Consumer Behaviour Moving in Digital Direction
Based in Silicon Valley, EFI is a global technology company leading the worldwide transformation from analog to digital imaging. EFI has an integrated product portfolio consisting of industrial inkjet printers and inks, powerful digital front ends, precise colour management tools, etc. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Adele
Genoni, senior vice president and general manager of EFI, highlights the major impacts of the pandemic on the digital printing industry and the shift in consumer trends going forward.
What are some of the major impacts of the pandemic on the digital printing industry?
Looking at the major impacts of the pandemic, we can see a diversification along the supply chain to mitigate against future supply chain challenges which is centred around localisation. In the future, after the disruption of their existing procurement path, brands may be willing to have some back-ups around the globe with regional hubs to ensure an exclusive stream of supply is ot stopped by an event occurring in a specific geography. This will lead to nearshoring and reshoring, driven by the objectives of cost effectiveness but also supply chain continuity.
Along with diversification, big brands and textile groups are increasingly looking into transparency along the supply chain: what's happening, where the product is manufactured, how it's manufactured, what chemicals are used and so on. Blockchain will most likely be the technology to make transparency a reality. When thinking about technology in printing, digital is key to riding the wave of these emerging trends thanks to faster time to market.
How does the cost of buying a digital printer from you compare to traditional printers in terms of ink purchases, maintenance, service contracts, media, training and other factors?
Thanks to digital, manufacturers are better able to react quickly to fashion trends and minimise losses from fashion flops. They can lower their costs with reduced setup time and leaner inventory management, thanks to the possibility of efficient print-on-demand capabilities-all the while delivering products with better and richer colour palettes and moredetailed designs.
Digital possibilities are further enhanced in terms of time to market and, above all, the sustainability consumers want, through short green processes that reduce water, energy and chemicals consumption.
This market demand finds an answer in EFI Reggiani's core approach to sustainable solutions under the theme of Innovation in Green, which includes an EFI Reggiani Terra pigment solution that eliminates the need for steaming or washing on direct-totextile applications, and a high-quality direct-to-fabric sublimation process that ensures superior colour brightness and penetration.
What percentage of your profits is ploughed back into R&D?
As early as March we were looking at a 'new normal' and preparing to find opportunities in the risis. Throughout he pandemic we haven't stopped innovating, and we've put new processes in place to keep delivering our solutions to our customers. EFI Reggiani invests a lot of effort in R&D - it is one of our business pillars in the company. Listening to the customer has always been our best approach and we are continuously developing solutions to better support their businesses. The continuous development of highly productive systems and processes with lower environmental impact in each segment of the supply chain for the full textile workflow is definitely one of our big goals.
As such we've renewed all of our digital printers in recent years, with single pass having changed the rules. Our commitment has been proven recently by our receipt of an InterTech Technology award, the first ever handed out for a textile solution, and by the growing popularity of our Bolt single pass in markets like Italy and Pakistan, where a fourth EFI textile printer was recently installed.
How has the demand and supply got affected? What are the hardships you may be facing?
The coronavirus pandemic has brought a period of quiet to the market, with many projects being delayed and several countries unfortunately having to slow their production down, or stop it completely. EFI Reggiani had to act immediately but thankfully due to years of work on the company's IT infrastructure and employees' flexibility, it was possible to weather the storm. The EFI Reggiani team has continued operations from a home working environment, quickly setting up the organisation to keep serving our customers virtually and through our local teams established around the globe.
The virus is here to stay. What steps have you taken to mitigate its impact - be it at the supply chain level or sourcing of raw material, logistics, etc?
Digitalisation has always been core for EFI strategy, well before covid-19. Remote assistance, predictive maintenance, augmented reality are areas the digital textile industry has been looking at more and more; the past few months have accelerated the process - also forcing a bit the trend. In this situation we have learned that some activities could be performed digitally such as remote support, also virtual demos and the digital/virtual events to stay in contact with our customers and mitigate the impact of a global lockdown. The possibility to demonstrate our products and provide education on our solutions to our customers and our sales network around the globe became digital as it was the only option. For EFI Reggiani, covid-19 has made this evolution faster and more generalised from a geographical standpoint, and these new ways of connecting probably will continue for a while. This digital presence will increasingly become a reality. This emergency has simply accelerated a process that had already started.
What are the new innovations you will be coming up with respect to home textiles and sportswear niche?
The growth in home textiles and sportswear, which was previously driven by a global rise of a middle class and athleisure lifestyles, have been accelerated by covid-19 through more presence at home and consciousness on health and wellbeing. Other trends we are keeping an eye on for similar reasons include the technical textiles sector and sportswear, where we are promoting our sustainable processes range like direct sublimation with EFI Reggiani Iris disperse sublimation dualuse ink, as it makes very good sense to combine sports, and therefore physical health, with sustainability.
What technological trends are you currently seeing in the digital printing machinery market?
The market is always more demanding and is rewarding textile producers that not only deliver high performance and quality, but also reliability, overall uptime and a lower environmental impact.
The main trends we are currently observing in the digital printing machinery market are related to three main areas: 1) sustainability, that means greener production processes, requesting less water, less energy and less chemicals consumption as well as sustainable and recycled fabrics and fibres, until the aspirational vision of the circular economy; 2) big data management and artificial intelligence, meaning that world pushes technology development toward preventive maintenance and machine learning; and 3) the progress of technical textiles for any application, being fashion, sportswear, home, healthcare, etc.
The last innovations introduced by EFI Reggiani, like the ink recirculation system, enhanced proprietary electronics and software - as well as the development of green and short processes, such as the EFI Reggiani Terra pigment and EFI Reggiani Iris direct-to-fabric sublimation - are going in the direction of improving productivity and sustainability.
During 2020 EFI Reggiani Product Development team maintained a strong focus on our roadmap and in 2021 we will present to the market the results f all this work, going in the direction of increasing our digital customers' capacity and productivity, supporting new, rising textile businesses through short- and fast-turnaround time processes, and new green processes meant to reduce energy and water consumption and integrating more sustainable chemistries.
How has consumer sentiment changed amidst the pandemic?
Online sales have grown exponentially since covid-19, accelerating a trend that was already emerging boldly, along with online sales calls for personalisation, design-to-shelf speed and localisation near the markets of consumption-the so-called reshoring phenomenon.
The consumer's behaviour trends are moving in the digital direction: design to shelf speed has reduced due to multiseason and short collection trends, and the fast turnaround time of digital compared to analog is undisputable. Furthermore, we cannot ignore that green is no more only a slogan and the textile industry is demanding concrete actions. To this extent, digital is the solution: less energy, less water and less waste generated.
With this backdrop in mind, what are your plans going ahead to tide over the crisis and embrace the 'new normal'? How have goal posts shifted and what are the positives that the pandemic has enforced?
EFI Reggiani has used this time to 'build a future'. We immediately took an action to create an opportunity in the crisis to be agents of change. We kept on building on the pillars that we believe in, such as innovation and customer experience. Our product development roadmap proceeded with maximum focus to deliver new products and processes to the market in the next few months.
What are some of the top collaborations happening at your end to further your future goals?
To execute our strategy, we have been nurturing top collaborations that embrace several areas. First of all, with our loyal and established agents' sales network all around the world that is everyday near to customers, as also with certified engineers that can ensure high standards of technical and technological assistance locally. It was really important in the covid-19 crisis to support customers, overcoming the challenge represented by travel constraints, and it will be one of the key factors for future success. The second collaboration is with primary universities to deploy continuous improvement initiatives to improve customer satisfaction and adopt new methodologies as well as new tools to enhance response time. And last, but actually most important, is the partnership with our customers, our voice from the market: their insight is our inspiration and motivation to deliver superior solutions to the market for their business growth.
Which are your major markets worldwide? Who are some of your wellknown clients?
The crucial markets for 2020 have been Turkey, India and Pakistan. Despite the situation, these countries were the first which started to move in a positive direction when it came to investment in textile inkjet technologies. This situation is not yet normal, nevertheless we are seeing positive signals overall from several countries. Starting from July 2020, we have had positive additions to our pipeline. There were more openings for investments from our customers. Government incentives are also breathing some life back into the market in terms of global investments in inkjet textile technology. We are moving ahead and this is really building confidence in the market.
