Previously it had no central management and the individual operations were controlled by regional management.

We need to be more proactive to grow the volume and value of our business by taking a chance on digitisation and globalisation, said Nobuyuki Hayashi, general manager, Information Products Marketing Division.

The division will be responsible for rationalising distribution and increasing marketing, including getting closer to end users and their needs.

FGS is also expanding production and strengthening its research and development.

The firms European plate line at Tilburg in Holland is being upgraded this year to allow it to make visible light photopolymer plates from next February. It already produces conventional and thermal CTP plates.

It is building a second plate line at its US factory in Greenwood South Carolina and has built a joint venture plate factory in China with the Chinese Academy of Printing Sciences.

Research and development is focused on two areas: colour managed workflows and CTP and plate output.

Developments in CTP will focus on screening to improve print quality, both for thermal and visible light plates and on improving the price performance of its platesetters.

Processless is a plate technology it is working on, but without a timescale for commercial delivery. It has a thermal plate at an advanced stage of development.

Significantly the firm stated that thermal is not the only imaging technology capable of producing processless. Other firms have been working on visible light processless, but Fuji is the first of the major plate vendors to reveal its hand.

by Barney Cox