Rako to increase China investment

Rako Group is one of the largest label manufacturers in Europe, one of the biggest digital label printers in the world and one of the leading enterprises in RFID intelligent label technology. It owns 13 plants, has 1,400 employees and more than 80 printing machines all over the world.

Rako Printing (Hangzhou) is a subsidiary fully owned by the German Rako Group. It was registered and established in October 2008 and put into production in March 2009. In January 2014 a new plant was commissioned with a total investment of around 5.6m euros.

Earlier this year, Reinhart Meyer, the minister of Economy, Employment, Transport and Science and Technology of the state of Schleswig-Holstei, led a delegation to the Rako Hangzhou plant for a field trip accompanied by Adrian Tippenhauer, the managing director of Rako Group. During the visit this writer interviewed Tippenhauer about his feelings towards the China market and Rako’s future plans in the country.

L&L: How was Rako’s business performance in 2014? And what progress has been made in emerging markets?

Adrian Tippenhauer: For Rako Group, we were at a stage of stable development in 2014 and annual turnover of the whole group increased by 6 percent. Because we increased our input in emerging markets, especially in Asia, we achieved outstanding results over the past year. The annual growth rate of Rako China was up to 20 percent in 2014, and our office moved to the new plant located in Qianjiang economic development zone in Hangzhou. The new facility followed the most advanced design for a self-adhesive label plant, with constant control of temperature and humidity. At the same time, we installed a Gallus flexo press and HP Indigo WS6600 digital press. In the future, we will strengthen our investment in the Hangzhou plant and we are looking for another three to five suitable places elsewhere in China for investment.