Nuceria climbs the value chain

Nuceria, Italy’s biggest integrated label and packaging printing group, is changing its role from a packaging supplier to a provider of complete packaging services as it aims for a 100m EUR turnover over the next few years.

This has been made possible by the acquisition of a stake in the Solutioo Group, a creative packaging agency offering a broad range of services and capabilities spanning from visual communication to 3D modeling, animation and prototyping, artwork development and management, pre-print and digital proofs, mock-ups and project management. It also engages in product development and regulatory consulting.

The company has been operating since the early 2000s out of four sites – three in Italy and one in Switzerland – with 30 employees supporting multinational customers in the home and personal care, food and medical devices markets.

‘Today we are already close partners for our customers,’ explains Guido Iannone, general manager of Nuceria group, ‘but we want to do more. We want to offer them integrated and customized services; a virtual circle that connects vendors, partners and clients. Leveraging the complementary capabilities of Solutioo Group we can minimize interfaces, accelerate innovation timelines and minimize time to market.’

Adds Iannone, ‘Being better does not mean just winning new market share. It is more related to the portfolio of products, services, skills and consultancies, and all of these are linked in the Solutioo acquisition. This demonstrates the group’s willingness to go beyond merely consolidating and meeting larger targets and not any more just operating in the production phase.’

Organic growth

On the technology side, Nuceria continues to expand its machinery fleet across all areas of its packaging business. Flexible packaging is a particular focus, and Nuceria plans to increase production volume with a series of new investments.

The company has already invested heavily in shrink sleeve labels in its Salerno plant, with a new dedicated factory area and state-of-the-art technologies. New equipment includes a highly specified Bobst M6 press, a DCM seamer, Karlville inspection unit and a Prati rewinder.

‘We are moving outside our comfort zone looking for new value-added markets with this press, as customers are now asking for higher decoration and special effects which cannot be achieved on wide web presses,’ says Guido Iannone.

The 670mm-wide Bobst M6 press is a 14-color machine – 13 x flexo and one SPG rotary screen unit – with cold foil, two lamination stations and two turnbars to allow reverse printing. The press is integrated with Bobst automated unwind and rewind units for non-stop operation and the full range of Bobst ‘Digital Flexo’ automation technologies including automated print pressure and register adjustment. The press is equipped with the latest AVT inspection system, which automatically stops the rewinder on each defective label.

Nuceria has also planned the construction of a 6,000sqm plant in Salerno to install a new 10-color Uteco solvent-based flexo press with gravure station, laminator and dedicated cutting line.

Flexible packaging applications will include flow wraps and pouches. ‘This will be complimentary to our existing core applications like wraparound, or roll-fed labels,’ says Iannone. ‘We want to get into the value-added end of the flexible space.’

The ability to cross-sell a diverse range of products will be key to Nuceria’s future growth.

Nuceria Group also continues to invest in its pressure-sensitive label operation. At Labelexpo Europe the company confirmed the purchase of a Nilpeter Panorama hybrid flexo-digital press, configured with 5-color inkjet module in combination with flexo process, silkscreen, cold foil and quick-change die-cutting.

Paolo Cordonato, operations director at Nuceria Group, comments: ‘We have embraced the market trend towards customization for a long time, and with this investment we will reach the next level. We have chosen Nilpeter’s Panorama because it perfectly combines the strength of the different technologies to build sustained value and transform something special into something unique.’