Viewpoint: Landa

Measured by the total, annual, global consumption of cartonboard - which currently stands at 43 million tonnes - the folding carton industry generates US$82 billion in revenue. It's also an industry that is expected to grow by 4.5% annually through 2016. The global metafactors driving industry growth include an overall increase in populations, the on-going expansion of emerging markets, and a trend towards urbanisation.

As populations and economies expand, the demographic make-up and buying behaviours of the Earth's seven billion inhabitants continue to evolve. An aging population, the increase of women in the workplace, and the rising influence of Generation Y are causing dynamic shifts in virtually every industry.

The packaging technology industry, including its folding carton segment, is no exception. The roughly 3,000 folding carton converters worldwide find themselves in a position to leverage these changes to their significant benefit.

Compared with previous generations, current consumers bring vastly different values to bear on the retail experience. For example, in the face of an uncertain global economy, consumers today are more frugal. Rather than dining out, they buy more food and beverages at retail to consume at home. They seek more product convenience in the form of resealable packaging, ready-to-eat, microwaveable meals, on-the-go snacks, and smaller, individual portions.

Consumers are also highly mindful of their health and wellness. They eat more healthy foods and purchase fitness-related nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products. They also want to know that their products contain fewer chemicals in their packaging and that products match their individual needs and lifestyles.

One-size-fits-all products - and their packaging - no longer suffice. Modern consumers - especially Generation Y buyers - are also highly mindful of the "green" index of the products they buy - how they're manufactured, packaged and transported.

Serving the needs of the new generation of consumers, retailers and brand managers are evolving their approaches to the industry. Brands are taking product differentiation to higher levels. They offer more versioned, private label goods, and co-branded products. They change package designs more often, in some cases every six months.

The time-to-market window for new product introductions closes ever faster. As competition gets stiffer and margins get tighter, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers seek deeper cuts to their inventories.

As consumers become more marketing-savvy and immune to promotional overload, packages are taking on a larger role for branding, messaging, and measuring marketing ROI.

The massive transition in global demographics, consumer preferences, and product branding affects every segment of the packaging industry - flexible packaging, labels, and plastics, as well as folding cartons. Current folding carton printing technologies - lithography, flexography, and gravure - are less than fully equipped to meet the new market demands. What hasn't changed, however, are the standards and expectations established by these technologies. The market will always require high quality, fast speeds, big media formats, low cost substrates, and mainstream production efficiency.

Even current digital technology struggles to meet the minimum standards of quality and total cost of ownership. And yet, a digital solution is undeniably critical as run lengths grow shorter, turnaround times get faster, just-in-time production rises, customisation increases, and carbon footprints are forced to decrease.

Moving forward, a solution that combines the strongest features of offset with those of digital printing would undoubtedly represent the best of both worlds for folding carton converters. It is incumbent on converters, however, to partner even more closely with brands. Understanding their trending needs will be critical for converters as they assess and invest in future solutions for prepress, production and finishing.

The Landa Nanographic Printing process was launched at Drupa 2012. By combining the primary benefits of offset and digital print technology, Nanographic Printing offers a promising solution for converters and other print service providers.

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