Viscom: Image campaign planned
The printing industry is struggling. Half of the 2,000 graphic arts companies are at risk of disappearing by 2010, and the weak euro is accelerating this process. Viscom is therefore planning an image campaign and the launch of the 'Printed in Switzerland« label.
More and more magazines will be printed abroad in the future, says Thomas Gsponer, Viscom Director to the newspaper Sonntag. This is because production is now up to half cheaper due to the euro exchange rate. That these fears do not come from nowhere is shown by the Sonntagspublikation with some current examples: For example, Tamedia's women's magazine Annabelle has been printed in Pforzheim, Germany, since last year and no longer at Zieglerdruck in Winterthur. The TV täglich program supplement, which Tamedia publishes together with Ringier, has also been printed in southern Germany since the beginning of the year. The previous printing plant in Zofingen had given up the corresponding printing area. And the magazine of the TV doctor Samuel Stutz, Sprechstunde Doktor Stutz, has also been printed in Germany for half a year. "Thanks to the lower prices, I save several hundred thousand francs per year. I can invest this money in editorial performance," he is quoted as saying in Sonntag. Stutz has thus created two new jobs and the magazine is now published six times a year instead of four.
Journalistic products are not the only ones to follow the euro-lock call. Most advertising brochures are now produced abroad, Lothar Dostal, head of Ziegler Druck, is quoted as saying. Two years ago, for example, the company was still printing the flyers and catalogs of Micasa and Melectronics. Today, they come from Germany and Austria. For some time now, all Kuoni and Hotelplan travel catalogs have also been produced abroad. Even 75 of the 125 editions of the Swiss telephone directories have been coming from Germany for two years. According to Sonntag, the publisher Local.ch, a joint venture of Swisscom and Publigroupe, justifies this with the lack of printing technology in Switzerland. And SBB produces the Bahn and Postauto course books in Germany, both with a print run of 50'000 copies each.
Gsponer does not want to simply leave the field to the foreign competition without a fight. "In April, we will launch a large-scale image campaign with advertisements and posters. "We must emphasize the Swissness of printed products," the Viscom director is quoted as saying in Sonntag. To this end, there are also plans to introduce a "Printed in Switzerland" label. This would stand for elements such as quality, collective bargaining agreements, environmentally friendly production, training and minimum wages - factors that are not always given abroad. In view of the upcoming elections, all Swiss parties have been contacted and asked to print their election brochures sustainably and in Switzerland.
