Page 48 - Packaging News magazine March_April 2023

LABELS & LABELLING
There is a significant gap between what the consumer wants – transparency, recyclability, sustainability – and what packaging is currently providing.
IAN HAYES, APCO
PRINT PERSPECTIVES
Gavin Rittmayer from web splicing, rewinding and tension control systems developer Martin Automatic in the US, spelled out the challenge of “making money for our shareholders while meet- ing government and consumer needs”.
He gave a detailed presentation on waste reduction, which he said was key to the sustainability debate. According to Rittmayer, a typical flexible packag- ing print operation could save 21 tonnes of landfill a year, and $220,000, by acti- vating a full suite of waste reduction programmes, satisfying both the need to be more environmentally conscious, and shareholders demand for more profits.
Tim Klappe from label and packag- ing press manufacturer MPS Systems, outlined why he believed run lengths of between 1000sqm and 25,000sqm were ideally suited to narrow web printing. He said that the flexo market was set to grow by a decent 5.2 per cent CAGR over the next five years. Klappe says the narrow web presses used for labels could also be used for flexible packag- ing, for instance to print pouches, and have the advantage of being able to add embellishments inline, such as foiling, coating and silk screen print.
He then presented on IoT (the internet of things) and said that print businesses that embrace smart manu- facturing will have an inevitable lead in the market.
Clockwise from
top left:
Ian Hayes, APCO: The challenge is complex but not insurmountable.
Leigh Hooper, Ball & Doggett: The supply chain crisis has taught us we need a Plan B and C.
Tim Klappe, MPS Systems: Print businesses which embrace smart manufacturing will have an inevitable lead in the market.
Peter Woods from Bobst outlined technology developments.
Right: Koki Noritake, Anthony Dalleroe, Sante Conselvan
Next up was the team that presented at the Print21+PKN LIVE event (see PKN Nov-Dec 2022) on the Hungry Jack’s integrated Uno campaign, led by Michael Dossor from Result Group, essentially giving the same presentation. The full day ended with a presentation on the ePac operation in Melbourne, led by its CEO Jason Brown, and Craig Walmsley, country manager ANZ for HP Industrial, also highlighting smart tech- nology and the internet of things.
SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAINS
The second day kicked off with Sante Conselvan, president of the European FTA, and Koki Noritake, the 27-year- old CEO of major flexo printer Noritake Japan, providing an international per- spective. Noritake said the rapidly ageing Japanese population would drive plastic packaging growth, particularly in sanitary products.
Leigh Hooper, general manager at Ball & Doggett outlined why supply chain issues were calming down from the 2021/22 crisis, providing a superb barrage of data, which showed among other insights that shipping containers were now back to their pre-Covid prices
having spiked to five times that price, and that delivery target times were also on the way back. He said, “The supply chain crisis taught us that we need to have a plan B, and a plan C.”
Hooper’s colleague Zaidee Jackson, national sustainability BDM at Ball & Doggett, said the mission was ‘how and now’ if the industry was to meet the con- cerns of the public, noting that 80 per cent of flexible packaging ends up in landfill and only four per cent of flex- ibles are recycled. She called on each business to develop its own roadmap for sustainability.
The day ended with print production developers Doug Cameron from DIC Inks, Chiara Prati from converting and embellishing systems operation Prati Italy, and Peter Woods from Bobst, out- lining developments in their fields.
Delegates attending this year’s FPLMA conference would have been left in no doubt that sustainability was the big issue for the industry and their busi- nesses, but would have been mightily encouraged by both the market growth reports, and the way solutions developers are producing systems that will enable them to work with the opportunities. ■
48 ❙ MARCH – APRIL 2023
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