Ticking the right boxes

16 September 2013



Is the time now ripe for digital print technology to mount a serious challenge to offset litho quality as the de facto standard in the folding carton sector, asks Sam Cole


The global folding carton market currently accounts for around 47 million tonnes of board, according to the European Carton Manufacturers Association, and is growing at an estimated rate of 5% per annum to be worth €137.5 million by 2018. Folding carton applications across Europe represent just under 10% of total output, with ECMA's latest forecast anticipating production levels rising to 4.5 million tonnes by 2015.

Pan-European sales of folding cartons were worth €8.6 billion two years ago, with a per capita consumption of just over 9kg. While just over 60% of all production goes to the food sector, strong growth is being registered in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, perfume and personal care.

Consolidation in the sector is distancing major (and increasingly private equity funded) groups such as Chesapeake, Benson and Contego from the rest of the pack, mirroring a similar process taking place within the customer base; for example, the merging of Kraft and Cadbury into Mondelez.

Although this has had the obvious result on paper of matching volume requirement with production muscle, a global procurement and supply model still has to balance harmonisation with the individual preferences and characteristics of a string of individual markets.

Consolidation also opens up retail sales opportunities for smaller and more agile brands to positively exploit the gaps created by consolidation, by definition demonstrating a closer affinity with a consumer customer base that has largely been created by the competition.

Big brands can get personal on a big scale - as evidenced by the Coca-Cola Company's recent 'Share a Coke' digitally enabled overprint campaign - but as a general rule, the smaller you are the easier, not to mention less risky, it is to ring the changes on-shelf, in tune with fast moving market conditions.

Challenging the status quo
The incursion that digital print has made into the labelling sector - over 10% of all global output irrespective of run length - has to some extent constrained the rationale for extending the technology into the carton sector. If you can amend a self-adhesive sticker as required, why change the primary pack when you combine volume and differentiation cost-effectively?

Running speed is the direct concommitant to volume. Aligned to the accelerated makeready and changeover times that current offset litho systems are capable of, reasons to switch to digital seem even more difficult to justify. With a flat-out running speed of 18,000 sheets/hour, KBA's Rapida 76 B2 press incorporates a simultaneous plate change facility that means all colour stations can be switched over in less than a minute - plus, the system will facilitate roller, blanket and cylinder washes at the same time.

It's not only a technology with which the carton manufacturing sector feels comfortable, but also one that's constantly improving - a process to which digital has indirectly been the catalyst, says KBA UK sales director Chris Scully. "These new technologies encourage the end-user market to think more about what it could be doing, and thus to reconsider litho and how to get more out of what is already a tried and trusted technology that itself has been stimulated to significantly invest in R&D and technological innovation."

It could be that digital'smajor achievement in the sector to date has been to cause litho to step up to the plate; a good reason for the jury to remain out for most converters, observes Alexir Partnership operations director Paul Elston.

"Packaging produced using conventional offset is constantly changing and innovating to meet market demands," Elston says. "While we have no doubt that digital packaging manufacture will create a market need, whether for short run product launches or personalisation, it's not yet a route suitable for high volume carton manufacture due to conversion costs."

Chesapeake head of R&D Carol Hammond is equally cautious, not least with regard to the often complex postpress operations to which cartonboard is subject. "Digital technology is now offering comparable results in many cases with the careful selection of the number of colours used," says Hammond. "The outstanding issue for its adoption, however, is a fully integrated system that extends through to proven digital finishing systems for cut and crease and gluing."

That could be well on the way to being resolved. While a wholly Mitsubishi offset printer, Glossop Cartons led the rest of the world this summer as the first adopter of the Highcon Euclid production speed cutting and creasing system, which in not using a conventional die can change over from job to job in 15 minutes.

"Its digital technology means that you can cut out things that can't be done by a conventional system," says director Jacky
Sidebottom-Every. "It also does away with other limitations with cutting forms, which on a new job could mean a makeready time of
60 to 90 minutes.

"It's going to give us great versatility on smaller run jobs. There'll be a crossover point with our existing Bobst cutting machines that we've yet to determine, plus other governing factors viz if the job's a one-off, or if regular changes are required. We could also see it being used for plain cartons in small quantities," says Sidebottom-Every, "in jobs that previously would never have come to fruition once we'd factored in the cost of the cutting form against the unit cost per carton."

The case for change
Hitherto, digital print has mostly been applied to short run-lengths or prototypes. It's a niche sector that attracted Jonathan Mihy from a leading French carton manufacturer to set up his own business, MR Cartonnage Numérique, four years ago. Equipped with two HP Indigo 5500 and 7600 presses, 80% of the company's business is in developing mock-ups and prototypes for over 150 premium end cosmetics and personal care sector clients; the balance goes to actual production of run lengths up to 12,000 off.

"Customers would ask how we could produce 200,000 sheets for six months but not be able to supply five pieces by next Monday. The answer: it's impossible because of the constraints of the offset process in terms of cost-effectively producing small quantities. The prevailing mindset within the carton sector is production-oriented; whereas ours is to provide a service."

A notable exception to that sort of tunnel vision is Kentmere Packaging, who when first approached by start-up dairy-free desserts producer Pudology had no hesitation in referring it to a digital printer better geared to producing the 3,000 cartons x 2 references
initially needed to get the new brand to market.

"We recognised that there was somebody here with a good idea that they needed to launch into the marketplace in a cost-effective
way," says Kentmere director John Hopkins. "It clearly wasn't going to work on a B3 litho press, so to print the first run we outsourced to this digital printer with whom we'd previously worked. Volumes have increased to regular orders of 18,000 per reference in less than a year, and we're now printing cartons offset in house."

It's all very enterprising, but equally confined to the fringes of the carton sector. That, however, will undoubtedly change as B2 digital systems enter the market, including HP's Indigo 10000 due to be commercialised in Q4 this year. Meanwhile, specifically designed for the folding carton sector is the 750mm width HP 30000 press, which has recently confirmed its first installation at ASGs' Toronto site.

"We made the decision to become an early adopter and invest in digital printing in 2011," says ASG Europe CEO Tony Garnish. "The combination of digital and offset techniques enables us to meet a range of customer needs in both new and existing markets."

By playing to their respective strengths, offset litho and digital are complementary processes. But as the advances in digital technology position it ever closer to its conventional counterpart - for example, the 200m/min of double-sided printing in up to 8 colours at 1,200dpi that's predicted for Landa's Nanographic option, due to be commercialised sometime next year - that balance could easily begin to tilt towards direct competition.

Business to consumer

Through the addition of digital inkjet technology, general stationery printer RCS has extended its established offset litho production facility at Retford, UK, in order to develop a new revenue stream in personalised business to consumer (B2C) gifting items such as wine boxes, chocolate boxes and confectionery-filled calendars.

According to managing director Michael Todd, the idea of extending the already highly successful web to print personalised greetings cards model into the gifting sector has been made possible by the capabilities of the Screen Truepress JetSX, the world's first B2 format digital inkjet duplex press.

"By being able to print onto a wide range of substrates up to 600-700 micron, it opens up a whole range of products that are
beyond the capabilities of an ordinary digital press," he says. "We're running both coated and uncoated folding boxboard, and as the
system effectively sprays the ink onto the surface we are able to print onto pre-perforated, pre-scored blanks without any blemish in the finished result."

This means the company is able to draw from a complete inventory of the various different white blank formats on-demand, rather than having to diecut postprint, which Todd says would have made the whole concept untenable.

"Varnishing etc is done offline in the usual way; each individually personalised carton is hand finished and filled. As a prepress-led
company used to working on a job by job basis, we've always been more geared to providing service than driving volume."

Todd has already forged links with a number of online B2C retailers, and is actively developing a parallel market in short run, personalised corporate boxed gifts.

Not only is the business rationale in sharp contrast to that of a conventional packaging print operation, but the way in which it's being marketed also reflects a more customer-facing digitally-oriented mindset. One of the online companies with which RCS has an agreement is intending to begin promoting its products through TV commercials towards Christmas.

A series of 30 second slots will direct prospective consumers to a dedicated website, where they'll be given a choice of text and graphics templates from which to custom-design their gift item. Working with the online marketer, RCS aims to fulfil the entire process from receipt of order to despatch of gift within two working days.



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