Print Innovation Asia Issue 5 2022
52 especially in food packaging, the trend is towards smaller packaging units – reflecting the steady rise in the number of small and one-person households – as well as a wider variety of packaging due to more differentiated consumer demand. This diversity is also encouraged by the fact that brand owners want to differentiate their multiple SKUs and increase the frequency of marketing campaigns to secure consumer attention.
Heidelberg focuses on growing label market and strengthens Gallus sites Heidelberg is further expanding its commitment to the growing label market. As part of this, the Gallus Group sites in Switzerland and Germany have already been strengthened through targeted investments and divided into competence centers. The next step will be to reorganize the headquarters in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and develop it into a competence center for digital label printing. To this end, the new customer demonstration center is to be opened at the site at the end of the year as the "Gallus Experience Center". The expansion of the digital printing portfolio will be accompanied by comprehensive innovations in equipment, service, software and ink. A total of around 160 people work in St. Gallen, including business and R&D management as well as finance, sales, service, marketing and purchasing. The new office infrastructure and the Experience Center will be reorganized in the main building of the site. "With targeted investments in the Gallus Group, we want to gain further momentum in the growing label market," said Dr. Ludwin Monz, CEO of Heidelberg. "The reorientation of our site in St. Gallen into a competence center for digital label printing underlines the high strategic importance for Heidelberg in the packaging sector. We welcome, that the
commitment of entrepreneurs Marcel and Roger Baumer will create an innovative environment in St. Gallen from which we can also benefit." Baumer entrepreneurs from St. Gallen develop property into open industrial and technology campus with Gallus as anchor tenant As part of the reorganization of the site, St. Gallen entrepreneurs Marcel and Roger Baumer will take over the entire area in St. Gallen with around 20,000 sqm on April 1, 2022. The brothers are the fourth-generation owners of the Hälg Group and have acquired the site privately. Gallus will continue to use the required space as the main tenant in this area in the future. A corresponding purchase and long-term lease agreement has been signed. Heidelberg expects the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of the 2022/23 financial year. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. "The Gallus area is set to develop into an open campus for companies and institutions that are helping to shape the future and strengthen St. Gallen as a workplace. We are delighted that the Gallus Group, with its headquarters and Digital Campus, is the anchor tenant of the site," says Roger Baumer. Folding cartons digitally printed and embellished in one pass Packaging is an attractive market that has recorded continuous growth for some years now. This tendency has been further reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition,
At the same time, the growing importance of sustainability is a driver for the use of more environmentally sound materials. Wherever possible, brand owners and retailers are opting for plastic-free packaging and ecofriendly packaging materials that can be easily and completely recycled. All these trends benefit folding cartons as high-quality packaging, being valued by consumers as a sustainable and environmentally conscious alternative. Digital printing represents a motivating option for small-batch production of folding cartons. In general, digital permits very short-term production following the approval of packaging designs, meeting demands for a short time to market. Furthermore, digital printing enables customization or versioning of folding boxes in any form. The technology makes it simple to add security features such as serialized codes for supply chain tracking or regional regulatory content. Similarly, variable design and marketing elements – such as variable codes for lottery or gaming campaigns and connected or smart packaging applications linking the analog with the digital world – can be integrated into folding carton designs. When it comes to packaging applications like these, the new KODAK ASCEND Digital Press is in its element. The sheetfed electrophotographic press is based on an extremely robust platform from Kodak that is capable of reliable, superior quality production of millions of impressions per month. ASCEND Digital Press is an ideal cost-effective solution for folding carton printing, not least because it can print sheets up to 1,219
