EFI Races to Strong Tradeshow “Trifecta” Finish
FOSTER CITY, Calif.—EFI™, a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, has concluded a successful “trifecta” of industry tradeshows—SGIA, GRAPH EXPO and Labelexpo Americas—with record visitor attendance, strong sales on the show floor and hundreds of qualified leads.
The three events enabled EFI to showcase its complete portfolio of end-to-end solutions that support the industry’s progression from analog to digital technology.
“EFI had a large presence at each of these key industry conferences, and we’re thrilled that our booths were overflowing with prospects and current customers in search of ways to bring growth to their businesses,” said Frank Mallozzi, senior vice president of worldwide sales, EFI. “Now more than ever, companies are looking at how multiple EFI products can make a huge impact on their success. Many visitors at these events made a purchase decision on the spot, and many, many more will be engaging with our sales team over the next several weeks to learn how EFI can boost their productivity and profits.”
SGIA
EFI recently participated in SGIA with a large booth at the entrance to the hall. The company displayed its VUTEk® GS3200, VUTEk GS5000r, Rastek™ T1000, Rastek T652, Jetrion® 4830 and integrated workflow offerings including EFI Pace™, EFI Digital StoreFront®, EFI Web Control Center, Fiery® XF and XFlow. In the Hilord booth, EFI also demonstrated a new dye-sublimation technology based on the QS platform.
With SGIA registrations at a record high, visitor traffic to EFI’s booth was constant, and customers came to buy—resulting in a record number of sales in the booth.
“I was looking for an additional superwide printer to keep up with the high quality image demands of the New York theater industry,” said Wayne Sapper, president of King Displays. “SGIA was the perfect venue to see what the industry has to offer and see live demos of each printer. I purchased the EFI VUTEk GS3200 because of its flatbed and roll-to-roll versatility, high image quality and three-layer white ink printing capability.”
EFI recently announced that more than 100 VUTEk GS series printers have been sold, and that Q3 UV ink volume was up 43 percent year-over-year. The ability of GS customers to successfully win new, demanding print jobs is a key driver of this ink volume growth.
GRAPH EXPO
EFI had a front and center position at this year’s GRAPH EXPO conference. The booth highlighted EFI’s diverse portfolio and strong integration between solutions by displaying its products around vertical markets that match customers’ business needs, divided into eight segments: On Demand/Print for Pay, Small Commercial/CRD, Commercial/Specialty Printers, Large Commercial/Publishing, Digital Sign and Screen, Packaging and Labels, Creative Agencies/Color Professionals and Office Solutions. EFI ran 33 Fiery products at the show (combined between its booth and partner booths), demonstrating once again that Fiery is one of the industry’s most popular digital print workflows.
EFI sold multiple VUTEk GS series printers at GRAPH EXPO, and made a number of significant announcements. The company launched the new Rastek T1000 and Rastek H652 printers and announced the availability of several Fiery servers driving new presses and MFPs from Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh and Xerox. EFI also touted two large print MIS wins at the show, with ANRO Inc. and The DATA Group of Companies, and revealed that DLA Document Services (part of the U.S. Department of Defense) selected EFI Digital StoreFront as the Web-to-Print platform for its more than 150 locations in the United States and abroad.
As part of the annual Must See ‘ems’ award program sponsored by the Graphic Arts Show Company, EFI products earned five awards. The VUTEk GS3200 won a Must See ‘em in the wide format printer category, along with Worth-a-Look awards for the Rastek H652 and Rastek T1000. On the software side, EFI Colorproof™ XF and EFI Monarch garnered Worth-a-Look recognition.
Labelexpo Americas
Labelexpo Americas 2010 proved to be the most successful label converting show to date for EFI, bringing a record number of visitors to the booth and record sales for EFI Radius and Jetrion. Of great interest was the debut of EFI Radius, whose management/ERP software products clearly show EFI’s commitment to the packaging and converting markets. The new Jetrion 4830LED UV inkjet system was also spotlighted and drew lots of interest from show goers—the system allows direct printing on unsupported and heat sensitive materials, including shrink sleeve.
The Jetrion 4830 was the only UV inkjet printer selected to be in the inaugural, conference-hosted “Technology Workshop” booth, which showcased four leading label printing technologies with in-depth presentations and demos. This prominent placement led to increased traffic in the EFI booth from companies interested in learning more about how the 4830 can offer the lowest cost per label for short- and medium-run print jobs.
Several Jetrion 4830 printers were sold at the event. Central Decal, a large label manufacturer, purchased the 4830 that was running in the EFI booth. “Durable labels are a key strategy for Central Decal and critical to our growth into new markets, so it was a natural choice for us to team up with EFI Jetrion and its proven UL recognized systems,” said Butch Kaplan, general manager.
Custom digital label printer Lofton Label decided to purchase EFI Radius software, with Michael Gaughan, executive vice president of manufacturing, commenting that “the Radius system will literally change our business.”
