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Hexing meets growing demand for personalised packaging with HP PageWide T400S
Hexing Packaging & Printing Co., Ltd. (Hexing) has installed the first HP PageWide T400S in China. With the new digital press, Hexing can now achieve industrial grade digital production of corrugated printing products.
Hexing is a corrugated manufacturer with more than 70 facilities across China and Southeast Asia. The company has an annual turnover of 12 billion RMB, with 10,000 employees across its sites. The HP PageWide T400S was installed at Hexing’s production site in Huayi, Hubei.
As a comprehensive provider of packaging, Hexing has a wide range of printing technology on-site, including offset and flexo. This is not Hexing’s first foray with HP digital technology. In 2015, Hexing pioneered the first HP Scitex 11000 in China.
“Since then, there has been constant connections with HP. In 2018, HP approached us with info on the HP PageWide T400S. We believe digitalization is the future and that it is worth being studied on and invested in, which eventually led us to the signing of the procurement contract for the T400S in 2019,” said Ken Du, Vice Group General Manager at Hexing.
The global digital printing packaging market is expected to reach US$38 billion by 2027, according to market researchers, Reportlinker. China is forecast to have the fastest growth, reaching a market size of US$8.6 billion with a CAGR of 16.7% through to 2027.
“It took roughly two years of investigation on the application and capability of the press on the industrial scale of digitalisation technology,” said Du. “Through our investigation, we find that it’s true that HP has been the leader in the digital printing technology field. In addition, they provide excellent service and training.”
The HP PageWide T400S digital press is a pre-print solution for corrugated liners designed for large scale production of corrugated packaging. At 42-inch wide, the press enables fast turnaround and delivery while providing high print quality. It is a powerful tool for achieving customized product scale production.
The digital press utilises HP true waterbased inks which are certified by UL ECOLOGO and PTS certification for recyclability. This will further help Hexing achieve its sustainability goals and stay ahead of the curve as
the industry adopts increasingly stringent environmental requirements.
The Advent of Personalised Packaging
With the T400S press, Hexing can ramp up its mass versioning capabilities in the same production run. Brands can make changes to their designs easily and quickly in accordance to customer response or policy changes, with minimal or even no added expense.
“The HP PageWide T400S is not a replacement; but more an enhancement and expansion to our existing production line in regards of packaging personalisation,” said Du. Hexing’s offset printing technologies continue to be relevant for jobs with large volumes in one design.
Major brands are turning to personalised packaging to enhance product visibility on the shelf. This in turn catches the eye of the customers, thus increasing the purchase power of the packaging.
In addition personalised packaging also has the ability to increase emotional engagement with consumers: “As times evolves, more and more consumers tend to like personalisation that can speak for their own personalities. This can be realised by packaging, but conventional press cannot satisfy that need,” said Du.
Traditional packaging printing methods, which are more suited for high volume orders, are not
equipped for mass personalisation. Digital printing enables brands to do short runs effectively and with significantly quicker turnarounds.
“With digital printing technology, we can work together with the brands to push the envelope on innovative packaging. Through customisation, we can meet the personalised needs of the targeted clientele,” said Du.
In end-May 2021, Hexing held an Open House to introduce customers to the new HP PageWide T400S and showcase its capabilities.
“We were able to see from the open house event that many potential customers are interested and think it would be a great push on packaging innovation to market their brands. With the HP PageWide T400S, we are positioning it as a new tool for marketing which can let simple packaging function be elevated to the service level for brands,” said Du.
Established for more than 20 years in packaging and printing, Hexing is committed to providing high quality, value added packaging to brands, and to enhancing the end-user experience. be a service provider for our industry. In that sense, it means more investment towards digital printing technology,” Du continued. “We do hope that with the help of HP, who's in a leading position in digital printing technology, we can create a global ecosystem and reach an even bigger net of different customers.”
“Hexing are one of the largest packaging companies in China and we are very proud that they have chosen to partner with HP in this significant investment. Hexing have a clear vision for the box-plant of the future and this investment will no doubt provide another solid step to help realise that vision,” said Nick Price, Regional Manager of HP PageWide Packaging. “Many global and well-known local brands entrust Hexing with their highquality packaging production. The HP T400S will extend many advantages to those brands, just-in-time ordering and reduced inventories, masscustomization, ultra-flexible order quantities, environmentally friendly water-based inks which is extremely pertinent as we move to cleaner and greener manufacturing processes, all at extremely high print quality.
The learnings, experience and advantages gained from investing and running high-speed digital web-presses will no doubt accelerate Hexing’s success now and in the future,” Price concluded.
