Brian Filler, president of Screen Europe, has announced that he is to retire after more than 50 years in the print industry.

Filler began his printing career in 1966 as an apprentice photolithographer with UK-based print firm Stellar Press, before he went on to become studio manager at trade plate-making company Satellite.

Filler then took on a sales role at John Hadland Graphic Arts, where he was tasked with selling vertical cameras film processors and the ECRM Autokon scanner.

In 1981, Filler joined the sales team at Screen UK before being made managing director in 2000. After being promoted to senior vice-president of Screen Europe in 2010, he then took on the role of president in 2013.

Looking back over his time in the industry, Filler told FESPA that despite having seen significant changes in the market, he said there is more upheaval to come, highlighting inkjet as a key development area in particular.

“I feel that we haven't even touched the surface in terms of what inkjet and other new technology in the industry will achieve and it will gather more momentum,” Filler said. “We have seen new inks launched this year that now mean the quality of inkjet truly matches that of litho with the ability to print onto coated stock.

“Coated stock is traditional litho stock and is 20 per cent cheaper than inkjet paper, so the benefits are twofold; the ability to use popular paper stocks across litho and inkjet presses and less cost. So, as a result, we will now see the move to inkjet really accelerate across commercial print applications.

“We have seen it impact on newspaper, book and transactional printing already, but the real and biggest impact will be on commercial print applications across the board. This is where the best opportunities now lie, and we will see more and more commercial print firms move over to a digital production environment.”

Filler also acknowledged that some press manufacturers have suffered in recent years and called on these companies to focus on digital if they are to recover.

“Conventional press manufacturers have experienced a blip - but this will turn into a chasm now and they will have to develop digital solutions or form digital partnerships, as some have already begun to do, to survive,” Filler said.

“The future is very exciting but companies will have to be very nimble and brave to seize the opportunities – manufacturers and print firms alike.”