FESPA in Slovakia: SZSDT

Ĺudovít Bartoš, Secretary of the Slovak Screen and Digital Printing Association, shares how the Association is inspiring the younger generation and provides an overview of the wide format industry in Slovakia and its neighbours.

Tell us a little about your career. 

In 1986, my wife Jana and I founded a small private company in our apartment in Trenčín, printing t-shirts (a legislatively and technologically demanding process during the socialist era). 

Gradually, after the revolutionary changes of 1989, we expanded our portfolio of services, and we now offer advertising production in a wide range of services and technologies – screen printing, digital textile printing, embroidery, laser engraving and so on.

Our company BARTOŠ is now run by our three children and employs approximately 40 people.

I have been the Secretary of the Slovak Screen And Digital Printing Association (SZSDT) for 30 years. My primary mission is to serve printers – both members and non-members of the SZSDT. This includes organising professional seminars, workshops, visiting international exhibitions (for example, FESPA Global Print Expo) and closely cooperating with colleagues from partner associations within FESPA.

How do you focus on inspiring the next generation?

We place great emphasis on working with younger people: we organise short-term and long-term workshops on screen printing and digital printing, mainly for high-school students with an artistic focus, but we also work with children in elementary school. 

Our goal is to show the younger generation (our potential employees of the future) the beauty of printing and the printing industry. We also arrange visits to suppliers and printing companies for students so that they can get acquainted with the latest technology.

Serigraphy workshop for students from the School of Art and Design in Trenčín © SZSDT

Last year, we enabled one excellent third-year student of the School of Art and Design in Trenčín to participate in the international exhibition FESPA Global Print Expo 2024 in Amsterdam.

This year, in cooperation with SZSDT, three students participated in the prestigious FESPA Awards 2025 competition in the Young Star category, where they sent their printed serigraphies.

What are the strengths and weaknesses in the Slovakian market?

After a short period of stagnation in the wide format sector, influenced by the pandemic in 2020-23, production is developing again. During lockdown, the focus shifted from production to the purchase of new machinery, and (because of limited movement) interior décor work.

Sales of consumables and print media are stable. According to information from suppliers, customers are focusing on increasing quality and reducing prices. However, a certain group of end customers require high quality in their delivered products, but are not always willing to accept an increased price.

In advertising, there has been a transformation from the environment of printed advertising to the environment of social networks – especially in short-term advertising campaigns. The broadly conceived philosophy of the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ also plays a role in this. For example, larger cities are dramatically reducing the amount of outdoor advertising media in exposed locations and thus the demand for printed advertising is reducing. We are also encountering a similar situation in the case of the frequency of advertising in retail chains.

Are customers demanding increased sustainability solutions? 

The pressure to reach high levels of sustainability has changed the quality, composition and application of classic materials used and caused difficulties in maintaining and reproducing the quality of the resulting printed product. For printing companies, constant monitoring of the quality and composition of the material used is necessary.

According to information from printers, with the advent of new, more environmentally friendly materials, the share of interior advertising is increasing (shopping and conference centres, hotels, lounges and restaurants, but also private apartments).

In 2024, supplier companies reported a dramatic decline in hardware sales, but the market is expected to recover. The current situation in the development and improvement of technologies could contribute to this. In this regard, the presentation of new products at the upcoming FESPA Global Print Expo 2025 exhibition could bring interesting changes.

What are the highlights of the year at SZSDT?

It must be the organisation of an international seminar for screen printers and digital printers – Bill 20. This year, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are preparing an attractive programme that will bring a lot of new and interesting information and news in the field of colour management, environment, sustainability, the use of AI and current trends in advertising production and visual communication. 

In this regard, we are actively working on promoting the activities and mission of our association and expect increased interest in active membership in the SZSDT. We are also focusing on the younger generation, which should ensure continuity.

What current trends will be most important in the year ahead?

Personalisation is crucial. And we have set ourselves the goal of becoming more familiar with and delving into the issue of AI and its use in our companies. Sustainability is, especially in larger companies, an integral part of our production. A large proportion of buyers and customers (especially from the ranks of larger purchasing companies) increasingly demand transparency in the conditions of sustainability in production and order processing.

What notable events have you held recently?

In January, the SZSDT held its seventh successful teambuilding meeting, FESPA Link Rajecké Teplice 2025, which brought together 30 representatives of FESPA associations from Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland, and we had the honour of welcoming (for the first time) Daniel Sarandev, President of the Bulgarian association FESPA Bulgaria.

It has become a tradition that the meeting also includes an additional social programme. This time, the organizers prepared an interesting visit to the KIA Slovakia car production plant in Teplička nad Váhom. 

During the 2.5-hour excursion, participants had the opportunity to theoretically familiarise themselves with the technological process of producing various types of KIA cars and to tour the production halls of the automotive metal stamping and body manufacturing, assembly and finalisation of cars, up to the final inspection of finished vehicles.

Attendees of the FESPA Link 2025 meeting © SZSDT

In the evening, a seminar was held, dedicated to the presentation of the participating companies, the exchange of experiences, best practice sharing and news. Peter Vaculčiak from STRINGO in Bratislava made a particularly interesting contribution on the unique production of tattoos and decals.