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Mergers and Acquisitions take many shapes, and in this film, we talk to Christoph Schacht, who recently left his position as COO from EFI/Direct Smile. Direct Smile is a well-known software used by many print service providers globally. This story is about the company, which Christoph Schacht himself refers to as a 'Pirate' company, and how the failed three times getting to America, how they got in contact with EFI, and how Due Diligence was a process that has been a learning experience about Corporate America for Christoph Schacht. Enjoy - yet another great session about M&As. https://www.linkedin.com/in/christoph-schacht-919aa796/

In our series of films about Mergers and Acquisitions, we in this film meet Gerhard Märtterer, one of Alpha Picture's founders seventeen years ago. Everything developed fantastic until the financial crisis in 2008/09 directly influenced customers and forced Märtterer to file for insolvency. In this film, Gerhard Märtterer openly tells us about the failure, the shame, and the opportunities that eventually ended with Märtterer to buy back Alpha Picture together with two friends. This is an amazing story to learn from! https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerhardmaertterer/

It was supposed to be a behind the scene film from Venlo in the Netherlands and Poing in Germany. Inspired by the openness of Canon, and the amazing opportunity to see everything from how inks are made, to R&D labs with machines in development, to the production of the sold machines is by all means interesting. Regardless this film came to be about the transformation from offset to inkjet - and it is really good - Hayco van Gaal and Hans Schmidbauer from Canon EMEA share their insights. We will, however, shortly also deliver a more behind-the-scenes film, where you get an insight into how Canon works - pretty sure you will be as amazed as we were!

Lee Borns is the Vice President and 2nd. generation owner of Borns Group, Aberdeen, South Dakota, USA. Borns Group has grown over the years and experience that customers demand becomes more demanding. As he says, this changes the philosophy of printing/mailing more; it's about printing/the mailing smarter. To get the business operating as efficiently as possible, the company continues to invest in new technology, from new presses to smart software. One of the partners is Solimar, who delivers software enabling the Borns Group to create more innovative solutions. In this film, we get the opportunity to hear from Lee Borns about how Solimar supports their business.

From just 15 people working in a garage to one of Mexico’s significant label and printing operations, the ETIFLEX story is about growth, people, relationships—and the importance of knowing exactly what is happening on the production floor. Today, ETIFLEX operates 23 production lines, including 20 flexographic presses and three digital presses. The company produces labels, tickets, tags, promotional products, and RFID solutions for customers across retail, logistics, food, chemicals, health and beauty, textiles, transportation, and entertainment. Mexico offers significant opportunities. With a population of around 130 million people, a strong manufacturing base, and direct access to the United States, the country has become an increasingly important export market. But competitiveness is no longer simply about offering the lowest price. It is about productivity, innovation, quality, service, and the ability to create long-term relationships with customers and suppliers. Measurement has therefore become part of the culture at ETIFLEX. The philosophy is simple: What you do not measure, you cannot fix or improve. Before implementing CERM, ETIFLEX used five or six separate systems for estimating, production control, warehouse management, purchasing, accounting, and finance. The information existed, but the systems did not communicate effectively with each other. Introducing CERM was a major strategic decision. Changing an MIS or ERP platform requires investment, leadership, time, and commitment throughout the organization. However, continued growth demanded a single integrated system capable of connecting the company’s operational areas and providing reliable, real-time information. With better data, the ETIFLEX team can understand the true cost of every job, identify products that may be subsidizing others, reduce waste, improve printing speeds, shorten setup times, and make better decisions about equipment and capital investments. Perhaps most importantly, the data is no longer reserved for management. Employees throughout ETIFLEX can analyze their own processes, identify opportunities, and suggest improvements. With hundreds of people observing production through the same system, operational knowledge becomes a shared resource. The next chapter will include even more automation, robotics, integration, and information. Technology will play an increasingly important role—but people, culture, and the ability to make informed decisions will remain at the heart of ETIFLEX. Watch the film and meet a Mexican printing company that has transformed measurement from a management tool into part of its DNA.

Matthew Allen never planned a career in print, yet he now sees himself growing within the company he got part of years ago. Matthew Allen works at Eurostampa North America, an OMET customer throughout Europe and North America. An interesting journey for Matthew - enjoy the film!

Steve Lynn used to compete against Durst. From the outside, he saw a premium brand, strong technology, highly reliable equipment, and a company that wasn't particularly easy to compete with. So when the opportunity came to join Durst North America seven or eight years ago, he didn't need much convincing. Today, as Executive Director of Durst North America, Steve has watched the company expand its position across labels, large format, corrugated, folding carton, software, and increasingly automation and AI. At LOOP in Chicago, Morten B. Reitoft talks with Steve about what drives that development. One characteristic is ambition. When Durst decides to enter a segment, the objective isn't simply to participate. In labels, for example, Durst made a strategic decision years ago to become a significant player, followed by continued investments in technology, products, people, and customer relationships. And those customer relationships are important. Steve describes how Durst tries to make every customer a reference customer — because whether a company officially introduces a prospect to that customer or not, people in the industry talk. The experience with the technology, service, people, and support ultimately becomes part of Durst's reputation. That feedback also travels back into development. Durst brings R&D and management close to customers in the individual regions, allowing the company to understand requirements that may differ between North America and Europe and use those conversations to influence future technology. But perhaps the biggest change is that Durst is increasingly thinking beyond individual printing systems. Kyveris represents an ambitious vision where machines, software, data, automation, and AI become part of one intelligent production environment. Rather than optimizing isolated pieces of equipment, the objective is to connect the factory and ultimately move toward increasingly autonomous production. For Steve, that responds directly to challenges printers already face: labor availability, automation, productivity, and the many isolated systems currently solving individual parts of the production process. And it is a bold promise. Kyveris isn't simply another machine with a specification and a price tag. It is a longer-term strategy for how production could operate — and one that will require not only technology development, but also close cooperation between Durst, its regional teams, and its customers. In this INKISH film, Morten talks with Steve Lynn about Durst's culture, customer relationships, competition, labels, software, future packaging opportunities, and why Kyveris may represent one of the company's most ambitious commitments yet. Because the next step isn't necessarily building a faster press. It may be making the entire factory smarter.

Visiting a company like ColorDynamics is an experience in itself. The entrance is impressive, and the company's design makes it interesting, with gardens, courtyards, and space. The history of ColorDynamics is also fascinating, as it was founded in Chicago but moved years ago to Allen in Dallas and has since grown through excellent management and acquisitions. We learned all this from Brian Stone and David Dey, along with how the company reduced their four wide-format digital printers to two new Agfa wide-format printers, delivering more than anticipated and higher quality. ColorDynamics is a fantastic printing company specializing in trading cards and providing solutions using their Heidelberg and HP presses and web-offset machines with tailor-made finishing - super lovely company!

At the Sign, Print & Promotion 22 event in Helsinki we get the chance to meet with CEO and Founder Ailar Arna, who represent Agfa and Kongsberg in Estonia and Finland. Estonia is a country with only 1.3 million people, so when Airlar Arna set his eyes on expansion Finland was the obvious choice - and so did Agfa and Kongsberg think. Hear more about how it is running a company across different cultures!

In the suburbs of Cape Town in South Africa, we got the chance to visit quite an amazing printing company, Novus Holdings. The company was formerly known as Paarl Media, but as it went public, it changed its name. Peter Metcalf, Group Executive: Sales & Marketing, welcomes INKISH to the almost 70,000 m2 facility that houses all the printing equipment you can think of, from cut-sheet digital to rotogravure machines. In this film, you'll get an overview of the company, how they manage power outs for up to ten hours a day, and how they re-circulate ventilation and optimize their production. An amazing story and we are confident you will like it!

Antonie Roux is the CEO and owner of the successful online-printer PrintOclock.com in France. The online printing company is for now only in French. With one of the largest print markets in Europe, Antoine Roux continues to see growth in his market - however, being close to Spain, Roux is considering a Spanish version of PrintOclock as well.

Frida Julin is part of the greatest Scandinavian print success over the past many years - namely the Scandinavian Print Group - now part of German Onlineprinters. At Sign & Print in Stockholm, the group is promoting their Whitelabel solutions which enable printers to utilize the vast capacity the group has in the printing facilities around Denmark, Sweden, and Poland. Listen - this group has shown how printing companies can thrive and grow!

Frederik Parrein found great value in the DURST Expo because the access to the technical people allowed for one-on-one communication. He felt this is not possible at a larger show where there are thousands of attendees. Frederik also was pleased that the selected vendors were label market experts.

Frederic Pambianchi est le Directeur Général France de Koenig & Bauer. Il nous présente leur portefeuille qu'ils apportent et proposent sur le marché européen et en particulier en France. Dans cette interview très sympathique, nous parlons entre autres du cycle de vie d'une boîte en carton et de l'importance de leur rôle dans l'agenda "Green". INKISH mesure l'envie et la motivation en France d'investir dans les technologies nécessaires pour rester compétitif et pertinent.

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Frederic Deliat from DS Smith joined the BHS Open House earlier this year - and besides saying that each of DS Smith's plants can have different suppliers, he also told Editor Morten B. Reitoft that he is at the BHS Open House to see and experience the new BHS JetLiner. Interesting to see how BHS attracts many different people and how the Jetliner seems to be exciting for people to see at the Schumacher site :-)

After the COVID pandemic, BW Papersystems' folding carton business faced new challenges, with the market becoming more segmented and requiring shorter orders and credit times. Fred Duquenne explains that BW Papersystems developed a new generation of the web-fed platen die cutter, to address these needs. The "Mercury," ideal for food and beverage and general folding cartons like pharmaceutical and luxury packaging, offers significant advantages over traditional methods, including faster speeds and reduced raw material waste. At Drupa, BW Papersystems will announce the new product line to meet customers' evolving needs. The web-fed platen die cutter is not widely known outside North America but provides twice the speed of flatbed die cutters and impressive raw material savings. This technology is now ready for the European market. "We're launching the new generation machine "Mercury" with a very short make-ready time, designed for medium converters and folding carton plants, offering faster production and significant cost savings," Fred Duquenne says. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederic-duquenne-1b5a723a/

FuturePrint are running a conference programme at the IST UV Days 2025 entitled the Evolution of Inkjet and also talks to Wayne about a new exhibition scheduled for January of next year.

As web-to-print providers look for more ways to differentiate what they can offer, many are turning to Steinemann to explore the opportunities created by print embellishment to bring shimmer, shine, and a luxury feel. Frank Repp explains how to create unique high-value products to your portfolio.

The eye-catching displays focused on the publishing industry get your attention when you enter the Scodix booth. With over 20 new approved substrates to print on, Scodix is excited about the latest opportunities this opens for its customers. Packaging embellishments are still very much a growing market, and the demand is not slowing down.

Franz Repp is responsible for the Scodix sales in the DACH countries (Germany, Switzerland, and Austria), and with a broad background in the printing industry and an always positive go-to- strategy I think he is one of the reasons why Scodix is successful. In this film, we talk, of course, a little about the coronavirus, how Scodix helps the customers to increase customer value and therefore also profit. As with all our 'Over the Skype' interviews, quality is limited to bandwidth, web-cams, and ability to literally LIVE mix the conversations. However, it works, and with Over the Skype, we will bring you more than 20 exciting people, and angles on the industry as it is right now. Enjoy!

Always great talking to Franz Repp from Scodix. Repp joined Scodix after drupa 2008 and is today the President of EMEA for Scodix. With 450+ installations, Scodix is a pioneer and probably the leading supplier of digital embellishments. In this interview,w Editor Morten B. Reitoft and Franz Repp talk about how PSPs and Converters can be more profitable and more unique in the value propositions and how few hours of work they need daily before it's interesting to look into having Scodix as part of your production. Enjoy!

Morten Reitoft from Inkish speaks with Franz Kriechbaum of manroland Goss during LabelExpo in Barcelona. Franz explains that although many assume manroland Goss has struggled as web offset demand has declined, the company has adapted successfully by focusing on book production and high-speed finishing solutions. He notes that while global book market growth appears small, certain customers, especially in North America, are reporting double-digit growth in book printing, often still using decades-old web offset presses, which creates major upgrade opportunities. He highlights the company’s FormerLine and FoldLine systems, developed around 2015–2016, originally designed for long runs but now proving ideal for the new generation of high-speed inkjet printers. These digital presses are finally reaching the speeds the FormerLine was built for, up to 50,000 revolutions per hour in continuous operation, and manroland Goss has already sold about 20 units with demand rising strongly, especially from China. Franz adds that handling delicate papers at very high speeds is a core advantage, rooted in his team’s aerospace engineering expertise. At 60 km/h paper behaves like an airfoil, so manroland Goss uses air-film guidance and other advanced methods to ensure accuracy and stability, which gives them a competitive edge in high-speed web finishing versus traditional sheet-based or lower-speed competitors. He also discusses the global market outlook. Tariffs in United States add complexity, but manroland Goss can legally mitigate costs through software, local commissioning work, and close partnerships, keeping ROI attractive for US customers. Asia is becoming more active as well. Historically content with “good enough” technology, the region now seeks higher performance driven by inkjet growth, where manroland Goss already has proven solutions. While many still associate the company only with newspaper presses, Franz emphasizes their diversification. Alongside web offset, they now serve digital book production and are expanding into packaging. After years of underinvestment by the market, book printing is resurging, and manroland Goss’s experience with high-speed web paper handling positions them well to meet this new demand.

German Language with English Subtitles. Join Morten B. Reitoft as he engages in a fascinating conversation with Frank Siegel from Obility, discussing the latest advancements in their SaaS platform, digitalization in the printing industry, and the future of print business solutions. Discover insights into how Obility transforms workflows, enhances automation, and supports businesses of all sizes. Catch the full interview for in-depth perspectives and a sneak peek into the innovations shaping the industry!