HP (Palo Alto, CA) and Shutterfly (Redwood City, CA), the world’s leading online retailer of personalized products, have announced “a landmark expansion of their strategic relationship to deliver next-level productivity to supply the growing e-commerce market of photo gifts and photo products.” Shutterfly is investing in over 60 new high-performance HP Indigo Digital Presses to drive higher productivity for its range of high-quality, photo-based and personalized products – including photo gifts, photo books, school portraits, holiday cards and home décor – in advance of the holiday season.
The agreement with Shutterfly, the leading U.S. supplier of HP Indigo digital print, is the largest single customer order to date for HP’s graphics business. Now underway, the rollout includes next-generation, high-productivity B2-sized HP Indigo 100K digital presses, HP Indigo 12000 digital presses, and a “significant investment” in web-fed photo presses to transform photo-portrait printing to digital. The presses will be installed across four manufacturing facilities in: Shakopee, Minnesota; Fort Mill, South Carolina; Tempe, Arizona; and Plano, Texas, over the next 18 months. To keep production at the highest levels, Shutterfly also utilizes HP PrintOS, the cloud-based PSP management solution, to monitor productivity of its presses in real time.
“Over our 20-plus-year legacy, Shutterfly has committed to investing in the best and most innovative technology to fuel our business, delivering high-quality products to our customers, hosts and partners,” said Shutterfly’s Chief Operating Officer Dwayne Black. “This latest upgrade of our HP Indigo fleet continues that investment in quality, productivity and innovation, with significant advancements in speed and automation that help us deliver even higher quality products to our customers even faster, at a time when sharing tangible memories is more important than ever.” According to research studies, the annual global photo printing and merchandise market is expected to reach a value of $3.117 billion (USD) by the end of 2026, with a CAGR of 8.1% during 2021-2026, compared with 1.7960 billion in 2019.
“Today more than ever before, tangible, personalized experiences are becoming more precious,” said Haim Levit, General Manager at HP Indigo. “Consumers are looking for quick turnarounds alongside real-to-life photo quality. We at HP Indigo are proud to be Shutterfly’s provider of choice in making this a reality.” In this latest wave of installations, Shutterfly is investing across three HP Indigo press generations and formats. Shutterfly was one of the first customer beta sites for the new 29-inch-format HP Indigo 100K, engineered for high productivity and non-stop printing while delivering Indigo’s renowned digital offset look and feel. Shutterfly’s new HP Indigo 12000 presses will deliver higher-end prints using a wider range of inks and materials – including synthetic, metalized and canvas applications.