Unbridled growth – the Chinese graphic arts industry has been booming for several years. Both the Chairman of the Board of Artron, Wan Jie, and the Managing Director of Muller Martini Hong Kong, Finn Nielsen are in absolute agreement that the industry will continue to grow at a similar rate.

“Panorama”: Despite the global economic crisis and the resulting stagnancy in most Western industrial nations, the Chinese graphic arts industry reports unbridled growth. To what do you attribute this welcome development?

Wan Jie, founder, co-owner and Chairman of the Board of Artron Enterprises (Group) Limited, Shenzhen: The key to success in the graphic arts industry is China’s increasing urbanization. More and more Chinese are moving from rural areas to major cities. There they can find well-paid jobs and have more money for recreation, hobbies and shopping. This new reader base has therefore become an important target group for advertisements in lifestyle magazines.

You mentioned magazines; how has their growth developed in recent years?

Wan Jie: Numerous new special interest titles on the subjects of home, cooking, garden, business, fashion, golf, sailing and many more have hit the market. Print runs continue to increase.

Finn Nielsen, Managing Director MMHK: As the Chinese economy is growing at an annual rate of over 10 percent, naturally consumers’ purchasing power has also gone up. Accordingly, there is fierce competition among advertisers for their attention. This is particularly true for women as a target group. That is why there are more and more women’s magazines published in China.

Mr. Wan, your publishing house, Artron, has made a name for itself even outside China as a publisher of renowned hardcover books. How would you describe the book market in your country?

Wan Jie: China’s social changes and opening up to the West has sparked a renewed widespread interest in the eventful history of our country.

We consider this market to be at least as big as for art books; many Chinese have begun to place more importance on culture in addition to education.

Artron is a typical example of how other printed products in addition to consumer magazines can contribute to the considerable growth of the Chinese graphic arts industry. If you consider that ten times fewer books are read in China than in Europe and the United States, you can only imagine the huge potential that lies in the local book industry.

What can you tell us about the diversification of the Chinese printing houses? Are there more and more magazine publishers entering this attractive magazine market?

Finn Nielsen: Yes, we have observed a clear tendency in this area. Newspaper publishers either issue magazines themselves, form joint ventures with partners or print for other publishers. The magazines produced by the newspaper publishers are printed without exception on newspaper presses.

Are such products also issued as inserts in the daily newspapers?

Finn Nielsen: No, they are almost exclusively distributed as stand-alone products. The inserts business practically does not exist (yet) in China, and accordingly, there is not a single inserting machine in the entire country.

Keyword newspapers: Much of the daily press in Western countries is losing readers. What is the situation in China?

Finn Nielsen: It is considerably better. Newspaper run sizes are increasing annually by six to seven percent. This is due to two main reasons. Firstly, we admittedly started with relatively small print runs. Secondly, today many papers are considerably open, voice constructive criticism here and there, contain tabloid articles and thus feature interesting contents.

Looking into the future, do you expect the graphic arts industry in China to report similar growth over the next few years?

Wan Jie: Yes. Just as in recent years, the graphic arts industry in China will continue to experience unbridled growth in the foreseeable future. Our company is even performing significantly above this trend. In the first seven months of this year, Artron’s growth amounted to 40 percent. Our objective is to increase annual turnover by 25 percent. Competition in China is becoming considerably fiercer; however we are in an excellent position with our range of products.

What is the situation of the Chinese graphic arts industry in relation to exports?

Wan Jie: Here as well, I need to make a distinction between the industry in general and our company in particular. As a rule, China is quite successful in the mass market of books, and exports remain at a high level. However, we at Artron do not primarily measure our company’s success with (increasing) export figures. Our company’s overall growth is more important to us, and we ensure this growth by refining our high-quality, elaborately produced books with numerous attractive components.

What is the situation with regard to the production machinery of medium to large-sized Chinese printing houses and finishing companies?

Wan Jie: Just like industrialized Western nations, we place more emphasis on labor costs, greater productivity and shorter time slots. Consequently, automated production sequences are becoming increasingly important. To us, modern production systems that lead to improved book quality are a matter of image, as we advertise our products with the name of our suppliers.

Finn Nielsen: I believe the print finishing industry has great potential. Many tasks in finishing are still done by hand. For example – and you can see the analogy to the newspaper insert system – there is not a single card gluer in operation in all of China. However, as labor costs increase, so does the pressure to implement a higher level of automation in this country.

Then would you say that print finishing will continue to gain importance in the coming years?

Wan Jie: Absolutely. Many companies today still make high printing quality their number one priority. However, finishing, and in particular excellent binding quality of the books, is also becoming increasingly important. That is why I expect a manufacturer to supply not only a machine but a complete solution to and in-depth know-how for the production processes.

How difficult is it to find skilled operators for the machines?

Wan Jie: For a company that has so high expectations regarding the quality of its printing products as Artron, it is, on the one hand, difficult to find well-trained personnel. On the other hand, our reputation in the industry tends to attract experts in our field. What is extremely important is to have a strong partnership with the manufacturers of our machines. They need to ensure that our staff is well-trained and has the best possible understanding of the production processes. This is all the more important as the demand for manual work is decreasing, while the demand for technological expertise is increasing.

A worldwide trend toward digital printing has developed in the graphic arts industry. Is this also the case in China?

Finn Nielsen: There is much discussion on this topic, and the printing houses have clearly demonstrated their interest. However, as mentioned at the beginning of the interview, we find ourselves in a rapidly growing market with a steadily increasing reader base. That is why we have not (yet) seen much printing with small print runs, which is, of course, not conducive to digital printing.

How strong is the competition from electronic media (for example e-books) in China today?

Wan Jie: One thing is clear: IT plays an important role in our lives today, IT is the end-all and be-all for every company, and IT is also crucial for Muller Martini machines. In a nutshell, IT is everywhere, and we won’t be able to stop the process of digitalization. For this reason and also given the fact that the iPad is very widespread in Chinese cities, we now offer two versions of our art books – a print version and an iPad version. There is a clear strategy behind this: the electronic version is intended to promote sales of printed books. Furthermore, I am sure that in the areas of culture, art and history there will be printed books for a long time to come.

Would you say that you have a lot of confidence in the future of the Chinese print industry?

Wan Jie: Yes, I am optimistic. To come back to your previous question, I am convinced that the Internet will lead many more people back to printed books. Here in China, books will face some pricing pressure as well. However, I believe printed books have huge potential.

Wan Jie – Art is his life

Wan Jie is founder, co-owner and Chairman of the Board of Artron Enterprises (Group) Limited. Founded in 1993 and employing a staff of over 2,800, the company has its headquarters in Shenzhen and plants in Beijing and Shanghai. Artron is – nomen est omen – China’s leading manufacturer of high-quality art books. “Even as a child I was interested in art and used to paint a lot,” Wan Jie tells “Panorama”. “My childhood dream became my business model, and I made my passion into my career.”

For the production of its art books with print runs between 100 and 100,000 copies, Artron has relied on various systems from Muller Martini in all three of its plants for several years. However, Artron is not only a producer of books; it also maintains its own database of Chinese artists. “Over the years, we have become an important part of the Chinese art market,” says Wan Jie proudly.

In addition to books with cultural relevance, Artron, which has its own bookstore at its headquarters in Shenzhen, also prints elaborately produced books on other subjects including cooking and sports. Artron was also a partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for printing several high gloss brochures for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.