Actega celebrates 2023 successes and looks ahead to 2024

The year has been underpinned by significant investments in key production and R&D facilities, developments made, and partnerships formed to support Actega’s sustainability efforts. The company also launched numerous new products, including those aimed at supporting sustainable packaging and regulatory compliance, and many of which were showcased at some of the industry’s most important trade shows.

Thorsten Kröller, president of Actega, commented: ‘With our business remaining firmly focused on innovation that supports improved sustainability in the print and packaging industries, we have continued to achieve many important milestones this year. In fact, the start of the new year marks just 12 months to go as we progress our goal of becoming a carbon-neutral business by 2025 and therefore, we are certain the year ahead will demonstrate further progress towards this objective.

‘Of course, Actega is also known for its product innovations and as such, 2023 saw new inks, lacquers, coatings, and technology added to our portfolio. With the investments in our production and R&D capabilities this year, we are sure that 2024 will bring even more exciting new products that enable our customers to meet industry regulations, improve the sustainability of their products, as well as offer brands high-quality, stand-out print and packaging.’

Actega confirmed a $5 million investment in its New Jersey facility in April. The investment funds numerous developments across the US site. The company also plans to open a new, extensive facility in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. This facility will occupy a 22,110 square meter site - twice the space of Actega’s four locations in North America combined.

In October, Actega announced consolidating its three Brazilian sites into a new 22,500 square-meter facility in Araçariguama, São Paulo. This state-of-the-art production and R&D site is the result of a major USD 7 million investment over the last years. In 2023, Actega focused on strategically investing in new facilities worldwide, including the newly constructed laboratory building in Sedan, France.

One of ACTEGA’s sustainable solutions that took the spotlight in 2023 was Ecoleaf at Labelexpo Europe. Show visitors saw this pioneering metallization technology running live. The company also revealed it is now running at faster production speeds, enabling printers and converters producing labels for FMCG  to take advantage of Ecoleaf on-demand metallization.

Harald Jasper, managing director of Actega Metal Print, commented: ‘The latest advances confirmed at Labelexpo gave the market some important updates about the technology, but I think the most crucial messages shared during the show came from our customers. Representatives from these innovative companies provided insight into how Ecoleaf was already benefiting their businesses and generating much excitement among their own customers.

‘Looking ahead to 2024, we expect adoption of this ground-breaking technology to accelerate. With the higher speeds achievable, even more companies and brands are keen to harness the opportunity to differentiate their products with high quality, more sustainable metallization processes.’

Another pioneering solution intended to improve sustainability within the industry is Actega’s Signite sustainable decoration technology. The company announced a collaborative agreement with Makro Labelling to accelerate the development and supply of container application machines for Signite.

‘Needless to say, despite all challenges and difficult economic and market developments it’s been an eventful and extremely positive year for Actega. All that remains is to wish everyone a happy New Year! In addition to the year-round support and service we offer, we are counting down the days until we connect with you at drupa, Labelexpo Americas and other local events. 2024 promises to be another great year, and we hope it will be successful for all of our customers, partners, prospects and colleagues,’ concluded Kröller.