Kerstin Haase of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG talks to us about packaging industry trends, digital advancement, sustainability and plenty more.
What outstanding trends do you see in the packaging industry?
The packaging market remains a promising and dynamic growth market that offers numerous opportunities. Packaging is also one of the main channels in brand communication with - or perhaps because of - increasing digitalization. Campaigns with a high degree of interaction between packaging and consumers are coming up. This is happening in an industry that is becoming more and more global and in which the complexity of business and production processes is also increasing. The requirements are constantly getting higher: faster innovation cycles, shorter delivery times, more complex printing and finishing, high flexibility and additional services are in demand. In addition, there is a shortage of qualified workers.
The challenge here is the speed with which packaging printers have to adapt to the new requirements and the need to network with customers and suppliers - which is what we are talking about with digitization.
What business models can printers use to benefit from the growing packaging printing market?
We see three main ways of positioning. The first is “operational excellence”, i.e. a packaging printing company is absolutely excellent in its processes and is always very fast and cost-optimized. A second possibility is "differentiation", e.g. by offering certain finishing options that are not available from other print shops or a special service, e.g. design services or logistics. This is all about offering more and differentiating oneself from other printshops. The third possibility that we see is summarized under the term "business innovation". These are offerings that seek new ways to optimize the supply chain such as the integration of IT systems or platforms for order processing. These include, for example, integrated ordering systems, webshops and online platforms. Or the approach of using digital printing to develop new business models such as supply on demand.
Read the full article via Packaging Europe here.
