Epson had signed up to appear at the original event in September 2020, but after The Print Show was moved due to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the manufacturer instead switched to next year’s event.

A long-time supporter of The Print Show, Epson plans to display a selection of its printing kit at the event, which will take place from September 28th to 30th at the NEC in Birmingham.

Phil McMullin, sales manager, ProGraphics at Epson UK, says while virtual events can temporarily fill the exhibition hole, they are not a long-term substitute for the real thing, and therefore The Print Show will be key for Epson next year.

“The Print Show remains the best UK platform for us to show off new systems to a large number of print service provides in a short space of time,” McMullin says.

In terms of how Epson has reacted to the Covid-19 crisis, McMullin says that the manufacturer remains in a strong position, explaining it is a global organisation with a wide array of technologies at its disposal.

“Epson UK has not furloughed any members of staff and all have continued to work as normally as possible from home,” he says, adding: “In the large-format print side, we have seen record unit sales over lockdown in the signage and textile market segments.

“Some areas of our business have been extremely strong through out lockdown but its fair to say that the photo market has been hard hit without the usual wedding, event, holiday and school photo trade.

“We expect this area to remain soft for some time, particularly if local lock downs are required to address infection spikes. Despite this we plan product launches for the photo market that we believe will help our commercial customers recover their profitability in 2021.”

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