With increased pressure on margins and stiff competition in the marketplace that is full of choices, discerning industry stakeholders are always thinking of how to minimise risks while evaluating their spending patterns vis a vis reducting running costs against revenues. As our editorial focus in this bumper 80th issue is on rekindling hope in this highly capital intensive business, we caught up with Mr. Godwin Ogilo – the Chief Executive of Heidelberg Nigeria Limited (HNL) – the Nigerian office of world-renowned and respected print equipment manufacturer – Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Germany who shares his expert knowledge and advice on how to successfully manage, grow, and sustain print & allied businesses in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous business world. Turn to pages 14 to 19 to read the insightful SPECIAL FEATURE INTERVIEW titled: “CRITICAL FACTORS FOR SUCCESS WILL BE THE ABILITY TO DEPLOY, IMPLEMENT, AND OPTIMIZE THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY, INTEGRATION, AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF YOUR PRINTING BUSINESS”.
As earlier noted, while many Nigeria businesses especially the Small & Medium Scale (SMEs) today groan amidst ease of doing business in the country, many discerning ones in the print & allied trade believe Nigeria is full of economic potentials that need among others; visionary, goal-oriented, and daring enterprenuers to take advatange of. One of such is the Chief Experience Officer of the Beltina Group, Mr. Bello Bissala. Daring in his approach in taking calculated risk, the astute businessman discovered the gap for packaging services within the Federal Capital Territory and its environs, and without much ado, his innovative firm diversified into flexible packaging to bridge the gap and today, SMEs in the food value-chain within his vicinity has Beltina to fall back on in their bid to package their products, no matter the quantity, to international standard. Please flip over to page 30 and 31 to read how Beltina does that in the SPECIAL FEATURE SUPPLEMENT captioned; “WE ARE HERE TO BRIDGE THE GAP FOR QUALITY PACKAGING IN THE NORTH”.
On high cost and rampant substandard consumables espacially digital ink toners in the market, we caught up with the CEO of one of industry’s prominent traders of genuine printing machineries and consumables – Serlek Ventures – Mr. ‘Lekan Adeyemi who advised Printers to only use genuine toners on their machines to forestall painful stories. In the SPECIAL FEATURE SUPPLEMENT titled: WHY YOU MUST BUY GENUINE TONERS FROM SERLEK VENTURES. Mr. Adeyemi explained that; “The main benefit of choosing genuine toner is that it’s cheaper in the long run”. Please turn to page 42 to read more or to get in touch with Serlek Ventures.
Another company that has continued to sustain its successes of installations of majhorly web offset presses across the globe (including Nigeria) over the years is MANUGRAPH INDIA LTD. In an interview with its representative – MERCONGRAPHIC NIG. LTD Country Manager in Nigeria – Mr. Anil Rai, WHERE To Print discovered that the sustained successes by Manugraph is not only as a result of the company’s ability to adapt itself to meet the challenges of the competitive market but more importantly to reconfirm its commitment as the supplier of choice that delights customers with its excellent services and cutting edge technology. Please turn to page 40 to read more of how Manugraph intends to do more in the SPECIAL FEATURE INTERVIEW titled: “MANUGRAPH INDIA IS THE LEADING MANUFACTURER OF WORLD-CLASS WEB PRESSES RANGING IN SPEED FROM 25000 TO 70,000 COPIES PER HOUR”.
If you hope to attend one of the biggest print media trade shows in the United States, check out our SPECIAL FEATURE PREVIEW OF PRINTING UNITED 2022 to help you: DISCOVER WHAT’S NEXT AT PRINTING UNITED EXPO 2022. You’ll get to know these on pages 24, 26 and 27. Most importantly also, you can make the most of your attendance of this year’s West Africa’s BIGGEST exhibition and conference for professionals working across the packaging, plastics, printing, and food-processing value-chain – PROPAK West Africa 2022. Our SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLE confirms VISITOR REGISTRATION NOW LIVE! So that you can have FREE access to the region’s leading trade event expected to reconnect the West African manufacturing community from 22 to 24 November 2022 at Landmark Centre in Lagos, Nigeria. Pages 28, 29 and 32 are full of other vital information and discoveries that will make your engagement at the show highly profitable!
As we always strive to make your business profitable, especially in uncertain times that we have, this edition’s COVER STORY on pages 22 and 23 sheds light on some printing trends which, while not new themselves, are accelerating at an unprecedented pace and poised to change our industry forever. Written by Mr. German Sacristan – Director of Keypoint Intelligence’s Production Print & Media Group, the piece is titled: TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY: WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR THE PRINTING INDUSTRY? Check this out from page 22.
This edition is also characteristically embellished with major stories and exclusives recorded in the last two months within the our industry in Nigeria in PRINT IMPACT AROUND NIGERIA (from page 10) and then, worldwide in our PRINT IMPACT AROUND THE WORLD (from page 12) with invaluable info to aid your print & allied businesses.
Our commitment to gender equity propels us to beam our touchlight on gender bias that permeates within the Printing Industry being a male-dominated industry. In view of this, WHERE To Print VOX POP Crew went to town to speak with some women in the Printing Industry on the challenges they encounter daily as women in a male-dominated field with recommendations of how to deal with them. Read their responses on our VOX POP pages 20 and 21 to the question: WHAT CHALLENGES DO YOU ENCOUNTER DAILY AS A WOMAN WORKING IN A MALE-DOMINATED FIELD?
Finally, as we enter the ‘ember’ months, I will like to enjoin you to remain focused, plan ahead and commit all your endeavours to your Maker as the Author and Finisher of your faith. Let’s rekindle hope in our profession!
Please continue to do good!
Joju ADEKANBI
jojuadekanbi@yahoo.com
0803 862 9114
