“Standing still is not an option for anyone in our industry, so people need to come to Ipex to see what’s possible,” said Gecht.

He said that attending Ipex was a strategic decision though, because “Europe and the UK represent great opportunities for EFI”.

“We’re investing in Europe while other people are stepping back, so Ipex was always something we were going to do to meet more people, build stronger relationships and show our support for the European market,” said Gecht.

The firm is using its Ipex presence to focus on applications rather than kit and promote its MIS and ERP tools including its latest estimating, web-to-print and planning planning packages and its SmartSign Analytics POS effectiveness tool. 

As well as using the show to highlight its suite of productivity tools, EFI has also used the show to unveil a number of recent European installations.

Birmingham-based Clarkeprint has installed EFI’s OPS (Online Print Solutions) web-to-print suite to enable the firm to offer full cross-media campaign management.

Meanwhile, Munich-based Heidelberg and HP house Pinsker Druck und Medien has also installed EFI Pace MIS and Metrix planning and imposition software.

“I came out to Europe a week before Ipex to visit some of our customers, and our customers are really doing well here. They’re growing, they’re investing and Pinsker, a fifth-generation family business, is a great example of this,” said Gecht.

Speaking alongside Benny Landa on Tuesday on the topic of “Print - doomed or on the verge of a digital renaissance?” Gecht said: “From my meetings with customers my conclusion is the digital renaissance has already started. There is so much happening in printing beyond things that are in decline. It’s not just about putting ink onto paper or any other material. It’s giving customers a lot more value.

“I can’t tell people what to do, but I can tell them one thing not to do – do nothing. Successful customers all bet on something. Not everything works, but doing nothing is not an option.”