30 April 2009

VISITOR NUMBERS DOWN AT NORTHPRINT

Visitor numbers to the biennial Northprint show in Harrogate were well down on the previous shows

1600 visited the show this time round compared to 4000 in 2007. Exhibitors were fairly positive all the same. The general feeling was that if printers had taken the time off to visit the show this time around, then they were probably real prospective customers rather than just taking a day out in Harrogate.

The show reflected the interest in digital print compared with offset. There were no offset presses to be seen other than Presstek’s digitally imaged B3 format 52DI, but there was a respectable selection of digital production and light production monochrome and colour presses from Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Océ and Xerox.

'To say that we were concerned about the size of the exhibition and the potential affect on visitor numbers prior to the show would be an understatement,' said Peter Jolly, marketing manager for Duplo UK. 'However what we actually found is that printers from all different sectors including commercial and government inplants used the show to seek ways to save outsourced costs and to bring finishing skills in house to then further grow our business. As usual, visitors seemed impressed with our levels of automation and accuracy of finish.'