When German label converter GEWA installed Martin Automatic technology in 2011, it was to reduce the quantity of waste material and save on energy costs. Five years later, the company has installed more Martin equipment for a different reason.

GEWA specializes in printing and converting labels for the German wine industry, and a visit to the company’s headquarters in Bingen, surrounded by vineyards, gives a clear pointer as to how and why the business, now under third generation management, has developed. When brothers Heinrich and Franz Walter established the company in 1931, it was to produce general commercial print, but by the 1970s it had become obvious to sons Heinz and Kurt Walter that the wine and spirits trade offered significant business opportunities.

Today, Matthias Walter heads up the company, which comprises sheetfed offset, rotary inline offset and flexo presses on separate sites. GEWA employs 180 people and generates sales of more than €23m per year. The need for printing wine labels in volume is highlighted by Walter: “Two thirds of all the wine consumed in Germany is imported in bulk and then bottled," he says. &