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I am Taishi Motoshige, Marketing Director, SCREEN Europe, a subsidiary of SCREEN Holdings, one of the world's largest manufacturers and suppliers of system components for the prepress and printing industries. SCREEN's wide range of equipment includes the Truepress Jet range of large-format inkjet printers, UV inkjet label presses, sheet-fed and web-fed inkjet presses, the Equios workflow system, RIPs, and plate-setters. The company is also a well-known manufacturer of equipment for the semiconductor and flat panel display manufacturing industries. I head up all the marketing activities in Europe, including market research and marketing communications.

By Taishi Motoshige, Screen Europe & Morten B. Reitoft INKISH

Morten B. Reitoft: You're from Japan but work in Europe now. On a personal level, what is this like for you? I am thinking about cultural differences, making friends, the food, and all the things that play a central role in a person's life.

Taishi Motoshige: Working in Europe is a great experience, as I see so many things from a different point of view. But there are upsides and downsides. I love Japanese culture and people, and we communicate with each other based on similar cultural backgrounds. It's not easy for me to communicate with European people as our cultures are different, and I need to use a non-native language (English).

On the other hand, being here has helped me understand European people better, which I couldn't do at a distance from Japan.

I really enjoy my life in Europe, including the food!

Morten B. Reitoft: When you market SCREEN products, do you find that PSPs are primarily interested in specs, prices, service, or the company? I am asking since with Inkjet; there are so many suppliers compared to offset. I am curious to understand what you find most important in your communication?

Taishi Motoshige: Digitalisation in printing has started in many areas, but it still plays a much smaller role than conventional printing. I think the old inkjet press quality and productivity were not good enough to print actual jobs for consumers, but the latest generation press can fulfill stricter market demands. However, presses must produce printing products consistently to accommodate the demand for quick turnaround.

If they can produce the current jobs printed by offset presses at high quality, with consistency, in a short time (also at low cost), there is no reason not to use inkjet presses.

We are proud of our manufacturing and engineering quality as a Japanese manufacturer, enabling us to produce highly reliable presses.

I think reliability is vital in the digitalization of printing, and our reliable technology can enable this.

Morten B. Reitoft: Is your role in marketing also about reporting back to management and R&D about what the market demands? And if yes, do you visit many printing companies?

Taishi Motoshige: Yes, it is. However, this is not my primary task, and due to the COVID situation, I have not visited printing companies recently.

Morten B. Reitoft: Are there, in your opinion, any clear trends around what PSPs are demanding technology-wise these days?

Taishi Motoshige: I think there is a trend towards more automated production from PSPs. PSPs have been seeking cost-efficient printing production, and we have received many requests for automation that need integration among all main production stages: front-end, printing, and finishing.

Morten B. Reitoft: When you develop new technology, how long is the journey from R&D to releasing a new product onto the market?

Taishi Motoshige: It depends on the technology level, but we usually need four to five years to take a product from start to finish.

Morten B. Reitoft: I interviewed someone from a competing company a couple of days ago, and he said that PSPs, which would have a repayment/depreciation time of 8-10 years in the past, are now closer to three to four years. Does this put much more pressure on your R&D compared to previous years?

Taishi Motoshige: It may affect the PSPs investment plan, but we do not feel the pressure from that. But due to tougher competition between vendors, we do feel considerable pressure to develop more quickly in inkjet development than before.

Morten B. Reitoft: With toner-based print, there's been a demand for lower prices on toner for many years – do you see that in Inkjet now?

Taishi Motoshige: Yes, we do. Printing companies always consider ways to have more cost-effective printing production, which can also achieve good quality. Many printing companies consider replacing their offset presses with inkjet presses, and competitive pricing is always crucial.

Morten B. Reitoft: How long time do you think it will take before digital can fully replace litho-offset in commercial print – when it comes to capital cost, operational cost, and speed/quality?

Taishi Motoshige: I do not think Inkjet can fully replace litho offset since it is cost-effective to produce long-run printing. However, most of them will be replaced by digital in 15 years.

There is still room for improvement in operational cost, speed, and quality, and it takes 10-15 years to reach a comparable level to litho-offset press.

Morten B. Reitoft: Where do you see Screen as a supplier in the next two, five, or ten years?

Taishi Motoshige: As a digital inkjet solution provider, SCREEN continues to develop products to build successful and sustainable printing production.

We are expanding our business in various areas in the graphic industry and launching some exciting products like the Truepress PAC 830F for the packaging market.

In the high-speed web inkjet and label inkjet market, and other packaging markets, SCREEN would like to help printing companies build their businesses, now and in the future.


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