Page 38 - Packaging News magazine March-April 2022

W
38
LABELS & LABELLING | www.packagingnews.com.au | March-April 2022
Growth driver for labels
Currie Group has become one of the country’s biggest suppliers to the label industry, with a wide range of production solutions able to be configured to meet a multitude of applications. Wayne Robinson reports.
and mid-web presses, which it says ANZ label printers are embracing, as well as the hybrid Omet XJet. Daws says, “It is a progressive family-run business that produces well-built, well-priced presses, from a brand new, purpose-built factory in Italy. The company has a real grasp of the realities of the label market, and is pro- ducing presses to meet those realities.”
Printing is only part of label manu- facturing, and Currie Group supplies technology from ABG – which is about the build its third manufacturing site in the UK – and which manufactures systems for both digital converting, with the Digicon Series 3 platform, and systems for conventionally printed con- verting. ABG has also just formalised its exclusive global agreement with Actega Metal Print to manage direct sales, marketing and customer service for its sustainable and cost-effective metallisation technology, Ecoleaf.
Designed for a broad variety of mar- kets, Ecoleaf is a new digital solution enabling metallisation embellish- ments onto self-adhesive labels. Using only the precise amount of metal required for the printed area, Ecoleaf eradicates the usage of hot and cold foil rolls and their subsequent high impact on waste, reducing the cost of metallic embellishments.
The basis of Ecoleaf is a silver pigment that can be overprinted, resulting in a rainbow of metallic colours, including gold. Integrated inline on finishing equipment, ana- logue or digital printing presses, Ecoleaf consists of a printed trigger image and a metallisation unit that applies only the precise and required amount of metal to the trigger image.
Currie also supplies systems from Karlville, which manufactures a range of products including shrink sleeve seamers, lamination, wide web slitting. It can supply entire pouchmaking lines for digital flex- ible packaging, with one currently installed in Queensland.
Daws says, “For Currie Group, it is about coming up with the right solution for the application. We will work with a client and analyse where they want to be, to ensure they are optimally equipped forwhattheywanttoachieve.” ■
ITH its HP Indigo digital presses, Omet flexo, offset and hybrid range of presses, A B Graphics (ABG) and Karlville converting solutions, and ANZ service coverage, Currie Group’s labels and packaging
director Mark Daws says the com- pany is well positioned to support all kinds of printing businesses, from the big groups to the small operators, for those well established in the mar- ket, to those on the outside thinking of entering what is a growing sector.
It is the burgeoning craft food and beverage businesses, and the rapid multiplication of brand SKUs, that is driving growth in short run printing. Longer runs though are still very much part of the mix, with Daws pointing to the four new Omet narrow-web label presses installed here in the last year as evidence of that. Short run work is the major growth area, evidenced by the half dozen new HP Indigo digi- tal label presses that Daws has seen installed over the last few months.
One of the key considerations in today’s market is environmental sustainability, and while histori- cally the focus has been on substrate materials, Daws says that is now expanding, he says, “People are look- ing more broadly, into the technology itself, and here HP Indigo has a great story. Its manufacturing is gener- ated through a strong environmental matrix, its environmental credentials
It is about coming up with the right solutions for the application... to ensure clients are optimally equipped.”
are independently certified, its inks are certified compostable.”
Currie Group supplies HP Indigo label presses, which comprise the HP Indigo 6K, the HP Indigo 8K (designed for higher volume), and the HP Indigo 25K, which is a wider width platform suited to both film and flexible packag- ing applications as well as self-adhesive labels. Daws said, “The HP Indigo 25K will enable print service providers to use the same machine for multiple applications, and is proving popular in ANZ and around the world.”
In conventional label printing Currie Group distributes Omet narrow
BELOW: Embellishment: Ecoleaf available for labels from the Currie Group