Printing Innovation Asia Issue 6 2021
54 recent months we have exhausted all possibilities to avoid an imminent price increase. We want to grow together with our customers and continue to be a reliable partner to them in a changing market environment. The moderate price increase that is now necessary will allow us to further expand our innovation leadership and is therefore also an investment in the future." Amcor invests in ePac Flexible Packaging Global packaging company, Amcor, announced its strategic investment in ePac Flexible Packaging. The investment will range between approximately US $10 to $15 million, including a minority ownership interest in ePac Holdings LLC and funding for one or more ePac sites. ePac specialises in short run digital printing and currently has an all-HP Indigo fleet. In 2020, it expanded into Asia Pacific with two new bases in Singapore and Indonesia. ePac is focused on servicing the needs of small and medium sized consumer goods customers and generates global annual revenues of approximately US $100 million. "We are incredibly proud of Amcor's innovation and R&D capabilities but with our scale and global footprint we are also uniquely positioned to supplement our internal efforts with investments in complementary technologies and business models. Our investment in ePac is the first corporate venture-type investment for Amcor and provides a great opportunity to learn from a high growth start-up,” said Amcor's CEO Ron Delia. Amcor's Executive Vice President, Ian Wilson added: "ePac is a truly entrepreneurial technology driven company and has proven its ability to rapidly scale up a flexible packaging business, doubling revenues each year since its formation in 2016. This is an exciting opportunity for both companies to benefit from the combination of innovative technologies and business models and the deep expertise of the industry
leader. We look forward to working with the ePac team and exploring opportunities to further extend this partnership in the future.” Sharp rise in raw material costs leads to price adjustments at Heidelberg In order to cushion the disproportionately sharp rise in material, logistics, and other procurement costs, Heidelberg will be moderately increasing the prices for its equipment business with immediate effect. This adjustment is being made in an economic environment of rising demand and costs for raw materials and is a necessary step in order to continue offering customers innovative solutions and first-class service. "The current price development of raw materials shows an unprecedented upward momentum," said Rainer Hundsdörfer, CEO of the company. "Primarily due to the high demand from China as well as the global megatopic of electromobility, procurement costs have risen significantly in the short term. In
The focus is on the customer with his requirements to optimally develop and utilize his business potential through state-of-the-art technologies, innovative solutions and with new business models. With a view to the decisive factors, such as process optimization and intelligent, operatorindependent productivity, Heidelberg offers the smart print shop. To this end, all Speedmaster models in small, medium, and large formats are equipped with the new Push to Stop functions and a cloud connection as standard. This means that all customer groups can enjoy the steadily growing range of cloud-based software solutions and also benefit from future developments. Interesting innovations in the field of intelligent assistance systems and AI impressively demonstrate what is already possible today and where developments will go in the coming years. Customers will be contacted directly by the Heidelberg sales team.
