to transfer paper using the same ink set, eliminating the significant cost and downtime related to switching over inks.

Designed for ultra-premium pointof-purchase work requiring smoother colour transitions and ultra-realistic skin tones, the COLORS 340 printer uniquely offers greater versatility in colour capabilities to print in fourcolour x 2, four-colour x 4 or six-colour x 4 configurations, as well as an eightcolour configuration featuring standard CMYK and light CMK colour inks, plus a penetrating agent.

Meanwhile, the POWER 340 printer meets the needs of the highest-volume producers of premium soft signage with its superior throughput.

Strengthening distributorship

“Asia Pacific is not unique in the requirements of the market. Everyone needs speed and everyone needs low running cost – those two key things, without compromising quality.

Every product that we introduce, be it the Pro 30h, the VUTEk XT or the VUTEk Q series, equates to ‘better, faster, cheaper.’ The beauty of EFI is that our comprehensive printing solutions delivers value at all levels of the product portfolio. I think that's what we do better than anybody,” said Harrison.

EFI has a network of partners across all its markets in Asia Pacific. Most recently, it inked a distributor

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partnership in Australia and New Zealand with digital print specialists, Currie Group.

“I believe we've picked the right partners with the best financial capability, skill set and reputation in the marketplace. Over the last few years, we’ve streamlined the partnerships that we have and worked hard to strengthen those relationships,” said Harrison.

“In Singapore and Malaysia, we've got a long standing relationship with AVS Technologies for over 10 years. They’re a great company, and they’ve been an excellent partner with professional, well-trained technicians and the ability to support our customers very well. We back them up, and they back us up. And that's just one example of the partnerships we have,” Harrison continued.

“We pride ourselves on being a leading provider of a comprehensive range of end-to-end digital printing solutions for our clients, so partnering with EFI has always been the natural choice. EFI is a company that continuously delivers on cutting-edge, quality technology at every market level, which widens our portfolio so we can drive growth for our customers,” said Kelvin Mun, general manager, AVS Technologies Pte Ltd.

Heavily investing in people and technology

When the economy slowed in the earlier parts of the pandemic, EFI took the opportunity to heavily invest not just in recruiting people, but also in training. Over the last 18 months, EFI has been boosting its Asia Pacific team and presence across the region.

“We're very thorough with our hiring processes. We deliberately built a team of people who have industry knowledge, and they understand customers, processes, and the technology. We’ve brought in a whole new team of people, and gone through intensive training, both on technology and problem solving for customers,” said Harrison.

“I'm always telling my sales people to change their business cards from sales to problem solvers, because actually that's what they do. During the pandemic, we've gone into customer sites and went through a discovery process with them. In this process, we’re not trying to sell them anything, we want to understand their workflow processes, production capacity, and the problems they’re going through. I think it's fair to say no one's really buying capacity because volumes are down. But people are buying efficiency,” said Harrison.

“And every single sale we've made, it's been us coming to agreement with the customer that we can deliver on improvement. If a solution can cut production costs by 40%, or run it 50% faster, they will not need as much labour as soon as the economy recovers. That means the investment pays itself back in one to three years,” Harrison explained. “We've got a lot of new, unlocked value to deliver to customers with greater efficiency, higher productivity, lower labour cost. These are all real tangible benefits,” said Harrison. “We’re in this unique position because we were lucky enough to work for a company that has great technology, and continually improves on that technology through continued investment in R&D.”

“We're really committed to the marketplace. We're investing in our people. That hasn't stopped. In Southeast Asia particularly, we’re ready with the right people, the right products and the right partners. Our only challenge is with the pandemic situation, but we're ready and excited for when the world is back to normal again,” Harrison concluded.

Rodd Harrison, Vice President Sales, APAC at EFI