Features

The countdown to Printwear & Promotion LIVE!’s 30th anniversary is on - and visitor registration is now open for the UK garment decoration industry’s biggest ever event.

Should ‘sustainability’ be replaced with another word - and would it make any difference to how environmentally proactive you’d be? Walter Hale hypothesizes…

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

As PSPs seek to wow clients, Simon Creasy asks kit manufacturers about special effects possibilities.

Remember all the publicity LifeArt received by making coffins out of a patented composite material that can be buried but is designed to burn effectively too, so you can really personalise your last journey? Well, there are plenty of other attention grabbing materials out there. Here’s a round-up of the newest.

This Scottish PSP has applied eight years of R&D to a Web-to-print software that is transforming its business model. Could it be something manufacturers take on board and begin to sell to other printers in the sector?

Well, where are they? When it gets to director level, women are few in this sector. But is that changing? 

On 10 October Fespa UK is hosting the conference ‘The Future of Print i4.0’ at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry. But who will be there, and should you be? Image Reports’ own Widthwise Survey - conducted among 151 of the UK and Ireland’s large-format PSPs at the start of this year - showed that only 5 of them had invested in i4.0 technology over the last 12 months. Those who hadn’t were asked if they would be doing so in 2018. The answer? A big fat 0. So, what’s going on? I spoke with Fespa UK Association’s Peter Kiddell for his take.

By Lesley Simpson

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

Do you use your MIS system properly? Tharstern’s business development manager Ross Edwards, and pre-sales consultant Philip Dodge, argue that PSP in the wide-format sector aren’t using them to best advantage. But is that about to change?

If you’re greening up your act, shout about it. People want to know that you’re environmentally responsible. Really. Walter Hale expands.

Last summer we brought you a story entitled ‘war on waste’, looking at the value stream mapping lean journey Data Image had embarked on with Esko to make its business more efficient. So what have its actions achieved a year down the line, and what’s its target now?