Printing SA: Fit for the future

Abisha Katerere, Marketing Manager of Printing SA, a FESPA Association, discusses the outlook in the sector in South Africa, and motivating young people to join the industry.

What direction is Printing SA heading in this year?

We will focus on adding value to our existing members and ensure that the member-centric approach to our service offering is experienced by every member of Printing SA. We have streamlined our technical, training and development department to become more accessible and agile by offering members face-to-face and online training. This is further complemented by our renewed focus on developing training courses that are future-fit for the disruption that is taking place in our industry.

What recent events have been successful and what events do you have planned?

We have embarked on a major campaign to introduce the youth to the industry in a series of career days, which aim to expose learners from schools around the country to member companies and showcase the diversity of the sector. These initiatives have been extremely successful, with over 200 students having been exposed to the industry in Q1 and Q2 this year, with many showing interest in embarking on a career in the industry.

Abisha Katerere

We are now gearing up to host the widely anticipated Women in Print Series, which gathered acclaim during the Fibre Processing and Manufacturing Industry Awards, where the Printing SA 2023 Women in Print Series won the award for Best project addressing gender – ‘Women-headed projects’. This recognition highlights the impact that the Women in Print series has had on the industry and in particular its contribution towards recognising the success and emergence of youthful, intelligent, creative and vibrant women that is reshaping the industry as we know it. This will be followed by the widely anticipated FESPA Africa, Africa Print Expo and Sign Africa Expo taking place in Johannesburg in September 2024.

How are membership levels in Printing SA?

We have managed to maintain membership levels over the 2023/24 period, and we continue to sign up new members on a monthly basis.

How hard is it to recruit and retain younger workers?

The industry has been going through natural attrition of the skills pool over the past five years, where we have seen veterans of the industry entering into retirement and some highly skilled talent emigrating to Europe and Australasia, due to the low growth economy we are experiencing in the country. This has left a vacuum that needs to be filled, and making the industry an attractive proposition for the youth to choose this industry as a career path is high on the agenda.

It has been a challenge and continues to plague various manufacturing sectors in our economy; however, we believe that our current interventions may assist in bridging the skills gap.

What efforts is Printing SA making to attract young people?

We are hosting career days in three provinces, where we invite schools to member companies’ manufacturing operations. We showcase career opportunities in the industry and take the learners on a tour of the operations. This will hopefully inspire young people to view the industry as a viable option for their career growth and development.

What e-learning courses are you are running, particularly those about design skills for print products?

We have over 74 courses that we run annually which run face to face and online, and we have successfully been offering the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite to member companies locally and internationally to non-members. We run the Colour Management and Commercial Digital Printer courses, which have been a game changer for our training and development offering.

What is your opinion on mass customisation and personalisation within the industry? Has it reached its full potential?

There has definitely been a huge uptick in personalisation in South Africa. We have seen a massive surge in interest across the décor, apparel, branding and gifting sectors with more suppliers coming into this space with devices that can offer customisation and more printers offering personalisation as value added services to their clients. It is yet to reach its full potential and we will probably be better positioned after FESPA Africa to give a true assessment of the demand for this genre.

What kind of role do you see artificial intelligence playing in the industry?

Definitely we anticipate workflow software becoming more advanced and predictive. We believe that estimating or costing will also become more advanced. Design will be a space that becomes more and more creative as the tools will allow you to create one of a kind elements with unique features. Printing presses are already starting to incorporate AI in their operational functions and this will no doubt lead to greater efficiency, higher speeds and quality of output.

What is the value to Printing SA of attending FESPA’s exhibitions?

We view the expos as opportunities to discover and gain insights into the movements in the industry on a local and international level.

What do you think the year ahead holds in terms of trends and new technology?

We see packaging continuing to grow in the region as more and more printers diversify their services and product offering to remain competitive. We do not foresee any major technological shifts in the market as the price of new machinery is prohibitive for the majority of the local manufacturers to purchase and upgrade their systems. Our economy is projected to see growth in Q3 and Q4, which will hopefully stimulate the industry and present more opportunities for future growth.

Anything else you'd like to tell FESPA members about?

We anticipate that Printing SA will soon be welcoming the FESPA Associations to our shores for upcoming events and we welcome the opportunity to collaborate with associations on various platforms, including the Youth Engagement forum that we have been a part of. These opportunities aide in our continuous development as a body that aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of our industry.