I tacticaly believe in this British popular phrase used often during the month of April. It typically works for those who passionately and responsibly sow in good soils to expect bountiful harvests. So, for us at WHERE To Print magazine, the last two months have been quite eventful and exhilarating with series of leading international print and allied exhibitions and conferences expected to grow our industries that took place across Africa and the Anglo-America specifically PROPAK Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa (11 to 14 March); agrofood & plastprintpack Nigeria in Lagos, Nigeria (25 to 27 March); Graphics Canada Expo 2025 (April 9 to 11) in Toronto, Canada; and ISA International Sign Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada USA (April 23 to 25).
Characteristically, all these were exclusively covered by WHERE To Print magazine in order to bring you latest developments from these dedicated events to grow your businesses. While official post-show press releases were yet to be out for the last two, this edition’s SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLE starts off with post-show piece of PROPAK Africa 2025 culled from the official post-show press release by the organiser – Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery highlighting the significance of the continent’s definitive event for packaging, printing, food processing, plastics and labelling trade ingeniously co-located with Pro-Plas Expo, The GAPP Print Expo, FoodPro Expo, and Pro-Label Expo titled: PROPAK AFRICA 2025 DELIVERS A POWERFUL SHOWCASE OF CUTTING-EDGE PACKAGING INNOVATIONS (read on from page 14). In Nigeria, exhibitors and trade visitors, panelists and conference participants all agree that the 2025 edition which marks the 10 Anniversary of agrofood & plastprintpack Nigeria was a resounding success. Check out why in the SPECIAL FEATURE post-show ARTICLE (on pages 20 and 21) culled from the official post-show press release fittingly captioned: THE 10TH AGROFOOD & PLASTPRINTPACK NIGERIA 2025: A HUGE SUCCESS!
Talk of success: the region’s largest and most influential exhibition for professionals in the packaging, plastics, printing, and food processing sectors – PROPAK West Africa is set to return to the Landmark Centre in Lagos Nigeria from September 9 to 11, 2025. The next SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLE on pages 24 and 25 titled: PREMIER BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR MANUFACTURING, PACKAGING, AND PROCESSING LEADERS RETURNS TO LAGOS NIGERIA reports this industry’s number one trade event’s role in shaping our region.
Respectively from our region, PRINT IMPACT AROUND NIGERIA (from page 10) and others – PRINT IMPACT AROUND THE WORLD (from page 12) this issue highlights latest developments that happened within the last two months in the print and allied industries in Nigeria and around the world including expo news.
And as trade exhibitions continue to stimulate the growth and development of our industry, the degree of innovation driven by these rapid advancements especially in technology and evolving market cannot be overemphasised especially in the most dynamic and fastest growing segment of the worldwide print market – digital printing thereby making it the one of the most sought-after sectors in the industry. That is why the next SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLE by the intelligence and market research firm – MarketsandMarkets, uncovers invaluable statistics that makes digital printing the darling of the sector. Turn to pages Pages 28 and 29 to know why in the piece captioned: DIGITAL PRINTING MARKET.
Without doubt, many printing companies are struggling to find profitable work but there is a growing number of companies (involved in artisan works) where print is an integral part of their businesses – that they can market to. Print Sales Veteran – Matthew Parker exposes this in the following SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLE termed: ARTISAN PRINT: A PROFITABLE MARKET OPPORTUNITY (Pages 36 and 37) as we urge you to discover how to take advantage of this important segment of the economy and why selling prints to artisans can make all the difference not only to the perceived goods and services you are selling but also to your bottom-line. The last SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLE in this edition is culled from Sushil Enterprises on why paper is gaining momentum over other packaging media within the Food Industry value-chain. Turn to pages 40 and 41 to read: THE ROLE AND FUTURE OF PAPER IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY. It surely brought sustainability to the fore in print production process where accurate colour registration and cost-effectiveness are critical.
The question now is: how can Colour Management play a crucial role in making printing process more sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective? The answer to this question which is expertly answered forms the crux of our COVER STORY in this edition aptly captioned: COLOUR. SUSTAIN. PROFIT written by Colour guru – Dr. Kiran Deshpande and adapted from PRINTINGUnited Alliance Resource (www.printing.org). Flip over to Pages 30, 31 and 32 to discover how colour helps sustains profit.
To wrap up; as we continue this year – I will urge you to continue to position yourself in the scheme of things that continually add value. More than ever, I – on behalf of WHERE To Print magazine – remain grateful for your patronage and readership. Until next edition, please continue to be grateful; keep pressing on; building meaningful relationships; and creating lasting and invaluable impact as we expect ‘April showers bring May flowers’.
Take care and continue to do good!