Eadec’s expansion blueprint pays dividends

Multinational label converting groups are usually formed
through a familiar blueprint. Companies from different
countries join forces, either through acquisitions or
mergers, motivated by serving multinational brands with the same technology and quality in different geographic markets, or by the economies of scale achievable through sharing resources and bulk-buying consumables.

Yet in Latin America, family-owned Spanish converter Eadec is following a different path.

The company opened a facility in Chile in 2004, and LATAM
manager Javier Ibero, son of Eadec’s founder Ildefonso Ibero, who was running the Chile operation since 2012, then relocated to Peru in 2017 to set up a site.

Eadec Peru has put a difficult two years following the pandemic behind it to achieve double-digit growth so far this year. And now Ibero has his sights set on further expansion, with an ambitious plan to inaugurate a company in Mexico in the next two years.

Unlike some multinational groups, the Spanish, Chilean and
Peruvian operations under the Eadec umbrella don’t sell to the same clients, but they share a focus on market niches. ‘My vision is of a multinational group of label printing companies that serve small and medium-sized clients rather than global brands, focusing on market niches,’ explains Ibero.

Nor does Ibero, a driven man clearly passionate about his work, envisage selling out to a larger converting group. ‘I don’t want to stop. I like to compete,’ he emphasizes. ‘I come to a country, I install myself, I start a business, and I grow that business. That’s what I love to do. But I am keen to attract investment into our burgeoning group, for example, from private equity. It would allow us to expand our footprint even further.’

Expanding horizons
Eadec was founded in 1994 by Ildefonso Ibero and three business partners in the small town of Cascante in Navarra, northern Spain. Employing digital and flexo technology, it serves the food and beverage, cosmetics and personal care, pharma, industrial, wine and spirits, and transport and logistics markets.

By the early 2000s, the company felt that in Spain’s mature label industry, the only way to gain market share was to lower margins. Instead, Ildefonso Ibero and his partners decided to expand Eadec’s footprint and open a facility in another country. They identified Latin America and Eastern Europe as the most promising options, and during a tour organized by the government for Spanish business professionals in Chile, Ildefonso Ibero was able to make some contacts and begin the project’s development.

“My vision is of a multinational group of label printing companies that serve small and medium-sized clients, focusing on market niches”

Eadec Chile was opened in 2004. ‘Despite the distance, and the fact that the project was complex and costly to get off the ground, by 2007 the company was already seeing the benefits,’ says Javier Ibero. ‘In 2012, I was offered the chance to enter the business and take on the challenge of the project in Chile. At the time, I had already finished a degree in industrial mechanical engineering and was working in the energy sector. I had also spent time at a food company. The project seemed interesting to me, so I decided to go to Chile and accept the challenge. The company in Chile had a great deal of investment and growth. In the first five years, we doubled the size of the business and installed a whole new set of equipment.’

Along a highly competitive market — Chile has more HP Indigo presses per capita than any other Latin American country — the business landscape has become even tougher in recent years, says Ibero. ‘The Chilean label market is overserved. There are too many converters and too much competition,’ he explains. ‘Capacity is double the size of the market itself. This has caused a price war. Prices have dropped 30-40 percent in the last five years.’

Ibero admits that Eadec Chile suffered ‘bad years’ following
the pandemic, but growth returned to 11 percent in 2024 and has already reached an impressive 48 percent so far this year. ‘Some of that is recuperating previous losses,’ he says. ‘But it shows we are back on the right track.’

Growth potential
Before settling on Peru as the next destination for a new factory, Ibero looked closely at Argentina and Colombia. ‘Ultimately, we decided that, as more developed markets, there was less opportunity for us,’ he says. ‘The decision was made because of the growth potential of the Peruvian market and because we saw that we could add value in certain products and sectors.’

Ibero’s first visit to Peru took place in 2016. ‘I arrived with a suitcase full of labels and started showing them around,’ he recalls. Through a contact at Spain’s Chamber of Commerce, he was introduced to Arnau Casasus, a Spaniard from Barcelona who was living in Lima. A similar age to Ibero, the pair became friends and Casasus helped the fledgling operation navigate Peru’s business landscape.

The factory was opened in 2017. The company installed an HP Indigo digital press and a Grafotronic converting system, as well as a flexo press and Lombardi finishing line to tackle longer runs. The initial focus was on the wine and spirits sector, with local alcoholic beverage pisco, a particularly strong market in Peru.

‘Next to our factory is a restaurant, and when I first started going there, I noticed shelves with lots of bottles of pisco,’ says Ibero. ‘We learned about local pisco and wine producers, and now around 70 percent of the bottles on those shelves are labeled by Eadec.’

Eadec Peru has achieved ‘consistent double-digit growth’ since its foundation, according to Ibero. Its staff and factory space have both doubled too, while a new flexo press will soon treble flexo production and double the company’s overall production capacity. The new press, ordered at Labelexpo Mexico in Guadalajara in April, is wider and faster than Eadec Peru’s existing flexo machine.

“I arrived with a suitcase full of labels and started showing them around”

The wine and spirits market remains a key focus for Eadec. Labels produced for that sector are usually printed on the HP Indigo digital press and feature high levels of embellishment. ‘The pisco market is showing strong growth,’ says Ibero. ‘The success of Peruvian gastronomy attracts tourists who can discover the drink, and has also led to more Peruvian restaurants opening abroad. This helps the pisco market to grow.’

But Eadec Peru’s largest end-user market is now agro-industry, to which long-run flexo printing is better suited. ‘The new press is a mid-web machine which will bring us some different characteristics and the ability to handle a wider range of materials,’ says Ibero. ‘We will be able to handle longer runs that we previously could, and it will allow us to produce shrink sleeves, wraparound labels and flexible packaging.’

The company also sells label applicators. ‘We started representing some European applicator brands and installed our first batch of machines in 2018,’ says Ibero. ‘We’ve now sold more than 25. They are double the price of locally made machines, but quality demands are rising in the local market. We often sell to agro-industrial companies, who we are also serving with labels, so it helps to create a closer relationship with the customer.’

Javier Ibero aims to replicate Eadec’s success in Chile and Peru by setting up an operation in Mexico. He intends to begin the project in earnest next year, with the aim of inaugurating a new plant in 2027. ‘Mexico is a much bigger market. A country of 130 million people, compared to Peru’s 34 million and Chile’s 20 million,’ he says. ‘We are looking for a partner to help navigate the local market. We want to replicate the Peru project, while tweaking certain things to adapt to the local industry. It is important to adapt to the needs of the customer.’

Should the project come to fruition, it would mean a fourth facility in as many countries, with a presence on three continents: Europe, North America and South America. Ibero is excited about the prospect of another new project in another new country. ‘You have to be predisposed to adventure,’ he says. ‘I am that type of person. I love it.’