‘‘We Have High Expectations for the Sales of Our New Machinery and Paints in 2022’’
SPGPrints, the digital and serigraphy printing solutions specialist, continued its machinery and R&D investments without slowing down during the pandemic period. SPGPrints, which introduced many new machines and paints to the market in this period, will introduce these innovations at the ITM 2022 Exhibition.
How was 2021 for SPGPrints? Has there been an increase in the order and export figures of SPGPrints?
As SPGPrints Turkey, we had a very good year in 2021. As you know, our main job as a company is (as a continuation of our legacy from STORK) to offer rotary printing machines, rotary printing template preparation systems, and digital printing machines, as well as rotary printing templates and digital textile printing inks for many print heads. In this sense, we observed that the sector had a very good year, especially in the knitting and home textile segments. The uncertainty brought by the excessively increased shipping costs and pandemic conditions in the Far East, combined with the competitive service provided by Turkey, has led to the arrival of many additional orders. As SPGPrints Turkey office, we represent our Dutch headquarters in Turkey and serve the manufacturers in Turkey. In this sense, although we do not carry out direct exports, it would not be wrong to state that the business we perform to the exporting companies has increased significantly, especially in the segments that I have mentioned above.
‘‘During the pandemic period, we developed a system called Archer+ and integrated it into our machines.’’
Can you tell us about the innovations you have made in digital textile machines? What are the advantages of these innovations for their users?
As you know, we currently offer the highest technology in the world with our digital textile printing machines including single pass and scanning systems. In addition to superior features such as inner ink circulation inside print head and 1200 dpi print resolution, we developed a system called Archer+ and integrated it into our machines during the pandemic period. With this system, the missing nozzles in the heads of the digital printing are compensated with the side nozzle shots.
Again, the uniformity settings, which we can call revolutionary, are customized automatically by a special software that we have developed. With this system, while the dependency on the operator is reduced, it is possible to print very precise geometric and fully filled patterns, which we can call shirting or tie patterns, with the least number of passes. In many trials that we have conducted, we see that with Archer +, the system goes far beyond its peers in terms of “printing patterns that cannot be printed”. Our former users, to whom we adapted the system, got ahead of their competitors by creating very serious added value by printing very difficult patterns with the advantage of the system.
Again, during the pandemic period, we presented our new machine (Arrow) to users in the paper sublimation segment, which we have not been present before. We continue our work in this segment without slowing down.
‘‘Turkey Gets Ahead of Its Rivals Thanks to Its Fast Adaptation to Changes’’
What were the reflections of the pandemic crisis, which has been affecting the whole world for the last two years, on the digital textile industry? What changes do you observe in products and trends?
We do not see that the changes that we have observed due to the pandemic in the last two years in the world have an effect on the Turkish textile dynamism. The balances have shifted drastically, but one of the most important strengths of the Turkish textile industry is getting ahead of its competitors because of its rapid adaptation to changes. Turkey is already in a continuous development phase with its own internal dynamics in terms of progress in textile production. Here, it is necessary to give credit to all manufacturers who continue their activities by overcoming all kinds of difficulties in the most troublesome times. As you know, in recent years, as in every company, very serious studies have been carried out on the brand and retail side to reduce the supply duration and stock costs. As a result, we see that Turkey, which is the closest and best supply point to Europe, comes to the fore with its speed and quality. When we talk about the speed in textile printing and if we add that the order quantities on a lot basis have decreased over the years, we can claim that the importance of digital textile printing continues to increase. When we look at the investments made recently, it would not be wrong to say that Turkey is the leading country in digital printing in Europe. I guess the latest digital print capacity figures will confirm this statistically.
The excessively increasing costs that started and continued in this period have challenged both us and other players in the textile sector very seriously and continue to do so. There were more increases in raw materials, energy, packaging, transportation, and many items. We, as a company, did not reflect most of it to our customers by sacrificing our own profitability, taking into account the difficult conditions of the pandemic, but unfortunately, like other players in the sector, we had to reflect some of the cost burden that we could not bear to our prices recently.
In addition to the increase in expectations in terms of supply speed and quality, awareness and pursuits in terms of sustainability are in a very serious increase. In this sense, we can say that the textile finishing industry closely follows all solutions related to reducing water consumption. Within the framework of these developments, we observed that especially faster and less water-consuming (sustainable) solutions are preferred more in digital printing, and we intensified our work as both dye and machine in the new period.
As SPGPrints, did you have any new investments during the pandemic period? Can you please tell us about your R&D studies?
As SPGPrints, we allocate a significant share of our turnover to R&D activities annually. Obviously, you have to do this when trying to offer competitive service to such a dynamic market. During the pandemic period, we continued our R&D studies in both machine and digital textile dyes without slowing down. In addition to our existing dyes in our digital textile dyes, we launched our new dyes in the pigment and paper sublimation segments. While we continue to develop the technological features of our existing machines, we have reached the final stage in putting the machines of the pigment and paper sublimation segments on the market. In addition to the SPGPrints high quality of our machines that the market is accustomed to, we make maximum efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of the manufacturers. I hope we will have the opportunity to present our new solutions to users in both pigment and paper sublimation segments at the ITM exhibition in June.
What are your expectations and goals for 2022?
As SPGPrints, we have very serious goals in both conventional (rotative) printing segment and digital printing within the framework of our 2025 vision. The year 2022, the first step of this vision, has special importance in reaching these goals. We have very serious expectations regarding the sale of our newly developed paints and machines in addition to our existing products in 2022. We believe that our products have the features the market is looking for, and frankly, we think that users will demonstrate significant interest in them. Many of our customers have already expressed their interest in our systems. Unfortunately, it may not be possible to accelerate the processes related to launching a new product, but we are working very hard to share our innovations, especially at the ITM Exhibition. We strive to provide innovative products and solutions that our customers need in textile printing when they visit us.
‘‘We Will Present Our New Solutions in Pigment and Paper Sublimation Segments at ITM 2022’’
As you know, the ITM 2022 Exhibition will be one of the first big meetings of the industry to be held after 4 years. Could you please share your thoughts on the contributions of the ITM 2022 Exhibition to the textile industry?
As SPGPrints, we classify the ITM exhibition as a “global” organization. We think that the ITM exhibition is a real meeting point for textile manufacturers both in Turkey and in neighboring countries. I think it would not be wrong to say that it is the most effective exhibition after the ITMA machinery exhibition on a global basis. I think that ITM, which enables the latest technologies to be seen in our country today, where time is the most precious value that cannot be undone, has very special importance for Turkey. I guess many companies like us are waiting for the ITM exhibition to present their new technologies to the users. In this sense, we can say that it is the right point in terms of meeting the suppliers and manufacturers of the Turkish textile sector, which is dynamic and constantly seeking innovation. We closely follow the measures and preparations taken by the exhibition organization regarding the pandemic. Considering that the impact of the pandemic will decrease in our country and surrounding countries with the contribution of vaccination towards the summer months, we think that there will be very considerable interest in ITM.
Are there any new products and technologies that you, as SPGPrints, intend to exhibit at ITM 2022?
We are in a very serious excitement and motivation in every unit from our top management regarding the preparation for the ITM exhibition to our organization in Turkey. As we mentioned above, we aim at ITM to present our innovations in both our dye and our machinery, especially in the digital sublimation printing and pigment printing segments. Of course, we will also share with our customers all the new developments in our existing products such as rotary printing, rotary printing template preparation systems, templates, of which we are the inventors. In this sense, we will be waiting for all users at our booth at ITM 2022 with our slogan ‘‘Everything you need for Textile Printing’’.
Interview: Dilek Hayırlı