04.16.15
It has been unkindly remarked that every edition of Narrow Web Europe reports on some aspect of beer, wine or spirits labels. This has nothing to do with your correspondent’s drinking habits but simply reflects the importance of this sector of the label market. This month is no exception, for news comes from Sweden’s Munksjö of two new metallic films for beer labels. Part of Munkjö’s Metalcote range, the new products are single-face coated papers for wet glue labels. To allow for differences in European legislation (some countries ban non-returnable bottles), the canny Swedes have developed a separate quality for returnables, which they say allows for a quick and efficient wash-off for the empty bottles. The new grades are being manufactured at the group’s Stenay mill in France, which also produces clay-coated papers for release liners.
This comes as welcome news for the French paper and packaging industry, which has seen a spate of mill closures in recent years. Another encouraging sign for the French economy is the major investment by German-based Wepa in a new mill for tissue products, which also seems to indicate that France and its work ethic are not so dead-beat as some foreigners think. This is a pleasant change from the sharp words of an American investor just a few years ago, who was in line to buy a French tire factory. After looking at French labor laws, he concluded, publicly, that he wouldn’t buy the plant in question, or anything else in France, even if it were offered to him on a silver platter with a slice of lemon and a sprig of parsley. (Those were not his exact words, but that was the gist of it.)
To get an idea of the changes beginning to permeate the French economy, it is useful to glance at a European study just published on productivity, which puts France 20% higher than Britain. Pundits (in France, of course) were quick to point out that this means that the French could take every Friday off and still be as productive as their dear friends across the Channel.
Label OEMs look East and South
Last month in this column, you could read about the success of Italian press manufacturer Nuova Gidue. This month, it must be the turn of Omet, whose head office and plant are set in the beautiful surroundings of the Alpine mountains and lakes. The company has well-survived the death of its founder-manager Angelo Bartesaghi in 2011. Half of Omet’s business is in machinery for making tissue napkins, a highly specialized field in which it is a world leader. The other half is in continuous presses for labels and packaging, and here it has just announced the sale of its 600th press. Sales growth has been a steady 10% per year since 2009, and the depressed state of many of its European markets has been compensated by strong sales in Asia-Pacific, most notably in China. Other recent exploits include exhibiting at a trade show in Nigeria and installing a label press in the Siberian city of Omsk. For any readers who do not know Omsk, you’ll find it a very, very long way East of Moscow, about half way to Ulan Bator. Delta Tsentr, in downtown Omsk, is a label and package printing house employing 30. According to director Dmitri Permiakov, “Delta Tsentr had been considering the flexo presses of different manufacturers for quite a long time. We needed a press capable of running any job, from plastic packaging to complex labels, including in-mold, sleeve and 3D labels. The most convincing was the area manager of Omet for the CIS market, who explained to us in detail all about the machine possibilities and the innovative solutions offered by Omet.” Further proof, if such were needed, that in Russia even more than elsewhere, it’s the personal touch that counts. Omet also recently launched a hybrid flexo-inkjet press, and has just announced the launch of yet another new narrow web flexo press.
Britain’s Edale makes a specialty of successful press sales in exotic or out-of-the-way parts of the world and has just announced another sale to a converter in Malaysia. This time the buyer is Hyper Region, a letterpress/offset label converter who has decided to take the plunge into flexo with a six-color Edale FL-3 press. Service is provided by Edale’s Asia-Pacific office, which is reasonably close by in Lam Luk Ka (central Thailand). Edale’s other recent success, also in a slightly exotic corner of the world was in Chirimba, Malawi, where converter Flexible Packaging Industries bought the same model of Edale press. Director Faizal Khamboo was particularly impressed by the print head design and the user-friendliness of the press. Interestingly, these two Edale sales successes are in alphabetically adjacent countries, Malaysia and Malawi. This presumably does not mean Edale’s export manager is going through the countries of the world from A to Z. If that were so, what is he (or she) going to do after Zimbabwe?
A tale of two splicers
A realistic appreciation of European label markets comes from two manufacturers of narrow web splicers and rewinders recently interviewed by your correspondent. Martin Automatic is a US manufacturer, but its South Europe sales manager Ed Pittman confirms that his business in Spain picked up well in 2014 after that country’s five years of austerity. Today’ US/Euro exchange rate is a challenge, Pittman admits, adding that Martin Automatic’s equipment accounts for less than 10% of the investment in a printing and converting line. He says, “And our customers want reliability and service, not cheap prices.”
Exchange rates right now are more of an opportunity than a challenge for Rotocontrol, the German maker of label finishing and inspection equipment. In 2012, this company acquired fellow German Leomat, and now enjoys a substantial share of the German market, which is “particularly dynamic, more so than other European countries,” according to Patrick Salhofer. Interestingly, Martin Automatic is laid back on the subject of digital label converting. Pittman says, “Our equipment is mostly for very high-speed converting, i.e. not for digital, but we are looking at certain specific applications in the narrow web digital field.” Rotocontrol, which is particularly dominant in the pharmaceutical label business, has “a strong presence in digital finishing,” with several finishing options specifically developed for digital applications.
Raw materials prices
Paper and film prices for European labelstock producers have been largely determined by currency swings, most notable the dramatic 20% fall of the Euro against the US dollar. For label face materials, the magazine Pap’Argus, which tracks European prices month by month, announces no significant price change (in euros) between February 2014 and February 2015, but for filmics over the same twelve-month period, there were substantial falls ranging from -12% to -25%. If this trend in petroleum-based synthetics continues, it might mean (but probably won’t) that they will soon be practically giving the stuff away.
One producer who will not be giving the stuff away is Austria’s Brigl & Bergmeister. Citing “drastic increases” in raw material costs, B&B has announced 5-8% increases in all label papers, to take effect as of April Fool’s Day of this year. Label converters may be slow to appreciate the joke.
The Judgment of Paris
This month saw the fifth annual edition of the Digital Label Forum, held in the center of Paris. Nearly all the leading digital press manufacturers took an active part in the debates. A hotly contested subject was the future of “hybrid” label presses of the kind marketed by Mark Andy and Omet (soon to be followed by Gallus). Mark Andy’s French agent stoutly defended the American company’s initiative, pointing out that since the not-very-successful launch of the Nilpeter/Caslon hybrid some years ago, both software and inkjet print head technology have improved beyond recognition, in particular in greater accuracy and reduced droplet size. Domino is rumored to have been cooperating with Omet and the Man from Domino was cautiously optimistic about the success of Omet’s XFlex X6, the all-in-one printing and converting line. Not so the Man from HP Indigo, who fulminated to your correspondent that there will never be a successful hybrid digital/flexo (or digital/anything) press, and that what we have seen so far are simply conventional presses with an inkjet print unit inserted “so as to slow the whole line down.”
The Digital Label Forum was also the occasion to judge and announce the 2015 Digital Label Awards. A panel of expert judges from Germany, England and France agonized over the entries, all of which were of excellent quality. Your correspondent, who was part of the jury, was amazed at the exact register and color brilliance of the entries. The only technical fault on which all the jury agreed was not in the printing but in the diecutting of certain entries where the (obviously laser) cutting was just slightly irregular – a reminder that digital finishing is just as important as digital printing in turning out a prize-winning quality label.
This comes as welcome news for the French paper and packaging industry, which has seen a spate of mill closures in recent years. Another encouraging sign for the French economy is the major investment by German-based Wepa in a new mill for tissue products, which also seems to indicate that France and its work ethic are not so dead-beat as some foreigners think. This is a pleasant change from the sharp words of an American investor just a few years ago, who was in line to buy a French tire factory. After looking at French labor laws, he concluded, publicly, that he wouldn’t buy the plant in question, or anything else in France, even if it were offered to him on a silver platter with a slice of lemon and a sprig of parsley. (Those were not his exact words, but that was the gist of it.)
To get an idea of the changes beginning to permeate the French economy, it is useful to glance at a European study just published on productivity, which puts France 20% higher than Britain. Pundits (in France, of course) were quick to point out that this means that the French could take every Friday off and still be as productive as their dear friends across the Channel.
Label OEMs look East and South
Last month in this column, you could read about the success of Italian press manufacturer Nuova Gidue. This month, it must be the turn of Omet, whose head office and plant are set in the beautiful surroundings of the Alpine mountains and lakes. The company has well-survived the death of its founder-manager Angelo Bartesaghi in 2011. Half of Omet’s business is in machinery for making tissue napkins, a highly specialized field in which it is a world leader. The other half is in continuous presses for labels and packaging, and here it has just announced the sale of its 600th press. Sales growth has been a steady 10% per year since 2009, and the depressed state of many of its European markets has been compensated by strong sales in Asia-Pacific, most notably in China. Other recent exploits include exhibiting at a trade show in Nigeria and installing a label press in the Siberian city of Omsk. For any readers who do not know Omsk, you’ll find it a very, very long way East of Moscow, about half way to Ulan Bator. Delta Tsentr, in downtown Omsk, is a label and package printing house employing 30. According to director Dmitri Permiakov, “Delta Tsentr had been considering the flexo presses of different manufacturers for quite a long time. We needed a press capable of running any job, from plastic packaging to complex labels, including in-mold, sleeve and 3D labels. The most convincing was the area manager of Omet for the CIS market, who explained to us in detail all about the machine possibilities and the innovative solutions offered by Omet.” Further proof, if such were needed, that in Russia even more than elsewhere, it’s the personal touch that counts. Omet also recently launched a hybrid flexo-inkjet press, and has just announced the launch of yet another new narrow web flexo press.
Britain’s Edale makes a specialty of successful press sales in exotic or out-of-the-way parts of the world and has just announced another sale to a converter in Malaysia. This time the buyer is Hyper Region, a letterpress/offset label converter who has decided to take the plunge into flexo with a six-color Edale FL-3 press. Service is provided by Edale’s Asia-Pacific office, which is reasonably close by in Lam Luk Ka (central Thailand). Edale’s other recent success, also in a slightly exotic corner of the world was in Chirimba, Malawi, where converter Flexible Packaging Industries bought the same model of Edale press. Director Faizal Khamboo was particularly impressed by the print head design and the user-friendliness of the press. Interestingly, these two Edale sales successes are in alphabetically adjacent countries, Malaysia and Malawi. This presumably does not mean Edale’s export manager is going through the countries of the world from A to Z. If that were so, what is he (or she) going to do after Zimbabwe?
A tale of two splicers
A realistic appreciation of European label markets comes from two manufacturers of narrow web splicers and rewinders recently interviewed by your correspondent. Martin Automatic is a US manufacturer, but its South Europe sales manager Ed Pittman confirms that his business in Spain picked up well in 2014 after that country’s five years of austerity. Today’ US/Euro exchange rate is a challenge, Pittman admits, adding that Martin Automatic’s equipment accounts for less than 10% of the investment in a printing and converting line. He says, “And our customers want reliability and service, not cheap prices.”
Exchange rates right now are more of an opportunity than a challenge for Rotocontrol, the German maker of label finishing and inspection equipment. In 2012, this company acquired fellow German Leomat, and now enjoys a substantial share of the German market, which is “particularly dynamic, more so than other European countries,” according to Patrick Salhofer. Interestingly, Martin Automatic is laid back on the subject of digital label converting. Pittman says, “Our equipment is mostly for very high-speed converting, i.e. not for digital, but we are looking at certain specific applications in the narrow web digital field.” Rotocontrol, which is particularly dominant in the pharmaceutical label business, has “a strong presence in digital finishing,” with several finishing options specifically developed for digital applications.
Raw materials prices
Paper and film prices for European labelstock producers have been largely determined by currency swings, most notable the dramatic 20% fall of the Euro against the US dollar. For label face materials, the magazine Pap’Argus, which tracks European prices month by month, announces no significant price change (in euros) between February 2014 and February 2015, but for filmics over the same twelve-month period, there were substantial falls ranging from -12% to -25%. If this trend in petroleum-based synthetics continues, it might mean (but probably won’t) that they will soon be practically giving the stuff away.
One producer who will not be giving the stuff away is Austria’s Brigl & Bergmeister. Citing “drastic increases” in raw material costs, B&B has announced 5-8% increases in all label papers, to take effect as of April Fool’s Day of this year. Label converters may be slow to appreciate the joke.
The Judgment of Paris
This month saw the fifth annual edition of the Digital Label Forum, held in the center of Paris. Nearly all the leading digital press manufacturers took an active part in the debates. A hotly contested subject was the future of “hybrid” label presses of the kind marketed by Mark Andy and Omet (soon to be followed by Gallus). Mark Andy’s French agent stoutly defended the American company’s initiative, pointing out that since the not-very-successful launch of the Nilpeter/Caslon hybrid some years ago, both software and inkjet print head technology have improved beyond recognition, in particular in greater accuracy and reduced droplet size. Domino is rumored to have been cooperating with Omet and the Man from Domino was cautiously optimistic about the success of Omet’s XFlex X6, the all-in-one printing and converting line. Not so the Man from HP Indigo, who fulminated to your correspondent that there will never be a successful hybrid digital/flexo (or digital/anything) press, and that what we have seen so far are simply conventional presses with an inkjet print unit inserted “so as to slow the whole line down.”
The Digital Label Forum was also the occasion to judge and announce the 2015 Digital Label Awards. A panel of expert judges from Germany, England and France agonized over the entries, all of which were of excellent quality. Your correspondent, who was part of the jury, was amazed at the exact register and color brilliance of the entries. The only technical fault on which all the jury agreed was not in the printing but in the diecutting of certain entries where the (obviously laser) cutting was just slightly irregular – a reminder that digital finishing is just as important as digital printing in turning out a prize-winning quality label.