ILS hosts HP-sponsored brand owner event

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Consumer product packaging brand owners, designers, production specialists and procurement professionals learned about the advantages of digital production at the recent Follow Possible Package Printing Forum presented by Ohio, US-based Innovative Labeling Solutions (ILS) and sponsored by HP.

The event featured experts from the consumer packaged goods and package converting industries. Attendees had an opportunity to engage with ILS, sponsors and colleagues to learn about advances in digital technology that meet the needs.

‘The Follow Possible Package Printing Forum was an excellent opportunity to help educate the brand owner community on the ways our HP Indigo digital production operations can assist brands in creating on shelf relevance, engagement and interaction with consumers, as well as improve SKU management and reduce inventory waste and obsolescence,’ said Jay Dollries, president of ILS.

Topics covered at the event included the benefits of multi-SKU and versioned digital production, brand color management and building brand loyalty. Keynote speaker Jim George, former editor of Shelf Impact! magazine, spoke about packaging industry trends. Former Procter & Gamble executive and current packaging consultant Mike Ferrari presented an in-depth look at today’s innovative brands and how they are connecting the digital realm with physical products.

Additional speakers included Dan Theiss, Procter & Gamble; Jaye Johnson, Artico; Joe Manos, Mindfire; Susie Stitzel, EskoArtwork; and HP’s Yishai Amir, Larry Brining and Gary Bernier.

A tour of ILS’s digital production floor during the event featured the company’s three HP Indigo WS6000 digital production lines printing pressure-sensitive labels, shrink sleeves, flexible packaging and folding carton finishing at full-color speeds up to 98 feet per minute.

The tour featured finishing and pre-press solutions from members of the HP Graphics Solutions Partner Program, including the first-ever public display of a Delta Industrial pressure-sensitive label finishing system installed in-line with an HP Indigo WS6000 digital press. Also shown on the tour were flexible packaging laminations, hot stamping, shrink sleeve seaming and tactile varnish applications.

Additional HP Graphics Solutions Partner Program companies represented on the production floor tour included AB Graphic International, Color-Logic, EskoArtwork, Mindfire, Rotometrics and Tailored Solutions. The work produced at the event highlighted HP Indigo presses’ ability to print on a wide variety of substrates for labels, shrink sleeves, in-mold labels, flexible packaging and folding cartons. Representatives from Actega Coatings and Sealings, Avery Dennison/Fasson Roll, Flexcon, Klöckner Pentaplast, Masterpiece Graphix, UPM Raflatac and Wausau Coated Products were all on hand to showcase their portfolios of label and carton stocks, films, foils and coatings.

‘ILS is an example of a company that has an amazing vision and an strong commitment to its customers,’ said Yishai Amir, vice president and general manager, Indigo and Inkjet Press Solutions – Americas, HP. ‘The level of technical expertise and innovation ILS delivers make it one of the best facilities in the world to showcase the ways HP Indigo digital printing can advance packaging innovation and build brands.’

Initially a beta site for the HP Indigo WS6000 digital press in 2008, today ILS operates three Indigo WS6000s. The Follow Possible Package Printing Forum came during a busy week for the company. Two days before the event, ILS hosted a tour for Congressman John Boehner of Ohio, the US Speaker of the House.

More information about the Follow Possible Package Printing Forum, including presentations, videos and photos from the event, are available at www.hp.com/go/packagingand at www.followpossible.com.

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