The growth of packaging, relative to commercial printing at least, has spurred interest from commercial printers. The same sheetfed litho printing dominates the technology, the plates are the same, the paper merchants are able to supply boards. Not only is the grass greener and lusher on the other side of the fence, but the fence appears lower now than before.
Unsurprisingly a number of printers have made the move. A number too are printing cartons for the large carton converting groups, handling the short run fast turnaround work that the groups can find difficult to accommodate among the longer run jobs that are hedged in by SLAs that dictate how many cartons must be delivered to which address and by when.
These are multi-million-pound contracts and cannot be risked for a smaller job that requires just 10,000 sheets.
To date the groups have not invested in digital technology to any extent. Essentra talks about the benefits of digital printing for its customers in preparation for an investment in this direction but has as yet made no formal announcement.
Other opportunities for non-carton printers to diversify come from an existing customer base that also requires cartons and from start ups that have no existing relationship with the large converters – and who wouldå turn these small clients away in any case.
There are also supply chain considerations. People are reluctant to purchase bulk volumes from the Far East even if the unit cost is attractive. If the product boasts about being locally produced then the packaging too ought to be produced locally.
This was a key consideration for Ivanhoe Caledonian, which at the end of last year announced a £1.6 million investment in a packaging led set up. The investment, funded by Compass Business Finance and Close Asset Finance, has covered a six-colour Komori Lithone LSX640 and a full range of equipment capable of finishing cartons.
This includes a new Petratto Metro folder gluer, Baumann pile turner and Foliant Pollux B1 laminator all from IFS, two Cylinders, one for die cutting the other for foiling from Senator Graphics, binding line, stitcher and folder from CS Graphics and a guillotine from Roberts Graphics, which also supplied the Komori.
The equipment is installed in a new factory a few miles from the existing B2 plant. This is now focused on shorter runs and commercial print with the B1 plant handling the longer run commercial work as well as cartons.
That factory is now in full operation following the installations and the customary issues around power supply that are out of the printers’ hands. And the machinery is bedding down as staff get used to it and are discovering what it can or cannot do all the time.
It did not jump blindly into the diversification. The B1 press has a volume of commercial print to provide the breathing space for the growth of carton printing. The company was also printing a growing volume of packaging and sending this to the trade for finishing. Some of this will continue to be placed out – rigid boxes and presentation cases for example – but most comes within the capabilities of the equipment on site.
“The machinery is new to us,” says director Keith Cockburn. “And I’m always slightly cautious about managing customer expectations and not over promising. As we go forward we will find there are bottlenecks, but having invested what to us is a lot of money in what we have, we are not going to change immediately. When we were specifying what we needed we listened to the suppliers and changed one or two machines we had been planning to buy.
“We wanted to know what was the best equipment we should buy with the money and what was available. In future we may find that we diversify into a different kind of work which will need different machinery. And in the years to come there will be a lot of machinery we can buy to make us quicker and slicker.”
Before making the investment, Ivanhoe Caldonian had been increasing the volume of cartons produced over the previous years and had anticipated reaching parity between packaging and commercial work sometime in the next decade. Brexit, followed by the pandemic, has hastened this process.
“Customers were asking us for cartons because they had been let down by suppliers in China,” says Cockburn. “We were getting them begging us to help, otherwise they would not have been able to send out products to their customers.
“And now because of supply chain issues, people are more likely to look to a local supplier. We are not a massive organisation, so we are more able to be flexible and to help the smaller customers looking for packaging from an independent supplier.”
The investment has also sparked interest from new customers as well as increasing awareness about the additional capabilities from existing customers, either in terms of packaging print or commercial printing.”
It has been targeting companies in Scotland’s food and drink sector, where quality rules over quantity, and repeat orders are below those that large packaging companies demand.
“If one of these customers needs something within week, the machine we have now gives us the flexibility to do that, which the big boys find difficult.
“We have customers that want 100 rigid boxes by the end of the week. We can get that produced and out to them. We see our position as the flexible guy able to help these sorts of businesses out.”
The finishing equipment was chosen to offer flexibility and will be updated and amended as customer demand fluctuates. The luxury packaging that Ivanhoe Caldonian is addressing requires foiling, hence one of the Cylinders is being adapted for this. Speed in operation takes second place to that flexibility so at this stage the company can cope with the traditional Cylinder for die cutting.
The folder gluer is less traditional, but with rapid set up and access to all settings, the Petratto Metro is quickly becoming the go to machine for printers making this diversification. It perhaps lacks the automated set up that larger and faster folder gluers have, but such technology would push the price too high.
Cockburn says: “We were recommended the Petratto by IFS. When we looked more closely it pipped others because of what it can do for us. It was more refined, easy to set up and user friendly for the team. We also liked the fast crash locking capability.”
The company has not forgotten its commercial print side and demand here has also increased in recent months as the dust settles from the pandemic. But Cockburn knows that effectively there is not real growth in the commercial work; the future lies with boxes.
The future lies with boxes for AA Labels. It has developed a strong online operation for labels and has been fielding questions from customers that want to source boxes in the same simple way.
Just weeks after its carton print operation handled its first orders, the success of the online portal is starting to create challenges for AA Labels.
The Peterborough company spent two years investigating the market and what equipment and software would be needed before taking the plunge. A Vivid Veloblade Volta cutting table and Foliant laminator from IFS were installed at the end of last year and have since been joined by a Petratto Metro folder gluer and the first SCS DCH 200 die cutter in the UK. This was initially developed for and supplied by Xeikon, hence the design of the machine, and is now also sold by its Italian developer and like the Petratto, supplied by IFS in the UK.
Ultra fast makeready and the option of a smaller die and stepping action help distinguish the unit from more conventional flatbed die cutters and make the ideal fit for the online carton print operation.
“We are already in full swing, which is what we hoped for when we started what is a completely new venture,” says AA Labels commercial director Ian Axelsen. “It has taken us literally by surprise. It has been a very steep learning curve.”
The intention has been to replicate the success the company has had with online ordering of labels and taking it into cartons. The interface is designed to be simple. Users select the template, material and numbers required before uploading artwork. Once fully bedded in, the plan is to offer a five-day turnaround. Currently the company can manage 11 days.
While some of the early customers are brands and agencies specifying a handful of cartons for ideation, focus groups or other early stage decisions about new designs or products, it has also produced 20,000 cartons for a customer. Even this is a short run in carton terms and would cause problems in a factory set up to achieve highly efficient production.
Axelsen says: “When we came into the label industry 15 years ago we found it was very legacy driven with long lead times from order to fulfilment. It was out of step with what was happening with online purchasing. We always felt internet marketing was the only way forward. We haven’t changed our view on that.” Even so the build up to the launch was fraught with anxiety.
The company had decided that a flatbed inkjet press and Canon toner machines would be able to handle the print requirements, at least in the initial phase.
“The Canons have worked very well. Print quality is excellent for cartons,” Axelsen explains.
AA Labels decided instead to invest in suitable finishing equipment. With a decision to manage the risk, it was more important to invest wisely in finishing equipment than on a press. “It was let’s get that aspect of the investment right, let’s get something that will serve us for a few years.”
That meant the Petratto folder gluer. It is a more manual machine than Axelsen would have liked, but it is designed for short runs and machines with automated adjustments are aimed at longer runs and are considerably more expensive, he explains.
This is paired with the SCS DCH 200. This was developed for Xeikon’s Folding Carton Suite, with the emphasis on rapid make ready. In a promotional video SCS shows the die cutting platen running through six jobs in around 20 minutes. It takes a sheet to a maximum of 540x1000mm, easily capable of a B2 output. The blanks are stripped and delivered as a shingle for ease of handling.
AA Labels does not yet have this format of digital press, but something like this has been under consideration for the next stage on investment. Given the success to date, this may not be far away.
These companies are far from alone. In recent years print companies as diverse as Remous in Yeovil, InPrint Colour in Malton and Fineprint in Witney have all made investments that address the requirements of the carton sector and have shifted from a purely commercial print service to a more diverse range of products.
Other printers will have been more circumspect about starting to print cartons, perhaps in the volumes that fall within the scope of flatbed cutting tables and existing presses. This is clearly limiting on capacity, but can be stepping stone into a more structured capability.
Trade houses too have adapted, moving away from the traditional focus on fold/stitch/trim and bind to include die cutting and folding and gluing as part of the repertoire.
The market is shifting, partly because brands and retailers are recognising that a fresh design can stimulate consumer interest on the shelf at the point of picking it up and adding to a shopping trolley.
Online retail will also create demands for a new type of packaging, perhaps bespoke and personalised, that suits a new entrant into carton printing, though very much on a small scale. Kitchen table side hustles into personal care, food and drink, and household goods will also require packaging on a small local scale. Packaging design will need to take account of legislation to make sure that the information carried in the small print is within the law. There is a market out there for companies that are prepared to think beyond the box.
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