Breukelen, 29-3-2016
Xerox recently organized a special event with 55 book publishers in Europe and Russia to visit L.E.G.O, a large family owned book publishing company that uses both offset and digital printing technology. The company has two Xerox Impika inkjet presses and a Xerox iGen4 press along with Web-to-print software and FreeFlow Core to automate production.
The event kicked off on Wednesday with a group dinner in Verona followed by a trip to the L.E.G.O. facility on Thursday. Dr. Giulio Olivotto, the owner of L.E.G.O., welcomed all the visitors and Xerox’s Eric Bouet gave an overview of the evolving book market.
Bouet was followed by two consultants, Stéphane Montouchet (Ad’mission) who showed the trends in the market of publishing and the impact for book printers. Sean Smith (Smithers Pira) discussed the opportunities and advantages in the book publishing marketing. According to Smithers Pira, by 2020 in Western Europe digital printing will be 5,3% of the whole volume but 
38,9% of the value.
Olivotto is positive about the future of his business and the industry. “Inkjet quality was not good enough for high-quality full colour books, but soon it will be,” he said.
Upon the completion of presentations, attendees were given a guided tour through the facility to see the full supply chain of offset and digital technologies.
On Friday two other book printers, Matthew Baldwin of PWC (ex CPI, UK) and Boris Makarenkov (T8, Russia), showcased their steps towards digital printing of books and how it increased their market share and profitability.
The process of order automation up to the finished book was highlighted by partners for the event Hunkeler, Mecannotechnica, D&K, Antalis and CP Bourg. They showed the attendees the way they work and what news they will show at drupa.
Frans van Hellemont and Massimo Dentone of Xerox respectively discussed workflow and inkjet strategies and why Xerox brings mountains to Dusseldorf (Trivor and Brenva).
Hubert Soviche ended the event with what Xerox will present at drupa: “We will be happy to see everyone again in Dusseldorf. We cannot wait to show our news around the flow of work.”
