Second international dealer meeting for GPS Distributors
On 27.1.2011, in the metropolis of Budapest, Hungary, the second successful international dealer meeting for Dutch GPS distributors took place.
With over 60 participants from 20 European countries, (from Russia to North Africa), the seminar took place in the 5-star hotel Corinthia and was concluded by a boat trip on the Danube river with a traditional Hungarian dinner for the participants and their partners in a festive setting.
GPS is the successful export division of the Wifac Group in the Netherlands and occupies the number one spot for consumables for the printing industry most originated from Asia.
The product program consist of an offset plates, chemicals, automatic Wash rolls and Rubber blanket program furthermore the low cost proofing systems, Cromanet/Epson and the inkjet iCTP system from Glunz&Jensen completing the portfolio.
Added value to the seminar were the presentations from manufacturers such as Highwater Ltd., Thermal and UV CtP and Highwater Products Ltd., Violet CtP and the processor manufacturer Heights, which all contributed to the success of GPS seminar.
The GPS team and their products
At the seminar the GPS team was represented by Piet de Haas CEO of the Wifac holding, GPS Export manager Wim Plaggenburg, Product Specialist Cees Hoogeboom, Business Manager Patrick Brouns and China Consultant Rebecca Hao Li Ping from China.
The charming Miss Hao is responsible for quality and logistic in GPS: with her presentation “Made in China” she explained that it is paramount for successful distribution when a local contact is present in Asia and in direct contact with the manufacturer to match the differences in business mentality and culture.
In her presentation she gave an overview of what is going on in China, China is a country that counts 20% of the world’s population, China is not anymore the factory of the world but with the recent investments in R&D and development offers quality products equal to Western standards.
China is presently the 2nd largest economic power after the US but economic growth is expected to increase to a world power by 2020.
Chinese manufactured offset plates capture international markets one after another as they are available and comparable with European quality and consistency for all technologies offering endusers more favourable prices and dealers better margins. In Budapest W. Plaggenburg and C. Hoogeboom from GPS presented three new “Made in China” products, which were introduced under the already existing GPS label “X-treme printing plates”
- A positive conventional plate for UV-CTP the X-treme UPC.
- The Violet Polymer plate X-treme VC, for newspapers and commercial applications.
- A UV resistant thermal plate for long runlengths, the X-treme TUC.
UPC fulfils with its high sensitivity of 50-60mJ the wishes of the growing number of printers that decide on the UV-CTP from Basys/Cron/Lüscher.
The Violet plate X-treme VC, has been tested and proven in newspaper and commercial printers.
With the thermal X-treme TUC, GPS has included an extremely resistant and high-performance thermal plate in its product range, this is a heavy duty plate due to its single-layer coating. Its runlength level is between 200,000 and 400,000, and when baked it increases to levels of between 300,000 and 600,000 depending on press and environmental conditions. With UV Inks high runlength with or without baking can be achieved.
Mr. Aage Haugaard GPS dealer in Denmark presented the experiences from three Danish users who use the TUC plates with UV printing and productions on web and sheetfed presses.
The GPS X-treme range also includes the conventional plate X-treme CC and the today very well proven thermal plate X-treme TC.
In the fourth quarter of 2011 a chemistry-free Thermal plate will be added which is likewise “Made in China”! The TPC is undergoing tests and is specified for runlengths of up to 100,000 without any chemical post-processing (DOP procedure).
With this latest future development GPS offers a complete plate program for every pre-press and type of CTP technology.
