Growing Wide Format Market Benefits Everyone

August 16, 2016

Labelexpo adWere you aware of the increasing number of customer success stories on our website regarding wide format printing?  For instance, we had a commercial printer in Connecticut and a franchise print shop in Kansas both recently introduce wide-format printing for the first time. This has allowed them to take on new jobs and customers that they couldn’t in the past, adding another revenue stream that has helped them grow their bottom lines, while staying true to their core business: Print.

So what is wide format? It’s the copying, printing and scanning of such projects as full-color graphics, signage, banners, point of purchase, point of sales, CAD drawings, maps and schematics. Some are direct inputs from websites and mobile devices. According to Global Industry Analysts, Inc., the global wide-format print market is projected to reach $7.2 billion in hardware sales by 2022. Aside from that multi-billion dollar market, there are two primary reasons for Konica Minolta’s renewed interest in the wide-format print arena.

The first are some really successful distribution partnerships that we have with veteran printer manufacturers EFI and KIP.  For graphics wide-format printing applications, EFI’s H1625 wide format printer is a hybrid device that is the first wide-format UV LED inkjet product we ever sold – and it greatly surpassed our own sales expectations over the past year. We can further target the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry in full color with our KIP portfolio of LED printers, including the toner-based KIP 800 series, which supports such large documents as CAD drawings and schematics for technical wide-format printing applications. This enables our customers to have a very productive and affordable wide-format solution.

The second reason is our sales and service support network, which is one of the strongest in the world. It’s our people who are truly the value. Manufacturers like EFI and KIP know this, and it’s a big reason why they partner with us. In those same success stories that I mentioned earlier, customers tout our sales representatives’ sincere interest in helping them build their businesses. Our network of sales and service reps knows that adding wide-format printing capabilities is crucial to a print shop’s survival in today’s challenging market environment. We’re thrilled to be able to confidently offer additional technology such as wide-format print solutions.

We’re going to see more and more success stories regarding the wide-format market.  It gives us and professional print shops the ability to support areas that we couldn’t before and provides additional revenue streams. And customers can now get affordable, high-quality print productions right on Main Street. So everyone benefits.

Going to Labelexpo ’16?

We’ll give you a million reasons to stop by our Booth #5413. Labelexpo ’16, Sept. 13-15, Donald E. Stevens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL

Dino Pagliarello
Senior Vice President, Product Management and Planning

Dino Pagliarello is responsible for Konica Minolta’s portfolio of industry award-winning office and graphic communications technology within the U.S. He leads a team of product planning and marketing experts that bring new products to market, from multi-functional printers for the office to high-end industrial printing equipment, overseeing the complete life-cycle of these devices. With more than 19 years at the company, Dino has accumulated extensive experience in all facets of the business, and works collaboratively with a global engineering team to share his knowledge of the production and industrial print market. He holds a BS in International Business from Ramapo College.