Package printing professionals gather in Milwaukee

Labelexpo Global Series and Labels & Labeling hosted a free event for local converters and suppliers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the US headquarters for the Tarsus Labels & Packaging Group. Labelexpo Americas event director, Tasha Ventimiglia, said: ‘This is the third time we have held a Label & Package Printing Industry Day, but it is the first time here in our home town, and once again it proved to be a success. The idea behind organizing this seminar is to bring together suppliers and converters in a non-Labelexpo Americas year to discuss regional label and packaging trends, but also global trends.’

Global trends

In the last few years, label consumption levels in Asia Pacific have risen above those in mature markets, and while growth has slowed in Asia, it appears that the region is prepared to undergo a transformation.

Labels & Labeling group managing editor Andy Thomas explained: ‘The global weight is shifting with the development of economic giants China and India. Big Western brands like L’Oreal have made strategic business decisions to move healthcare and beauty category decision makers to the area. The supply chain is present and there to stay, so the question is how to insert yourself.’

As the middle class grows in developing countries, disposable incomes increase. In return, brand quality expectations rise, and packaging converters and suppliers are sought after for branding improvements, quality control, color consistency and higher efficiency. This drives the need for replacement of older, often second-hand machinery .

The government in China has recently mandated that the package printing industry move towards more modern technologies like flexography. Currently, a small percentage of the market uses flexo. Thomas explained: ‘The market is mostly intermittent offset and letterpress equipment. This govern­ment-backed promotion is expected to fuel a shift in flexographic adoption.’

Labelexpo Asia, held this year in Shanghai, is a powerful show within the Labelexpo Global Series of events, yet few Western press manufacturers participate. The event thrives on the support of domestic manufacturers. The ongoing penetration of flexo and digital print technologies within the market will be a space to watch.

The Indian market is responsible for one-fifth of label consumption within Asia Pacific. A reasonable volume of label and packaging materials – shrink sleeves in particular – in India use PVC, and the market is investing in processing equipment to increase capacity in other types of films to export throughout the immediate region, Europe and North America. Economic competition between China and India will stimulate progress.

Mature market movements

Both digital and flexographic printing have come a long way in recent years, each technology improving tremendously in quality. Said Thomas: ‘I think that conventional press manufacturers had forgotten how good their presses actually are. Digital came into play and started to push into the conventional territory, and now were seeing conventional push back.’

In the last few years the traditional narrow web market has experienced a shift into wider presses and more complex processing. Labels & Labeling North America editor Danielle Jerschefske said: ‘The battle ground is set in this region and it’s a different landscape today. There are fresh demands, a lot of options and we’re seeing new, domestic and foreign, machinery suppliers sealing installation deals in the US. The demand for local support and service remains high. Increasingly, there are partnership deals made to facilitate this when necessary. Converters too continue to form alliances to fulfill process and geographic requirements.’

Narrow web converters are increasing the web width of new assets to find sweet spots in servicing smaller volumes of label and packaging work that has historically been produced using gravure and offset technologies, usually in a CI or sheet-fed format. Converter management and technology teams must review new market offerings as they look to invest in equipment that will provide the ultimate combination of flexibility, speed and efficiency.