As well as exhibiting a broad range of kit on its 42sqm stand, the company is going to be running a workshop with what managing director Bryan Godwyn said would be a very clear message.

“Our challenge to printers is ‘Are you thinking backwards or forwards?'” he said. “We want to tell them to involve the finishing department as early as you can. Make sure it’s part of the planning.

“Work backwards because finishing, by definition, is the final act and if you get it wrong you have to start again so you have lost everything. If you spend a bit more time planning how it needs to look and be finished, your efficiency will go through the roof. That’s our message,” Godwyn said. 

On the stand will be a broad spectrum of kit supplied by IFS including folding, stitching, glueing and binding devices, Godwyn said, with the big focus most likely to be on folding and binding. 

Godwyn was unable to say whether the event would bring any new products but confirmed that the Drupa-launched Horizon SmartSlitter would be featuring on the stand. 

The circa-£65,000 device is touted as an all-in-one smart sheet processing system that can slit, gutter-cut, edge trim, cross-cut, perforate and crease in one pass. Designed for offset and digital output, the device handles sheets up to 370x670mm and can produce sheets as small as 50x50mm. It can perforate, crease and slit horizontally and vertically in the same pass and is suitable for multi-perforated coupons, direct mail, business cards, card decks, greetings cards and photobooks. 

Godwyn said the timing of PrintWeekLive!, which runs from 8-9 March at Wasps Arena, Coventry, was still ideal to be rolling out new products that were launched at Drupa this year. 

“Not many people from the UK actually travelled to Drupa, whereas I think they will go to this event,” he explained. 

“It’s an educational and creative show. The people that come are showing they are open to new ideas and it is our responsibility as exhibitors to give them that.

“The PrintWeek brand is very strong and I think the concept behind the show works very well for us. We are an exhibition company, we like showing machinery and real solutions and looking at the way things can be done better and more efficiently.”