Focusing on Sustainable Products That Are Cost-Efficient

What sort of market and technology trends have you seen on the regional market?
Komal Sharma: Everybody wants to be competitive than their peers. That is the biggest trend we have seen in the Middle East region. Everyone wants to own the latest in technology to be ahead of their competition. Many also want to achieve more productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. Everybody wants to become more and more sustainable and that is a trend we see everywhere on the market. And these are the exact reasons why the Kodak portfolio increasingly appeals to them. 

What sort of pain-points according to you, do printing presses face today?
Komal Sharma: From a quality perspective, the printing presses have been able to produce the quality. However, it is a mix of quality and efficiency that is the most important thing. You can produce quality, but you might not be very efficient. And if you can add sustainability, you can bring more value to the table.

This is the biggest pain-point for everybody. Our portfolio – if you start with our CTPs, the Kodak computer to plate devices are more efficient in terms of usage of electricity. We have been adding more and more automation to our entry and mid-range devices – not just the top end devices. We have always had Magnus at top of the line, which is still one of the most robust machines available in the market.

However, it is also extremely efficient and accompanies lots of automation. To bring that quality and automation to the mid-level for customers, we have included features such as single cassette units, multiple cassette units, which are more affordable. Our Sonora range of plates has always been a product that fits in very well when it comes to giving customers efficiency and sustainability. We are also optimistic about the positivities brought to the table by our latest Sonora X plates.

Tell us about your Sonora X offering.
Adrian Shuttleworth:  Sonora X bring lots of sustainability and efficiency benefits. In addition, Sonora X Process Free Plates bring the environmental and cost benefits of process free plate making to more printers than ever before. With run lengths, imaging speeds, resolutions, and handling capabilities that match most unbaked processed plates, we estimate that Sonora X plates can be used by up to 80 percent of offset printers on the market.

Our Sonora X plates can be used to print offset packaging and labels, UV and low-energy UV print, heat-set web applications, newspapers (high-volume and automated, long-run commercial print, VLF applications, and so on. The cost savings make switching to Sonora X Process Free Plates an easy business decision. Eliminating the processing step lets printers save on chemistry, water, processor maintenance and chemistry disposal, as well as reducing the significant cost of processing variability.

Is being sustainable a reality today or just a marketing gimmick?
Komal Sharma: Many manufacturers are focusing on designing and producing sustainable presses. These new presses use low energy. As a company, Kodak has always been at the forefront of sustainable products and solutions for many years now. Many customers in this part of the world have also started adopting sustainable solutions. When we look at governments in the region, the UAE government is a leader in such initiatives. However, usually for being sustainable, it means more costs. But with our solutions, it is more about sustainability with cost efficiency.