Printing Innovation Asia Issue 5 2020
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highlights robustness in the face of crisis We chat with Xeikon’s CEO, Benoit Chatelard, to cover the company’s restart in Asia in correlation with COVID-19, acceleration of Industry 4.0 and the new drupa launches. By Sha Jumari. Since the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has put the global economy into a tailspin. While the crisis continues to impact supply chains all over the world, China has already begun shifting gears to get back to normal. Xeikon CEO, Benoit Chatelard, echoed this observation: “What we see is a slow start from China. My people are able to go and visit customers. We have many activities in Singapore, and in Australia too. But Taiwan has really been the most active in the business, since the very beginning.” “We are growing in Asia. This year, the business is stunted from the COVID-19 pandemic. China closed quickly, followed by Singapore and some other Asian countries. We are just restarting, in fact, Taiwan has been very active,” Chatelard continued. “Right now, we are experimenting our robustness as a company and our will to weather the storm. This is a good stress test for a company to see
Xeikon’s CEO, Benoit Chatelard if Xeikon can pass this crisis without damage and have a very good business continuity,” said Chatelard. In December last year, Xeikon announced the opening of the Innovation Centre in China at the Shanghai University of Printing. With the new facility, Xeikon now has two Innovation Centres in Asia to better serve the region. The first centre is
in Tokyo, Japan. As the COVID-19 lockdown has lifted in some cities in China, Chatelard confirmed that the Shanghai centre has already reopened. “The centre is fully open and operational. We have our own infrastructure to watch demonstrations, to benchmark, and show proof of concept,” said Chatelard. “For local demonstrations, we invested in more people. But I would say at the beginning of the year we've not gotten the fruits of that because of the current situation. I’m confident that when we restart we'll have a good perspective in Asia.” The pandemic has catalysed changes in the industry. Most businesses have had to restructure how they operate. Industry 4.0 and automation are trends which have been accelerated. Companies that used to be resistant or slow in its adoption has had to make quick decisions to adopt the technologies to stay productive.
Xeikon CX300
Chatelard highlighted the growth of digital technologies in these times: “There will be a stimulation for digital,
