Digital Printing and the Future of Flexible Packaging Solutions

Featured photo by Juan Lustres @sigmund

The package printing industry, which includes packaging and labels, comprises about a third of the global printing market. It plays an essential role in the supply chain of various industries such as food and beverage, medical and pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods.

In general, packaging provides goods with protection against breakage, contaminating odors and flavors, and acts as a barrier that protects the product against humidity and light as it gets transported along the supply chain.

From a corporate perspective, packaging provides the much-needed brand identity that will establish the product to the consumer market.

Establishing a brand identity, especially for start-ups and small businesses, through packaging and product labels, is becoming increasingly important as competition for consumer attention intensifies.

Packaging Trends

The package printing market has traditionally been a stable industry when it comes to the economic market. However, the recent economic downturn is bound to also take its toll on this industry.

Cost considerations are becoming increasingly important as brands and businesses are starting to demand customized features and designs.

Not to mention the various environmental considerations and regulations. Sustainability has been a recent buzzword that became a significant challenge in the package printing market.

As such, the packaging industry is leaning towards digital print technology for added value in the packaging market space. Digital printing is now slowly becoming the driver of digitization in the packaging industry.

With the ever-increasing competitive retail market with shorter product life cycles, brands would often require individualized packaging to gain a more substantial advantage. Digital printing makes this possible.

“There’s no question customization is one of the biggest trends driving the adoption of digital package printing,” noted Donald Allred, VP of Packaging at Memjet, a digital inkjet technology provider.

“When packaging is produced in a late-stage customization process, using digital printing is not only possible – it is preferred by brands that want to connect with their consumers by adding personalized messages and images to their packaging,” he added.

Digital Printing Technology in the Packaging Industry

Digital printing for the packaging industry is a process that involves the transfer of a document on a desktop or any digital storage device to a printing substrate machine that accepts graphics and text output.

With the rapid pace of technological developments over the past few years, the advent of digital printing has revolutionized the packaging industry. Digital printers today can handle multiple substrates and offers five-color printing capability like RICOH’s Pro C7200X Graphics Arts Edition.

Package printing nowadays offers not just your printing capability but also an improved technology that adds an extra value to the print services.

One of the areas where digital printing has become widespread is the creation of prototype packages, which provides an approximate of the look and feel of the finished packaging when it hits the market.

Printers have traditionally been used to address the needs of businesses, and it's becoming clear that digital printing will become vital in the packaging requirements of businesses.

“We often forget it, but packaging production is more than printing and part of a longer supply chain – from packaging design to printers, converters, packers, retailers (online or physical),” said François Martin, senior communication advisor at machinery industry company BOBST.

“Digital printing will be part of the new industry in the packaging landscape, but the digitization of an entire process will be the most important element,” he reiterated.

As printing technology becomes more sophisticated, digital printing will likely expand to a more significant portion of the overall package printing market.

Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends estimates that the global retail value of digitally printed labels, folding cartons, and corrugated packaging will exceed $14 billion by 2022.

The report also noted the largest segment in the digital printing of packaging market – label printing. Label printing accounted for more than $4.5 billion in the global retail value of print in 2017. It is expected to demonstrate a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14% between now and 2022.

Federico D’Annunzio a product owner of Hybrid & Label Printing for BOBST shared his opinion about digitally printed labels, “The label sector has been an early adopter of digital printing.”

“Digitally printed labels have boomed in recent years, driven by market demands for shorter runs, more customized packaging, greater sustainability, and the need to help products stand out even more,” he noted.

Beyond label printing, industry analysts also expect steady growth in the digital package printing market for the corrugated segment, which is expected to reach nearly $5 billion in 2022 (39% CAGR); and the folding carton segment, which is predicted to achieve a 20% CAGR and reach $1 billion by 2022.

Advantages for Digital Printing in the Packaging Sector

Over the past decade, digital printing in the packaging sector has transformed itself from a niche market to a widely-accepted standard process for the packaging sector and global consumer brands.

Digital printing for packaging is now an innovative marketing and engagement strategy that helped boost customer loyalty and, most importantly, increase profits.

Perhaps one of the most successful campaigns that solidified how digital printing can provide an innovative marketing strategy for the packaging sector was Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke With” campaign.