Strong Sales Drive Success at PRINTING United Expo

The 2023 PRINTING United Expo started with a "boom." The hard smack of a mallet against the big bass drum of the Morehouse College marching band served as a clarion call, a strong signifier that the Expo was open for business.

While describing just a handful of the sales from a thimbleful of the 811 exhibitors on the Expo show floor does not illustrate the immensity of the total sales generated at the event, it does provide a pulse of the industry, a strong sense of how things went.

And they went well.

Commercial Printing

Asked about sales levels for offset press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer, Eric Frank, senior vice president of marketing, said the long sales process for equipment of that size means sales are often finalized or celebrated in the booth. The market for such equipment, he says, is looking good. “We’re seeing cautiously optimistic signals out there – quotes are up – we have a huge backlog for production.”

palmides GmbH, a provider of automated delivery solutions for the printing industry, announced it sold a Gamma 502 Automated Delivery system to Puerto Rico-based HERA Printing Corp. About the sale, Bob Conboy, president of palmides USA, said, "We are confident that HERA Printing's decision to embrace this innovation will position them as a frontrunner in the industry..." HERA Printing president Ricardo Garcia said, "We look forward to the opportunities this technology will unlock for us."

At SCREEN, a company focused on high-speed inkjet systems for the commercial printing sector, vice president of marketing Mark Schlimme said, “We celebrated some deals that we brought here with us. It’s been very positive. Five years ago, were doing a lot of evangelizing [about inkjet], but now our sales teams are bringing customers here to celebrate business or finish business. They still like to come to a show environment … there’s still something about coming to a central show.”

Dustin Graupman, senior director, inkjet division with Kyocera Document Solutions, said, “Sales have been great in the booth, and the two TASKalfa Pro 15000c printers featured in the booth (one including a Plockmatic BM4000 booklet maker) had been sold.” The stock model, it was reported, was sold to Mankato, Minnesota-based Taylor.

In the Fujifilm booth, a large, bold sign announced that its J Press 750 HS had been sold to Onesource. With its investment, Onesource is gaining high-speed digital printing capability (3,600) in a B2 sheet size (23” x 29.5”). According to Fujifilm booth staff interest was very strong for its Revoria GC12500. They reported that they had “intent to buy” on 20 of the machines, 16 in the U. S. and four in Canada.

Finishing Technologies

Winkler + Dunnebier shared that it had sold its new i-Jet 3 direct mail overprint press to Envelope Superstore, an envelope supplier located in Hiram, Georgia. Further, the company announced that Moore (Lahnam, Maryland) was moving forward with a purchase of its second BB1000, a unit that prints, converts, and inserts direct mail all on one system. Moore bought its first at the 2022 PRINTING United Expo in Las Vegas. About the sale, Michael Ring, president of W+D North America, said, “It's very rewarding for W+D when a market leader like Moore sees our vision and adopts our new technology."

At the booth of MBM Corporation, a US-based supplier of trimmers, cutters, folders, and other finishing devices, what was most striking was that nearly all the machines along the periphery of the booth featured the same sign: bright burst of red with a single word, “SOLD!” Dan Radovanic, a regional sales manager for the company, said, ““People have been just putting off decisions, putting off buying equipment, and now they just have to buy new equipment.”

According to Pierre Doucet, a representative of Yul Technologies, a Canada-based manufacturer of paper cutting systems, said, simply, “We’ve sold what’s in the booth.”

Sign & Graphics

According to Syndie Shepland, advertising and digital marketing lead from inkjet equipment manufacturer Durst, the company had pre-sold all four of the printers featured in its PRINTING United Expo booth. The Durst P5 350 HSR, a large-format roll-to-roll printer, was sold to Van Nuys, California-based Astek Wallcoverings. A P5 TEX iSUB dye-sublimation textile printer was sold to Nashville, Tennessee-based Big Visual Group. A Durst Tau 330 RSC high-speed label printer was sold Ink 129, of Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

At Roland DGA, a company most known for wide-format which has diversified into numerous markets, president Amado Lara said the Expo was strong: “The first two days have been excellent. Awesome show – looking forward to doing the business that’s going follow this. A lot of customers coming to see the new technology and check it out. It’s been amazing for us to be able to connect with them.” Numerous machines in the company’s booth were festooned with “sold” signs.

Wide-format equipment manufacturer SwissQPrint shared that it sold its first Kudu flatbed printer for the Canadian market to Bloomingdale, Ontario-based Simpson Print, which already uses several of SwissQPrint's machines. For Simpson Print, the Kudu will increase capacity and capability -- including specialty inks. Further, SwissQPrint took orders for three other printers (a Nyala, an Impala, and a Karibu) during the Expo.

EFI had “sold” signs on most of the equipment in its booth, just a couple of them include the sales of an EFI Pro 30h LED-cured flatbed printer to SpeedPro Alpharetta (Georgia), and a EFI VUTEk FabriVU 340i+ textile printing unit to Dublin, Ohio trade-show exhibit producer Zilla LLCWhile. Ken Hanulec, vide-president of worldwide marketing, was loath to share the number of machines EFI had sold, he said, “It’s been a really good show so far.”

Wide-format equipment manufacturer FluidColor indicated active sales in its booth, including a R105F flatbed to be shipped to a printing facility in Kentucky, and a R84f flatbed to be shipped to Ohio.

In the Hewlett Packard (HP) booth, signs indicated that its LS3600 wide-format latex-based printer had been sold to Adnormous Graphics – it would be shipping to nearby Marietta, Georgia. An HP L2700 TYPE was sold to Alpharett, Georgia-based Benson Integrated Marketing Solutions.

DigiTech, showing large-format CNC cutting tables, posted that it sold its massive “Texas” cutting system to Yotta Sky, a wide-format producer headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and with locations in Miami and Orlando, Florida; also in Atlanta. Asked about sales levels, Trent Garmoe, DigiTech vice president and general manager, said, “It’s been a good show.”

Apparel Decoration

M&R Printing Equipment posted in its booth that it has sold a Polaris – an industrial high-speed direct-to-garment printing system to Island Xpertees, which operates in Nag’s Head, North Carolina. About the sales experience at the PRINTNG United Expo, Peter Walsh, executive vice president for M&R, said that by the end of the second day of the Expo, the company had reached $3 million in sales.

From his very busy Expo booth, Brian Richards, sales director at ROQ, said that in terms of sales, “The level of interest has been outstanding. Sales level: I think we’re on pace to have our best PRINTING United ever. There’s a lot changing in the industry, and companies are diversifying their processes. We have new production that is not just particularly screen printing. It’s been really well received.”

More Than Just Three Days

For virtually all of the more than 600 vendor companies who greeted attendees, displayed their wares, and explained how new product or technologies can benefit printing businesses, their engagement with the 2023 PRINTING United Expo did not conclude when the doors closed on the third and final day. In fact, for many, there is much work still to be done: follow-ups, contracts, consultations, quotes, questions, deliberations and deals.

If the Expo can be viewed as a loud “boom,” then the many days to follow are its reverberations. It’s echoes will be heard until the next PRINTING United Expo, September 10-12 in Las Vegas.