2022: PACKAGING THE WHITE KNIGHT

Printing packaging shot into the spotlight during the year as the big opportunity for printers of all kinds, particularly those whose volumes and margins are being squeezed as digital communications take more of the marketing dollar from commercial print.

After all, you can’t eat your corn flakes from the internet, and you can’t drink your beer from a tablet. In addition the move away from plastic-based packaging to fibre-based makes it much easier for most commercial printers to print packaging.

The year saw both suppliers and printers pin their hopes on packaging, press giants Heidelberg and Koenig & Bauer for instance both said their new presses were aimed at packaging print.

Digitally printed packaging was identified as the area with the greatest growth prospects. According to Smithers, while packaging as a whole will see a CAGR of three per cent over the next five years, meaning the market will grow by a healthy 25 per cent, digitally printed packaging will have a CAGR of 11 per cent, meaning a virtual doubling of market size by 2027.

The Print21+PKN LIVE event held in November saw a succession of brand owners and digital packaging print providers share their exciting journeys, giving clear presentations on the way digitally printed packaging was driving the market, and in some cases supercharging their sales.

Among those presenting was ePac, which is also one of the print companies growing fastest from digitally printed packaging, the six-year-old global business now achieving in excess of US$200m in revenue. Its Melbourne plant, only opened a year ago, has already added a second pouchmaking line, and a new plant in ANZ is on the cards.

QLM Label Makers created a new business, qlmflexibles, with Read Labels & Packaging and Luminer, which will also focus on digitally printed packaging, eight-year-old Read for instance installed its third pouchmaking line during the year, and has already ordered a fourth.

In offset packaging Platypus, which began life as a commercial printer but has now transitioned to mainly packaging, bought up the assets of Ovato’s Brisbane based packaging operation.

In labels the opportunities for digital printing were taken up by a rising number of commercial printers, Revolution in Bendigo and Footprint in Mandura among them, with trade print giant CMYKhub also now in digital labels.