The eighth OCP biannual Distributor Conference, held from 30 September to 1 October, saw representatives from OCP distributors from around the world meet for presentations and awards.
Delegates at the event
The event, which took place at the Hotel Bredenay, Essen, saw approximately 35 people attend, and opened with a presentation by Horst Edelmeier, CEO of OCP, who highlighted the year’s trading position and the new products that were being brought to market, and talked about some of the recent changes within OCP and the launch of its new website.
Andreas Goschke of Postbank AG, based in Essen, gave an overview of the new SEPA banking rules that will come into effect across Europe on 1 February 2014, which will impact on every business by regulating euro payments in 32 countries in Europe. You can read more on this in a future issue of The Recycler.
Horst Edelmeier (CEO of OCP) and Jos Westhoven (Owner of Graphicone)
Distributors spent several hours discussing new products and product developments, as well as an in-depth review of the new OCP website and its functionality. The new HP X printer was a particularly topical subject among the conference delegates, who discussed at length the printer’s potential in the aftermarket.
David Connett, Editor and Publisher of The Recycler, gave a presentation on future trends in remanufacturing and the potential synergies with the fast-food industry, and how the fast-food infrastructure could help remanufacturing.
Andrew Carroll, Senior Consultant at InfoTrends, talked about the printing market today, and offered a view into potential growth areas in the market. Cabot Corporation’s Neil Cullam spoke in turn on new trends in the inkjet industry, and provided an illuminating presentation of some of the issues and technologies being employed in fabric printing.
Luis Vincente Rodriguez del Valle, CEO of Interconsumables (Ozotoner) S.L and Horst Edelmeier, CEO of OCP
In the evening, delegates were entertained at the TUSEM sports club, and celebrated the awards of Distributor of the Year 2013 – given to Luis Vincente Rodriguez del Valle, CEO at Interconsumables (Ozotoner) S.L. – and the Lifetime Achievement Award, given to Jos Westhovens of Graphicone.
Day two of the conference saw presentations on a wide range of topics, with Sven Michael of König & Bauer AG talking about the future of the printing industry, and “is it all digital?” OCP’s Axel Keller gave a detailed demonstration of the HP Officejet Pro X (HP X) printer, which utilises page-wide print head and prints at 75 ppm, with the machine seen as a potential growth area for the aftermarket. This was followed by the ink manufacturer’s Hasan Bagli, who talked about OCP’s industrial printing business.
Dr Siegfried Koch, CEO and technical guru at OCP, then gave a brief overview of the latest Image Xpert equipment in use in the OCP R&D and QA departments, before the afternoon concluded with commercial strategy presentations by OCP’s Carsten Edelmeier and Dirk Hünseler, and closing remarks by Horst Edelmeier.