"EFI finished 2012 going very well. We said in our outlook we were expecting all-time Q4 record results despite the worldwide economic pressures. As long as we can continue to do that we see great opportunities for us in print," stated chief executive Guy Gecht.

At the EFI Connect user conference, the workflow-to-digital-printing business proclaimed itself the clear market leader in UV inkjet. Among a raft of product announcement, the firm hinted at plans for a new, higher-resolution version of its Jetrion inkjet label press to be launched at Labelexpo in the autumn.

The firm highlighted the enormous potential growth opportunities in colour digital printing for display graphics, predicted to grow by 20% year-on-year, and for digital label printing with 35% growth.

It’s likely that the Jetrion will become an entirely LED UV press, allowing it to print onto a wider range of substrates by doing away with heat-generating mercury lamps. EFI currently has more than 150 Jetrions installed in the field.

Attendees at Connect were mesmerised by the inline laser cutting system on the Jetrion, described as "the coolest technology here," by senior vice president and general manager of commercial print systems Marc Olin.

Sean Kelly, vice president and general manager of Jetrion, added: "Customers who are looking to get into the label printing business but know nothing about it love this press because it’s digital printing and finishing in a single system."

EFI is also about to embark on the beta installations of its Vutek HS100 Pro high-productivity wide-format flatbed inkjet. Two of the 3.2m wide devices, capable of producing up to 100 boards per hour, are bound for the west coast of the US, one to Germany, and one to an as-yet unnamed UK printer. The beta machines will be installed this month, with plans to fully commercialise the product in Q1 2013.

Olin showcased a raft of new developments in MIS and workflow, including a new dashboard-style user interface for the Pace system set to be prototyped this year.

EFI has added direct mail capabilities from Printstream to the Monarch MIS and the financial accounting in Monarch is now also an option for Radius users. "With a common accounting core you can set up an enterprise system for facilities with multiple sites across packaging and commercial printing," Olin explained.

There are also plans to capitalise on the popularity of the CRM system created by latest acquisition Technique, and add this is a layer to Radius and Monarch.

Digital Storefront has had a makeover to become more user-friendly and modern, and now offers in-browser personalization tools.  

Technology from another recent acquisition, Online Print Solutions (OPS) will ultimately be merged into Digital StoreFront. The cross-media marketing tool from OPS will be the first to be incorporated, later this year.

Also in MIS, the next generation of PrintSmith Vision for print-on-demand will be released in October, and there are plans to combine the Auto-Count and QTMS technologies to create a "best-in-breed" shopfloor data collection system.

Olin highlighted what he described as a "big breakthrough" on the PrintFlow dynamic scheduling system, which can now schedule people as well as equipment and tools, such as moveable inkjet heads and dies. "People are also a constraint in the operation of a business," he said. "If the people become a bottleneck, this lets you make better staffing decisions."

"If there’s a market where MIS systems are sold, then EFI is the leader in that market," Olin stated.

At Cretaprint, the specialist ceramic tile printing business acquired a year ago, the incorporation of Fiery colour management know-how has "completely removed trial and error" in creating accurate colour representations of the finished tiles. "People in the printingindustry would say ‘what’s the big deal?’ but in ceramic tile printing it is a big deal," said EFI chief technology officer Ghilad Dziesietnik.

EFI has also acquired a small French colour management company, FX Color, which Dziesietnik said took a different approach to colour management using  an "abstract model" to create colour matched proofs for ceramic printing.

Although overall sales at the Fiery business have been constrained by a lack of new print engines from key OEM partners, Gecht said he was optimistic about recovering the Fiery’s market position due to new engines in the pipeline, and the travails at Kodak. "Our biggest competitor was Kodak POD, and they are almost non-existent in digital frontends now," he said.

John Henze, vice president of marketing for Fiery, highlighted the new Fiery Dynamic HD technology as allowing "near offset quality on fine lines and text, and with a digital press that’s a big deal. People say ‘it’s not rocket science’ in the case of Dynamic HD it IS rocket science!"

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