Print firms want a printer that fits into their production environment without health and safety issues and delivers great quality results, day in and day out. By working with experienced dealers, Epson’s strategy is to provide the market with the best combination of printer and ink technology to deliver high quality, superb reliability, and the best all round return-on-investment. Furthermore, companies don’t want printers that generate high levels of solvent fumes because they are very unpleasant to work with and need fume extraction installed with them. This is something we have worked hard to minimise and our SureColor SC-S printers use our ultra-low solvent ink.
How did you find your way to Epson, and what is your personal vision for the company?
I have spent most of my career working within the graphics and digital print industry, firstly with Kodak and Xerox, then latterly with Spandex, focusing primarily on the signage segment. During my ten years at Spandex, I built relationships with many of the major brands within the industry, including Epson who were a trusted supplier.
What impressed me most about the company was the vision and desire to become a major player in the wide range of markets that could be addressed with Epson’s unique piezo head technology. Being able to back this up with over 40 years printing know-how and the research and development resources of a global player made it an easy decision for me to come on board when an opportunity presented itself. My personal vision for the UK organisation is to take us to the number one market share position in the signage and textile segments that we are targeting for major growth.
There are a number of key growth sectors for wide-format graphics; which do you think have the most potential for the small- to medium sign-maker?
The popularity and proliferation of soft signage is definitely a growth opportunity for small- to medium-sign makers. Soft signage is light, portable, compact, and easy to recycle and as such is very appealing.
The popularity and proliferation of soft signage is definitely a growth opportunity for small- to medium-sign makers”
That’s why it was so popular at the Olympics and the event really boosted the popularity of the media. Sign-making companies are also looking at how they can expand the range of products they produce beyond simply signs. Our SureColor SC-S and SC-F dye-sub printers are really flexible beasts and the huge range of soft, rigid, and metal materials now available on the market are opening up lucrative new business opportunities. Décor applications, where quality is key, are particularly interesting and are an area of considerable potential in the future.
You have developed Precision-Core printhead technology for the Sure-Color SC-S Series; what advantage does it bring to areas like vehicle and wall graphics?
PrecisionCore builds on Epson’s longstanding reputation for out-put quality, at the speeds required for industrial and commercial printing. PrecisionCore technology extends Ep-son’s high-performance thin-film piezo (TFP) print technology, currently used in our large-format printers, for superior colour, print quality, and output durability on the widest range of media, for everything from photography and signage, to commercial labels, packaging, and textiles.
In your time at Epson, do you have a couple of favourites when it comes to customers applying your technology?
There are many Epson customers who are running successful businesses and producing really creative and quality products with our SureColor SC-S wide-format printers. Some recent favourites include: Ltd Limited, which produces fantastic manifestations with metallic ink for offices; The Canvas Print Studio, which has a really nice web-to-print service; and Silver Bullet, an exhibition and retail graphics firm that started a walk-in large-format print service. The RNLI is currently touring an outside photography exhibition called The Lifeboat: Courage on our Coasts all over the UK and Ireland. The 50 64"-wide prints have withstood everything the British weather can throw at them over the winter and the images look just as good as the day they were printed.
There are many Epson customers who are running successful businesses and producing really creative and quality products with our SureColor SC-S wide-format printers.”
Our new range of SureColor SC-F dye-sublimation and direct-to-garment printers are generating interesting applications. All-over garment print specialists Yr Store recently opened pop-ups within Liberty London and Topman London flagship stores, to offer customers the chance to create and print their own bespoke t-shirts using Epson SureColor dye-sub printers while they wait. Yr Store’s garment print installations featured interactive touch-pod design stations where customers created one-off patterns in-store from an archive of designs and images, which were then printed and applied to t-shirts on-site and ready-to-go within a matter of minutes.
What is your advice to sign-makers to get the most out of their wide-format kit; how can they maximise its potential?
Go out and discover the huge range of specialist media there is now available for a wide variety of value-added niche applications. Talk to your media suppliers and ask them about the new materials they can supply to you. Your inkjet printers are highly-flexible machines and they are capable of producing a wide range of products. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new materials and finishing techniques. Print firms today have a great opportunity to expand their portfolio relatively easily.
