HP announces major Singapore investment to furthers digital printing momentum regionally and globally

Source: HP. HP Executives and Guest of Honour, Thien Kwee Eng, Assistant MD, Singapore Economic Development Board, at the opening ceremony for the HP Graphics Solutions Centre of Excellence and new Indigo Ink Manufacturing facility. From left: Steve Connor, Vice President and General Manager, Inkjet Manufacturing Organization, HP Corporation; Gido van Praag, Vice President and General Manager, Graphics Solutions Business, HP Asia Pacific and Japan; Ms Thien; Nick Lazaridis, Senior Vice President, Printing and Personal Systems and Managing Director, HP Asia Pacific and Japan; and Alon Bar-Shany, General Manager, HP Indigo Division, HP Graphics Solutions Business.

HP has launched a new Graphics Solutions Centre of Excellence (CoE) and announced the expansion of its existing HP Indigo ink manufacturing base in Tuas, Singapore. The facility aims to educate and inspire printing companies and their customers in Asia Pacific and Japan about new opportunities made possible by HP digital printing solutions.

The new 21,000 sq m facility will provide customers with one-stop access to HP’s broad digital printing portfolio and solutions, including from partners, as well as a space to connect with experts and share creative and technical best practices. 

“Brand owners are facing increased competition as consumer choice and expectations have exploded. As a result, they’ve moved into the digital world to connect more powerfully with their customers,” said Gido van Praag, VP and GM, Graphics Solutions Business, HP Asia Pacific and Japan. 

“The new HP Centre of Excellence aims to give them the tools to compete, helping brands identify new ways to combine their unique skills with the industry’s broadest portfolio of innovative digital printing solutions, and its unparalleled application capabilities.”

Printing companies will be able to benchmark and conduct end-to-end application testing of their HP digital printing equipment, while brands and agencies will be able to browse inspirational ideas and work on pilot projects in a real-world production environment.

The 10,000 square metre expansion to the ink manufacturing plant, to open in 2015, will support global production of specialised HP Indigo ElectroInks for the new generation of HP Indigo 10000, 20000 and 30000 Digital Presses*, which have been installed in 150 locations worldwide. These installations are in addition to more than 6,000 HP Indigo Presses now in 120 countries. 

To allow HP Indigo customers in the region to order and receive more than 3,000 specially mixed ink colours within short lead times, the plant will also manufacture Pantone-licensed spot colour inks.

Substrate testing and certification capabilities will be built into the plant to enable substrate manufacturers, suppliers and HP Indigo press owners from Asia Pacific and Japan and Europe, the Middle East and Africa to evaluate substrate compatibility with HP Indigo Digital Presses.

In addition, a training centre will help increase operator proficiency and expedite return on investment of HP Indigo Digital Presses, HP Scitex Industrial Presses, as well as HP Latex and HP Designjet Printers. The centre, staffed by 11 training and ramp-up specialists, will provide hands-on learning and train more than 350 operators, engineers and production managers each year.

As a result of this development, HP expects more than 100 employees to be hired in Singapore for the facility in the next five years, most of whom will include technical professionals and training personnel. Nick Lazaridis, Senior Vice President, Printing and Personal Systems and Managing Director, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, explained that the deep pool of skilled talent and the availability of technical expertise in Singapore were key reasons for the investment. "Singapore has excellent connectivity in Southeast Asia and globally," he said.

Thien Kwee Eng, Assistant MD, Singapore Economic Development Board, noted that the Graphics Solutions Centre of Excellence is HP's largest demonstration centre globally, and that the new ink manufacturing investment will quadruple HP's Indigo ink manufacturing capacity in Singapore. 

"We welcome HP’s latest investment as yet another milestone in the 44-year Singapore-HP partnership,” said Thien. "Singapore is the primary manufacturing site in Asia for HP's Printing & Personal Systems and Enterprise Group divisions. The products that are manufactured here include high precision inkjet print heads, business critical servers and ink supplies."

HP staff at the Graphics Solutions
Centre of Excellence show how
large the B2 format is.

Thien also observed that the HP investment follows major announcements for the Singapore electronics industry by MediaTek and Realtek. "The electronics industry attracted more than S$16 billion in fixed asset investments over the last three years, and will continue to be an important part of Singapore's manufacturing economy," she said. 

When it comes to printing, Thien disclosed that there are over 800 print service providers in Singapore. In 2013, the industry as a whole, including printer companies and print services, employed over 23,000 workers and accounted for S$3.8 billion in value added sales.

*The Indigo 10000, the first B2-format digital press with offset quality, enables print service providers, photo specialty shops and book printers to provide high value, high productivity applications. The Indigo 20000 and the Indigo 30000 Digital Presses, released to the market earlier this year, are the first digital presses designed to meet the needs of label and flexible packaging and for folding carton converters.