EFI Emphasizes Packaging

EFI CEO Guy Gecht is visited by Chewbacca during his “Star Wars”-themed speech at EFI Connect.

For the 10th consecutive year, EFI hosted its annual Connect conference at the Wynn Las Vegas, bringing its customers together to network and learn about EFI’s offerings and what the company has in store for the future.

While EFI has made big splashes recently in textile printing and wide-format, speakers throughout the conference indicated that packaging is a major growth market for the industry’s future and an area where the company plans to place a focus.

The sold-out conference led off with a welcome address from EFI CEO Guy Gecht, who has served in that role for the past 16 years. His opening keynote, titled “Guy’s Six Guidelines for Becoming a Jedi in the Business of Printing,” used analogies from the popular “Star Wars” movies franchise to emphasize the changing industry, technology and societal dynamics.

“Bet on changes in market forces to accelerate,” he said, adding that continued business success for printing companies will require calculated risk taking, automated workflows and moving forward when opportunity knocks. “Doing nothing is a guarantee that you will be unsuccessful.”

Following the keynote, Gecht participated in a question and answer session with the media members in attendance. Over the next three to five years, Gecht said, EFI will place a heavy focus on both textile and packaging. He also mentioned that EFI’s plans for this year’s drupa include more packaging than in the past.

Gecht was followed by Steve Wynn, chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts, who delivered a special keynote presentation at Connect in honor of the conference’s 10th anniversary at Wynn Las Vegas. The hospitality industry and Las Vegas icon provided a business lesson on his success, which he said ultimately depends on creating a culture where employees gain a sense of pride and enhanced self-esteem through their work.

Wynn described a “storytelling program” that encourages Wynn’s 12,000 employees to recount their good deeds and exemplary customer interactions with their managers during daily pre-shift meetings. Company-wide spotlight programs then highlight the most outstanding self-nominated workers to reinforce positive behavior.

“I know I need these employees more than they need me,” Wynn stressed.

One of the major announcements at EFI Connect was the release of the new Corrugated Packaging Suite. This offering will provide a variety of features including corrugated scheduling and trimming, plant converting scheduling and planning, data collection and DMI, roll stock inventory management and more.

“Packaging is a growing market,” Gaby Matsliach, EFI’s senior vice president and general manager of productivity software, said. “In packaging, digital becomes a growing factor. Our responsibility is better support for our packaging offerings.”

In addition to the new corrugated suite, Matsliach said EFI’s packaging productivity suite has undergone a major investment to help it become a more complete suite. He says it now features integration with Esko automation and advanced layout optimization for labels and folding cartons.

In terms of inkjet printing, Ken Hanulec, EFI’s vice president of marketing, inkjet solutions, said that EFI’s inkjet solutions in packaging will experience growth in the near future. He explained that LED is a big part of the EFI inkjet portfolio, which includes Jetrion label presses. Hanulec also stated that Jetrion has approached nearly 300 installations.

The short term focus for EFI’s line of Jetrion presses includes polypropylene (PP) friendly lasers for thin films, Radius integration and Esko Plug-in variable data print. Hanulec also mentioned that he sees opportunity for high-speed digital inkjet in the corrugated market.

Connect 2016 also showcased EFI Fiery digital front end and software technologies for cutsheet digital printing, including previews of Fiery Command WorkStation 5.8 and the latest Fiery JobFlow digital print workflow automation software. Available this quarter, JobFlow is designed to deliver more efficient multi-job submission, extended third-party job processing, workflow sharing and enhanced usability.

In addition to highlighting workflow technologies, Connect’s solutions center featured top technologies in the EFI industrial inkjet portfolio, including high-end hybrid LED printers with variable-drop grayscale imaging and white ink. The exhibit floor also featured roll-to-roll LED printing technology from EFI’s recently acquired Matan product line.