By Ed Avis
As the world gets smaller, connecting with people in other parts of the world who share your business interests becomes more important. That was the idea behind the IRgA’s week-long visit to Germany, May 28 to June 3.
In addition to myself, our group included IRgA members Steve Wakefield of Springfield Reprographics in Illinois and Bart and Babs Jordan of Dorado Graphix in Jacksonville, Florida. Bart is also the current chairman of the products and services committee of the RSA.
Touring DRUPA
We spent the first two days of our trip at DRUPA, a giant print show in Dusseldorf that occurs only once every four years (and since it was canceled during COVID, this was the first in eight years). We had the remarkably good fortune to be joined on the first day by Achim Carius, the former leader of the German reprographics association who knows practically everybody in the industry. Carius had arranged visits for us at the booths of Konica-Minolta, Ricoh, Canon and HP.
IRgA’s relationship with Carius and motio, the German reprographics association, goes back decades. It has been reinforced in the past 10+ years with mutual visits to each other’s events.
Each of the vendors we visited the first day showed some new technology of interest to the reprographics industry, and a lot of stuff that didn’t really apply to us, such as equipment for high-speed small-format printing.
What was really great about our visits to Ricoh and Canon – and this is thanks to Carius – was that we were joined by top executives of those companies. A small group of American reprographic folks would not have been all that interesting to these execs, but with Carius there, the picture changed.
At Ricoh, we enjoyed the attention of Gavin Jordan-Smith, senior vice president, RICOH Graphic Communications and Wolfgang Gans, national director, Commercial and Industrial Printing Group, RICOH Deutschland GmbH. These senior leaders showed us around the Ricoh booth, joined us for coffee in the Ricoh relaxation area, and got us into the dance/performance space designed to illustrate Ricoh’s philosophy.
Next, at Canon’s massive booth, we were warmly greeted by Marcus Haack, wide format channel manager, Germany, and Mathieu Peeters, senior director, strategic marketing for large-format graphics. They filled us in on the latest Canon technology and then took us to lunch in the Canon tent on the grounds of the show. They made us feel like true insiders!
The next day we came back to DRUPA and walked the show, looking for interesting booths and new technologies. Again, most of the event is designed for commercial printers, not reprographics shops, but it was good for us to wander the 17 halls – yes, 17! – of the show and chat with vendors.
Meeting with German Repro Shop Owners
On Friday, we drove to Frankfurt in the morning and toured Druckriegel, a print shop owned by Frank Ruckriegel. Frank gave us a tour of his business, which has some large-format printing but primarily focuses on digital small-format printing, then took us to lunch at a wonderful Italian restaurant near his business. (Click here to learn more about his business.)
After lunch we drove to Irmschler-Ruppert, a reprographics firm co-owned by Michael Irmschler. Michael discussed how his business has fared since COVID and the subsequent challenges (click here to read more about that), and our group shared similar survival stories.
Then we hustled over to our hotel to check in, and left almost immediately to meet Raoul Zardeninks, the current executive director of the German reprographics association, for dinner at a beer garden in the woods at the edge of town. The conversation ranged from day-to-day reprographics business issues to the possibility of Raoul joining a future IRgA event in the U.S.
Those three days were packed with relationship-building and business ideas. We made connections, or reconnections, with people who are experiencing many of the same challenges we face here. It was great to share those stories and learn how we are all coping.
Playing Tourists
On Saturday we visited two markets in Frankfurt – see the photos above – and sampled some local Riesling. In late afternoon we were joined by Achim Carius and his partner Gabriele Eick for a tour of Frankfurt’s Old Town neighborhood. It’s great to see the sights with locals who know what they’re looking at!
Sunday we drove to Kirchardt, a tiny town south of Frankfurt from which Steve’s ancestors came in the 1700s. We spoke to a couple of locals, but none of them had ever heard of anyone with his ancestors’ last name, so when they moved to America, they evidently did not look back.
Then we drove to Kirn, where Bart’s mother was born. We had a great dinner in the restaurant that his grandfather owned in the 1930s and 40s, and toured the whiskey museum that is now in the cellar. Bart shared tales of his mother’s wartime adventures – such as hiding a cow in the cellar and seeing an Allied bomber crash into a neighboring hill. He brought some photos along, including one that showed a painting on the wall that still hangs there!
On Monday morning we walked through the downtown and ended up at the local brewery store, where we scooped up some great souvenirs to take home. That evening we drove back to the airport hotel to get ready for Tuesday’s flight home.
It was an exhausting trip, but we cemented some relationships and made the world a little bit smaller.