Inkjet Wholesale News aims to provide updates on the latest significant occurrences in the field of printing. Whether it’s the launch of a new technology or volatility of market prices, we’ll be here to give you the lowdown on what happened, when it happened, and what it means!
HP Inc. Forms Strategic Alliance with Smurfit Kappa and Announces Its Largest Japanese Equipment Deal at Drupa
HP Inc. has shown precisely why exhibitions and trade shows like Drupa 2016 are such a huge hit with businesses. Whichever industry you consider, you’ll find that the most successful businesses in the relevant sector will fall over themselves to have a stall at such a show. In the case of the printing industry, there aren’t many that come bigger than Drupa.
HP Inc. has recently announced that it has formed a strategic alliance with Smurfit Kappa. The purpose of this strategic collaboration is the development of the PageWide C500 Press. The PageWide C500 will be a single pass press designed specifically for corrugated post print applications.
The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and the technology convertor are expected to take about two years to make the PageWide C500 Press commercially available in the market. This means that the C500 will be commercially available by 2018. However, Smurfit Kappa is expected to begin using the C500 Press next year itself which will allow HP Inc. to get a practical feedback on its device. Speaking about Smurfit Kappa testing the technology for HP Inc., the OEM’s Technology Director for HP Scitex Industrial Presses, Eviatar Halevi, emphasised on the need of focusing on details with such technology.
Smurfit Kappa explained through its European Chief Executive, Roberto Villaquiran, that they view the PageWide C500 Press as “the most compelling end to end solution for corrugated post print”. Villaquiran also explained on how much diligence went into the collaboration agreement. According to him, his firm considered the entire market with a view to find a company that had not only the technology but also “track record of disrupting” markets. As per Villaquiran, HP Inc. was the only company that met their criteria.
The worldwide HP General of HP Graphics Solutions Business, Mike Salfity, was also present at the announcement. He spoke about the collaboration in general, stating that in their view there are “complementary core competencies” between the two companies.
The strategic alliance isn’t the only thing that HP Inc. has struck during Drupa 2016. The OEM has also bagged its biggest ever Japanese deal during the show. The deal in question was struck with the Kadokawa Corporation. The Kadokawa Corporation is a publisher that has been outsourcing its publishing work but is now looking to establish its own publishing unit.
The Japanese firm will be establishing its own on demand production and distribution facility where it plans to install a number of HP Inc. products. The highlight of these products will be the HP PageWide Web Press T490M HD high speed monochrome web model and the HP Indigo 50000 colour web model.
Along with these two models, the Kadokawa Corporation will also be picking up all the associated binding and post press equipment from HP Inc. In addition, Rotomail’s Bronte Book Solution workflow solution will also be deployed in the new Japanese facility. Rotomail is HP Inc.’s strategic partner.
According to the Director and Senior Managing Executive Office of the Kadokawa Corporation, Koichi Sekiya, its new facility will be based around the “next generation” digital publishing production platform and HP Inc.’s technology will help them build a “more efficient supply chain”.
HP Inc. Shows Rosy Future with Strong Q2 2016 Financial Results
Not only is HP Inc. delivering on his promises from the viewpoint of finding new products to sell and new consumers to sell to, the OEM is also on track with its financial results if its numbers for the second quarter of the current year are any sign. According to the latest announcements from the OEM, it has managed to return a significant amount of $518 million to its shareholders through either dividends or repurchases.
The company managed to return this sum despite the fact that its net revenue in the second quarter showed a significant drop of 11 percent. HP Inc.’s net revenue in the second quarter was $11.6 billion which was about $1.4 billion short of the $13 billion posted by the firm in the second quarter of the last year.
On the basis of the Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP), the OEM’s net earnings from continuing operations in Q2, 2016 went down by 10 percent. Net earnings in Q2, 2015 were worth $0.72 billion while they stand at only $0.66 billion in Q2, 2016. Similarly, the OEM’s operating margins from continuing operations showed a decline of 0.4 points going from 7.7 percent in Q2, 2015 to 7.3 percent in Q2, 2016.
The reason why these numbers are being seen positively by the OEM as well as industry experts is that they’re heavily influenced by expenses pertaining to the much publicised HP split. This means that these numbers reflect expenditure on things like tax indemnification amounts, non-operating retirement related credits, amortisation of intangible assets and restructuring costs.
More importantly, the numbers are being seen positively because they correlate with the targets set by the OEM itself with respect to its long term strategy. HP Inc.’s President and CEO, Dion Weisler, referred to the OEM’s long term strategy while talking about the company’s results stating, that they have “delivered strong results and solid progress towards our long term strategy”.
He further specified that while getting these numbers in particularly difficult market conditions, his company has made serious strides towards its intangible objectives such as expanding in its strategically chosen sectors and initiating innovations.
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