Technology experts from Anderson & Vreeland, Williamson and Esko describe the growth and opportunity in Canada's flexo market.

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2. 16 PRINTACTION · november 2015 printaction.com
technology experts from
anderson & vreeland, Williamson
and esko describe the growth and
opportunities in canada’s
flexographic market
By Victoria Gaitskell
W
e all know
that the flex-
ible pack-
aging sector
is growing
dynamically.
This com-
mon know-
ledge, how-
ever, doesn’t make it any easier for
printers who are not participating in it
already, especially smaller companies, to
know how to enter this potentially lucra-
tive sector. Printers with existing oper-
ations also want to know how they can
grow their businesses in today’s market.
No one seems better equipped with infor-
mation about the latest trends and busi-
ness-development strategies than the
companies who help printers achieve
their flexible packaging goals every day.
Sean Sawa, Director of Sales for An-
derson & Vreeland Canada, says the
Canadian flexible packaging market is
changing because of a renewed interest in
quality-control tools, best practices, and
training. “The Coca-Colas, Nestles, and
Unilevers of this world are becoming
more demanding as they fight for shelf
space. Printers are the beneficiaries be-
cause they are being driven to do better.
Among the hundreds of variables in a
package-printing job from start to finish,
if any one variable deviates from standard
metrics, you’re compromising con-
sistency,” Sawa says, noting there is more
investment in colour proofing and cali-
bration to ensure that a run produces
exactly the same PANTONE colour from
start to finish –“Even five years ago it was
not possible to calibrate everything in this
way.”
Rick Schaus, General Manager of
Williamson Printing Materials, agrees
Flexible
Trends
FLeXOGrapHY
Shelf appeal and
package function-
ality are two of the
main trends in the
packaging industry,
as brands demand
more resources
from their printing
suppliers.

3. 18 PRINTACTION · november 2015 printaction.com
that these days the best technical
investment for flexible packaging
producers is new quality process
controls to improve such factors as
ink viscosity (and ink pH for water-
based presses), managing chemical
inventories, cleaning, and quality
control. “It’s amazing how many
places we go into that still don’t
have a densitometer to read colours
and are relying instead on a press-
man’s eyes,” he says.
Schaus explains that today’s lu-
crative business contracts between
printers and major brand owners
often specify not only detailed col-
our-matching requirements but
even which measuring instrument
the printer needs to buy to analyze
colours and verify compliance with
the brand owner’s specifications.
Schaus also sees more printers in-
vesting in equipment that allows
them to do a greater variety of work.
“For example, I’ve seen a roll-film
printer increase profits by adding
equipment for laminating and mak-
ing bags and closures, because
value-added is where the real money
is at.” Schaus adds that the intro-
duction of hybrid equipment with,
say, the capacity for labels, gravure,
screen,plus hot stamping,all in one
press, enables printers to add fur-
ther value to their products.
Schaus explains because of in-
creased competition among brand
owners, they are increasingly trying
to use packaging as a selling tool by
resorting to high-end embellish-
ments. For example,water droplets
printed on a flexible package will be
embossed to make the droplets look
and feel more like the real thing. In
film printing, he says: “Ten years
ago, flexo machinery was not ca-
pable of re-registering a web. Even
five years ago, you never saw any-
body overprint varnish on plastic
bags. But now a couple of our cus-
tomers print varnish over one or two
colours and can register it – and the
effect is gorgeous.”
FLExoGRAPhy oR DiGiTAL
When it comes to printing processes
for flexible packaging, Julian Fer-
nandez, Pre-Sales Product Special-
ist Flexo at Esko, says: “For quality,
flexography is probably your best
option. It can match any offset or
gravure and is also cheaper, simpler,
faster, and flexible enough to cover
almost any need. You can print on
a label or any plastic material.”
Sawa says a large narrow web
flexo run in Canada would amount
to 150,000 impressions and a wide
web poly flexo run 50,000 to
100,000 impressions. “Digital
presses are primarily used for short-
run jobs 20 to 24 inches wide,” he
says.“Although their benefit is they
don’t require all the makeready
costs and time of flexography, they
can’t even come close to competing
with flexo speeds. It’s a gap the size
of the Grand Canyon.”
Jeff Skolnik, Digital Sales Man-
ager, U.S. & Canada, for Anderson
& Vreeland, estimates that digital
presses currently produce 15 per-
cent of the market. “Whereas once
[end users] would have purchased
200,000 flexo labels at a time, they
know digital printing can now pro-
duce 10,000 labels of the same
quality.The capacity for short runs
also allows printers to take advan-
tage of the current market diversifi-
cation toward high-end niche work.”
Schaus comments:“In particular
we see companies adding on digital
labels to allow for short runs and
variable data for clients such as small
producers of one product line who
do their own labelling. Some pretty
big companies are still standing on
the sidelines, waiting to see what
happens before they purchase digital
equipment;but still others have fully
embraced it as part of their workflow.
One Montreal company has split
their business 50:50 between flexo
and digital. Everything coming off
the digital end has to be finished off-
line, so they also had to invest in
dedicated die-cutting and finishing
machines, but the resulting oper-
ation is very versatile and an incred-
ible business.”
Fernandez says printers in the
Americas view digital equipment
not as a replacement for conven-
tional presses but more like an extra
service. In 10 years, he thinks it will
be unlikely for package-printing
companies not to have at least one
digital press,citing a recent study by
Fujifilm predicting that packaging
on digital presses will grow by two
to three percent annually for the
next decade.
“Short-run jobs are forcing
shops that print high-quality offset
work and laminate it to liners to
convert to faster, high-quality, high-
er-end inkjet printers made by
companies like Screen, HP, Agfa,
and Durst,” says Skolnik, who ex-
plains printers are also looking for
solutions to ensure their inks are
flexible enough to hold up to finish-
ing operations like scoring,bending,
and folding without cracking.
“A lot of digital machinery is
limited in the number of colours
you can print,”says Schaus. “Either
adding colours is expensive or you
can’t do it. But in wide web flexo for
printing paper, film, and foil you
can add as many stations as want.”
Fernandez adds that digital presses
also have further ink limitations:
“In flexo you can use either solvent,
water-based, or UV inks. But be-
cause ofthe nozzles usedto dispense
ink in the digital process, you can’t
use the same range.”
MARkET PoSiTion
Sawa says one factor making it
more difficult for smaller Canadian
printers to purchase new technol-
ogy is the low Canadian dollar, re-
quiring the addition of 30 to 35
percent on top of an already pricey
investment. “That’s why a lot of
mergers and acquisitions are hap-
pening here in Canada,”he says.“In
some cases where size does matter,
smaller printers who are finding it
hard to compete are opting to sell or
merge and pool their client bases
and resources.”
Schaus says that small printers
who find a successful packaging
niche but lack substantial invest-
ment capital may fare better just by
staying put. The reason is that, be-
sides footing the bill for new equip-
ment and quality-control technol-
ogy, the printer also faces a huge
learning curve. Another factor that
may prevent smaller printers from
landing big accounts is quality-as-
surance audits requiring the printer
to specify a recovery plan that en-
ables the brand owner’s work to be
up and running at a secondary loca-
tion within 12 hours after a disaster
at the printer’s main plant.
A trend Fernandez thinks pack-
aging printers can exploit is pack-
aging that acts not only as a contain-
er but also serves an additional use,
such as informing or entertaining or
functioning as a toy; for example, a
children’s shampoo bottle shrink-
wrapped to look like a movie char-
acter with a QR code opening onto
aWeb link where the character talks
to you.“One area I would definitely
suggest packaging printers expand
into is supplying more services to
help their customers come up with
unique products with interactive
labels.”
A recent study by
Fujifilm predicts that
packaging printed
on digital presses will
grow by 2 to 3
percent annually
over the next 10
years.
The growth in
on-screen visualiz-
ation technologies
is decreasing the
business of
producing
prototypes for
packaging
development.
3%