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Interviewed by Poligrafika, Anna Naruszko Produced by INKISH

Not many years luxury labels weren't exactly what you expected with digital - but the combination of HP Indigo and the KURZ DM-Jetliner seems to be a real game-changer. In this film, we talk to Managing Director David Richards from Amberley Labels. He appraises the opportunities - so if you are interested in new technology, labels, and how to add value to your label production - this is a good starting point. Enjoy!

This was - to be honest - a very funny interview to do. Shayne Huston and Pam Deacon interviewed in this film from MGC, Des Moines, Iowa, made it a blast to do - even though editor Morten Reitoft interviewed them remotely. Mail Communications Group started as a mail sorting service, and today MCG is a full-service communications company that essentially helps its customers succeed. Solimar delivers one of the core products and the backbone of the IT infrastructure. INKISH and Solimar have done many projects together, and what continues to - well - not surprising, but emphasize, is the very close and personal relationship Solimar has with their customers. Enjoy.

At PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas, Pat McGrew meets Gretchen Keefner from CAI Software to learn about a company name that may still be new to many in print — even though much of the technology behind it is extremely familiar. Following the integration of CAI Software and Print ePS, the new CAI organization comprises three divisions: Graphic Communications, Process Manufacturing, and Discrete Manufacturing. For printers, Graphic Communications is where familiar platforms such as Pace, Monarch, PrintSmith Vision, Tharstern, EPMS and others continue their journey. And Gretchen has a very clear message for existing customers: nobody is being forced to abandon the systems they already depend on. CAI will continue to support its established platforms while investing in technologies best positioned to leverage new capabilities. The objective is to make existing workflows increasingly connected, automated and intelligent rather than forcing customers into unnecessary migration projects. That broader portfolio also enables CAI to have what Pat describes as an increasingly complete “order-to-cash” conversation — from estimating and order management through production, inventory, accounting and ultimately invoicing. Partners remain important as well. Companies such as ECO3, PlanProphet and ISCorp extend that ecosystem, allowing CAI to connect MIS and business management with prepress, CRM, hosting and other specialist technologies rather than attempting to build everything itself. And then there is AI. Gretchen explains that CAI is already developing AI capabilities across multiple products, with estimating among the areas generating the greatest interest. Natural-language interaction could allow users to create, review, or approve estimates without needing to understand databases, SQL, Python, or the technical complexity beneath the surface. That is important because most printers aren't looking to employ AI engineers. They want technology that helps their existing employees work faster and make better decisions. But perhaps the larger challenge facing CAI customers is diversification. Commercial printers are expanding into packaging, signage, mailing, promotional products, and other applications, and software must be flexible enough to support businesses that no longer fit neatly into a single traditional print category. For Gretchen, the future leaders in print will increasingly be companies capable of adapting quickly — and the software behind them needs to make that easier. Keep what works. Connect it better. And use AI where it genuinely creates value. Watch Pat McGrew's conversation with Gretchen Keefner from CAI Software at PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas.

At PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas, Wayne Beckett meets Gregor Kohle from Imaging Solutions AG — a Swiss company bringing its background in highly automated photo production increasingly into the wider graphic arts industry. And the machine attracting attention at the booth is the multiCut Sheet. Originally developed from Imaging Solutions' experience with roll-based cutting and sorting, the sheet-fed version was created because customers wanted the same level of automation for digitally printed sheets. The concept is particularly interesting for mixed-format production. Different image sizes can be imposed on the same sheet, identified through barcode information, cut automatically and then sorted while keeping individual orders together. For applications such as school photography, photo products and highly variable short-run work, that can remove a significant amount of manual cutting and sorting. The system handles sheet sizes from SRA3 through B2+ and can process up to 10,000 images per hour depending on format and imposition. An optional pallet feeder is also being developed for higher-volume continuous production. But Imaging Solutions is about considerably more than cutting. The company's roots are in photographic production, including silver-halide processing, before expanding into automated LayFlat book production, cutting and sorting, canvas stretching and other finishing technologies. Today, those same automation principles are increasingly relevant to commercial printers looking for efficient short-run and print-on-demand production. And there is a nice twist to the PRINTING United story: the multiCut Sheet on display has already been sold — to a customer in Japan. Swiss engineering, sold in Las Vegas, heading to Japan. Watch Wayne Beckett's conversation with Gregor Kohle from Imaging Solutions AG at PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas.

Almost impossible to imagine, but AstroNova started with a 4-color ribbon print and is today a recognized supplier to the label/printing industry. At Drupa 2024, the neighboring booth, MTEX from Portugal, was acquired by AstroNova very recently - moving AstroNova into a new league of printers. Super interesting chat also allows us to learn about organic and non-organic growth! LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwoods1234/

At Printing United in Orlando, Morten B. Reitoft from INKISH sits down with Greg Bane from Ultimate Tech to discuss the company’s focus on automation in large-format printing. Greg explains that automation has become increasingly important as print shops face tighter deadlines, higher material costs, and the constant need to improve efficiency. By streamlining workflows and reducing manual intervention, automation helps printers achieve faster turnaround times, optimize costs, and maximize the return on their hardware investments. Bane highlights Ultimate Tech’s continued innovation in workflow automation and imposition software. The company’s solutions integrate seamlessly with any digital front end, printer, or cutting equipment, offering full flexibility regardless of brand. Their two-way communication capabilities allow operators to receive detailed feedback from devices, including data on material usage and waste. This enables printers to make better production decisions and minimize losses, particularly when working with high-value substrates. He also discusses the power of shape-nesting optimization, where the software calculates the most efficient way to position jobs on a sheet or substrate. When given a bit more time to process, the software often finds surprisingly effective layouts that significantly reduce waste. According to Bane, these savings alone can easily justify the software investment. Reflecting on his own background, Bane shares that he joined Ultimate Tech less than a year ago after previously working with the company as a partner. He praises the team’s professionalism, strong ethics, and deep industry experience. As the conversation wraps up, he emphasizes the key takeaway for the print industry today: automation is no longer optional. To remain competitive and meet modern customer expectations, printers must embrace “automation, automation, and automation.”

C!Print 2023 in Lyon is, by all measures, already a success. The EuroExpo Center in Lyon was filled up with guests, and most of the day, it seemed very busy. There was a good mood, and we got some excellent interviews from many exciting people. In this Bonjour! Jacques Michiels and Morten B. Reitoft share impressions from the first day and expectations for our last day at C!Print. Enjoy, and remember to see our interviews on INKISH.TV. We already have many films online, and all are now uploaded with English subtitles (the French language editions!)

A few months ago, we visited Courier Graphics in Phoenix, Arizona - and besides the fantastic technology they use to produce great print and also the implementation of a new MIS solution from PrintVis, which brought us to the site, we got a chance to see the amazing showroom, talk to Designer Melissa Loughran from Courier Graphics - and to see some of the samples that really pushed the boundaries. Enjoy this!

Pat McGrew is impressed with the print samples delivered by Ricoh. They make it easy, but more importantly, they show cool samples from what their technology can deliver—folders, postcards, and of course, a piece that reminds us of Hunkeler Innovationdays Lucerne. Great to see how vendors invest in hopefully valuable samples that support your business - but hey, you should really consider doing your own print samples and use these to market your services to your customers!

The diversity of people attending an event like Hunkeler Innovationdays is simply amazing. PSPs, Specialists, Media, and of course, dealers. In this interview, Chris Manley from Graphco in the US explains how great he finds his first Hunkeler Innovationdays. As with many other attendees, Chris Manley meets friends, customers, and new leads. Dig in!

Grand Rapids Label has been in business for 142 years. That means the company has obviously done quite a few things right. But for President Bill, respecting that history doesn't mean protecting everything the company has always done. It means understanding what made Grand Rapids Label successful — while continuously challenging how the business can become better. Bill became the first president from outside the founding family just three years ago, and today he is helping prepare Grand Rapids Label for its next chapter, where data, automation, digital production, AI, and increasingly sophisticated software become important tools alongside the knowledge and experience of its people. One of those investments is CERM. And the road to CERM wasn't completely straightforward. Grand Rapids Label had previously selected another major MIS platform, but during implementation the management team came to a difficult conclusion: it wasn't the right solution. So they stopped. Starting again wasn't easy, but the experience also gave the company a much clearer understanding of what it actually needed from an MIS partner. With CERM, Grand Rapids Label took a phased approach. First, focus on what absolutely has to work. Then build from there. That is particularly important for a company heavily involved in automotive and direct food-contact applications, where regulations, certifications, traceability, supply chains, and customer requirements leave little room for disruption. Today, CERM is becoming much more than an administrative system. Combined with Power BI and production technology, the data is being used by cross-functional teams throughout Grand Rapids Label to continuously identify opportunities for improvement — whether that means reducing order-entry time, improving estimating, optimizing press utilization, or finding smarter ways of producing work. Those teams meet every week. The objective isn't simply to collect more data. It is to turn data into better decisions. And Bill sees another important consequence: good data can allow management to decentralize decision-making. Give people trustworthy information, establish the right guardrails, and employees can make more decisions themselves without being micromanaged. That also changes how the ROI of an MIS should be considered. Unlike a printing press, where productivity and return can often be calculated relatively directly, the value of an MIS appears throughout the organization — in faster processes, better costing, higher utilization, improved profitability, stronger decision-making, and ultimately in the culture of the company. In this INKISH film, Morten B. Reitoft talks with Bill about 142 years of Grand Rapids Label, becoming the company's first president from outside the family, lessons from an MIS implementation that didn't work, the move to CERM, Power BI, continuous improvement, AI, and why technology should ultimately give people more freedom to make better decisions. Because staying successful for 142 years doesn't mean doing things the same way for 142 years.

CAB Holding is a South African printing company with locations in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elisabeth and Durban. The company originates from a more commercial background, but has, with digital print, also expanded into the transactional market. Instead of just printing statements, the company also adds a newsletter to the statement. By folding, perforating, and gluing the paper, they deliver digitally printed statements that are mailed without the need for an envelope. In this episode, Managing Director Graham Saunders speaks with Jean Lloyd of INKISH about the Kyocera investment and how it has impacted the go-to-market strategy for CAB Holding. Enjoy!

Let's talk about inkjet print heads here at Fespa 2024. Much of the equipment on display at the show uses Ricoh technology, so who better to talk to than Graham Kennedy, their Director of Industrial Print Solutions himself. Enjoy.

On the second day of LabelExpo-Americas 2022, Grafotronic and KURZ announced a partnership. With the partnership, Grafotronic will deliver a module to their digital finishing series and, by that, integrate the KURZ Uniliner into the machine. Interesting opportunities as the module also will be available to solutions already in the market. In this interview with Business Development Directory, Morten Toksvaerd shares his view on the agreement!

November 8-9/2016 GRAFKOM I/O 2016 in Norrköping, Sweden. INKISH.TV will cover this extremely exciting event and if you have the opportunity you should go. GRAFKOM is about sharing information and at this years event you will find speakers, vendors and have a fantastic opportunity to network with hundreds of business leaders. Find more information at: http://www.grafkom.se/io/

At the recent 'Print Next 18' event in Stockholm Grafkom and Federation of Swedish Printers (Grafiska Företagen) joined forces to create a joined event focusing on the future of the printing industry. We spoke with CEO Ravindra Parasnins - see and listen to what he say.

Morten Reitoft from Inkish interviews Doug Gibson from Infigo at the CERM booth during LabelExpo in Barcelona. Doug explains how Infigo, traditionally known as a web-to-print platform for commercial printing, has spent the last 4–5 years actively adapting its system for the label and flexible packaging industry, which involves far greater complexity than flat-sheet commercial print. This journey began with early development work alongside Geostick and has since expanded to customers like Blue Label in the US, with feedback-driven development shaping the platform. Unlike larger software vendors who release features broadly and hope they fit, Infigo works closely with customers to prioritize and build only what solves their immediate, real-world needs. In labels, most larger converters currently focus on reordering workflows rather than first-time ordering with complex embellishments or die-cuts. Infigo’s role is to simplify the complex specification process and make repeat orders easy. The integration with CERM is key: Infigo can aggregate job data from multiple production sites (five or six, for example), display it in a single interface, and even enable load balancing between sites, while keeping CERM as the central MIS backbone. Doug highlights that the tight collaboration with CERM has been crucial. The companies have built trust through years of working together—even navigating the inevitable challenges—and this partnership has allowed them to deliver integrated, automated solutions that bring real value to converters like Geostick.

President and CEO Joe Straka, Priority Group, appreciate being back to eProductivity Software/EFI Connect for the tenth time and underscore the importance of human-to-human interaction. Joe Straka also explains his eight operations that ALL utilize solutions from eProductivity Software/EFI.

Hunkeler is among the most successful companies in the graphic arts industry, and being a family-owned company with success, the future looks bright. Today Michel Hunkeler is the CEO in close collaboration with his brother Stefan Hunkeler, who used to be the CEO but today has a role as President of the board. With increased interest in digital print from PSPs, the need for smart binding increases, and Hunkeler is well-positioned in the global market - but listen to what Michel Hunkeler has to say! LinkedIn Profile

In the VIGC Hackathon, the goal is to come up with an innovative solution or an innovative business model for the printing industry in a limited amount of time. The next step is a pitch where the participants (in this case 13 teams) present their prototypes to a professional jury, who will analyse and pick the winners. GOLD: Team Interaction Design - Luca School of Arts (Ghent, Belgium) Winning Project: SMILES The team of 5 students of the Luca School of Arts won the very first Graphic Arts Hackathon. “Smiles” uses the digital content from your smartphone for the content of a printed book. In this case, photos of smiling faces on the smartphone are detected via 'smile detection' software. Both the front camera picture from the person taking the snapshot as well as the actual back camera picture are being recorded and used in this smiles photobook. These memories are then collected in a personalized book along with all the content that made that person laugh. This winning 'Smiles' project with their clever idea also brought a smile on the faces of the jury, amongst our own Morten B. Reitoft from INKISH. A well-deserved victory! SILVER: Team “Print Quality Map” a team from Esko / AVT. Represented by Dries Vandenbussche (Director of Ideation – Software / ESKO) The second place is for Team “Print Quality Map”. This is a solution that visualises quality problems in print runs and visualizes this on a screen in a way like a weather / heat map shows, for example, storm or heat areas. These Print- “heat maps” are generated by cloud-based algorithms that use the data from the press inspection systems and communicate in real time. This advanced measuring software optimizes the colour stability in packaging printing on the actual printing press by detecting and predicting possible problems early on in the printing process. BRONZE: Team “Textiveroo” with members from DSN Artwork Systems, Conics and Hybrid Software. Represented by Dries Maerten – Owner Conics Third place goes to Textiveroo and is a solution for automatic text & barcode extraction. This artificial intelligence-driven software package ensures automatic conversion to other languages and the corresponding positioning of information on packaging. The files are analysed, and the relevant text is extracted from existing packaging artwork files. The benefit of this is the reusability of these elements for publications on online web portals or for streamlining the translation processes. *Next year’s VIGC graphic arts Hackathon is scheduled for October 11th and 12th 2021.

The theme for the NON-EVENT 2024 is 'Conflict,' as we all experience conflicts on different levels, we have invited speakers who are exposed to conflicts, learned to live with them, and used conflicts to move things forward. One of the most challenging conflicts is centered, where the outcome can be peace or war. This is where we find VP of R&D HP Indigo, Golan Landsberg, who has also been on the Search & Rescue team for IDF; besides his job with HP, in peacetime, a challenge, and when at war, even more challenging. Listen to Landsberg and if you attend the NON-EVENT in Copenhagen on December 5th, 2024 - more to follow.  

In this talk, Golan Landsberg shares how his dual roles—leading R&D at HP Indigo and serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Israeli Army’s Search and Rescue Unit—shape his perspective on teamwork, crisis response, and conflict resolution. Drawing on firsthand experience from global earthquake missions, including rescue efforts in Turkey, he illustrates how disasters transcend politics and can momentarily bridge deep-rooted conflicts between nations. He highlights the intensity of field rescues: racing against time, working in harsh environments, and making impossible decisions to save lives. These challenges reveal universal lessons that also guide innovation in his professional life: the importance of a clear mission (“knowing your North Star”), the necessity of perseverance, timing, adaptability, and the power of dedicated teams. He compares the urgency and improvisation needed to rescue survivors from beneath rubble with bringing cutting-edge products to market under tight deadlines. Ultimately, the talk suggests that just as saving strangers in foreign lands can temporarily heal tensions, applying the same resilience, empathy, and problem-solving in our personal and professional spheres can create opportunities for understanding and progress.