Flex appeal

Historically in the retail market, maintaining a consistent brand identity is an absolute must for vendors; any unexpected variation in a
product's packaging - be it in artwork, colour or the positioning of corporate brand elements - could result in confused customers ultimately opting to buy elsewhere. On top of this, expectations on packaging costs and delivery times have both reduced and shortened.

More recently, in the last 18 months there has been a steady growth across a number of trends that look set to stay.

Web retailing - As consumer spend online for groceries continues to grow, print will become more relevant as consumers can't engage with the package outside a digital format, so visual appeal, graphics and consistent brand messaging will become more important (EC statistics body Eurostat sees a 3.9% growth in online sales, equivalent of roughly 28% total retail).

Mass customisation - As with the 'Share a Coke' campaign last year, brand-owners are now able to gain low unit costs of mass production with flexibility of individual customisation. There are numerous choices available now to reach individual consumers, or sub-sectors that used to be harder to
reach or market to directly.

Globalisation - companies need to balance a globally recognisable product and message with local customisation to account for local retail environments and competitive situations. Fixed colour palettes and finger printing techniques are essential in assuring quality brand printed packaging. Retailer/brand-owner relationship - recent studies by Nielsen, Canadean, Euromonitor and Smithers Pira, show own label purchasing by consumers now accounts for more than 30% of retail spend and is set to keep growing.
Brand-owners will have to work harder on their print quality to maximise shelf presence and justify the price premium to consumers who are consistently looking for convenience and value.

Smithers Pira recently launched The Future of Global Printing to 2018 to address these and other drivers more closely. The
flexographic print market is currently around US$140 billion, with an expected growth rate of 2.2%. Flexography is widely used in the production of packaging (flexibles, corrugated and cartons), and labels (self-adhesive and sleeves). The technology developments are pushing the quality and productivity of flexo forward and these are providing real growth as flexo competes against gravure, offset and increasingly digital.

According to Smithers Pira, the Asian flexographic sector is much smaller than both North America and West Europe, although it is growing at a much higher rate. Part of the reason for this is the historical reluctance of the quality conscious Japanese market to adopt flexographic, as the process was not suitable for the reproduction of fine Kanji characters, and detail could be lost as the plates were not sufficiently durable to keep the detail for long runs.

The US market remains high growth with market share dominance, while in the EU flexographic (and digital flexographic) continue to share the market but with consistent growth. Worldwide, companies are increasingly switching to flexographic because the process is now more than able to deliver the quality of gravure and lithography, while reducing time to market.

As print times decrease, and quality is expected to hold or improve, there is a continued opportunity for flexographic to grow by printing in time and at volume without loss of quality in budget.

Benefits of flexo
Within packaging there continues to be the drive towards printing on substrates such as PE that are elastic by nature, to fulfil
shorter print runs, and to do all of this at a reduced packaging cost with reduced wastage. There have been a number of advancements in flexographic technology that have led to comparable print quality at an economical cost of printing per kg. With
high precision press construction, solid and robust monoblock frames, automatic registration controls and pressure settings as well as efficient drying, aniloxes, double guided decks for stability and rigidity, the quality is ensured without sacrificing volume or print speed.

Some of the advantages of flexo that are being seen in the industry include the ability to handle thinner gauges of elastic material. With the correlating increase in flexible packaging within plastics, as well as the growth of convenience packaging with thin gauge PE labels, this will lead to an increase in opportunity.

A comparable ink quality to alternative technologies, but with reduced ink consumption, potentially means less raw material costs to achieve an equivalent look, which continues to grow in importance as companies seek to improve their green credentials to consumers while reducing package costs.

Faster changeovers mean multiple runs can be accomplished efficiently. Reaching consumer needs for variability, masscustomisation and still maintaining global brand and colour management without downtime in production provides end-users
with a reduced cost product on the shelf more quickly, without loss of quality.

Ongoing ink innovation
Significant steps have also been made in the arena of multipurpose ink development. Multipurpose can mean either the ability to
be applied to multiple substrates or to be used in both surface and lamination print runs. The advantages include reduced stock holding for printers, waste reduction, and speed and flexibility in changeover of jobs.

Looking to the future, higher speed inks will continue to dominate the R&D agenda, as will inks for heat change packaging applications. Developers want to produce packs that can transition from freezer to oven in one step in order to address consumers' need for convenience and ease of use. While this drive towards convenience packaging requires the product to maintain integrity from supply chain through preparation to plate, the increased regulation to ensure food safety means that these inks need to maintain
crisp clear visuals, without running during high speed application.

Standardisation and promotion While technological innovation is essential to flexographic printing advancement, the industry must also keep consistency in mind. As such, work is under way to develop a print standard for flexo, ISO 12647-6, in line with ISO 12647-2 for litho.

With the drive towards global uniformity in colour and graphic management in print, end-users are looking for print parameters that most printers should be able to maintain throughout the fulfilment chain. The required image should be achievable on press. This can be done through the standards, plate technology, screening techniques and improved press manufacture and will lead to continued improvements in quality and consistency.

While the industry is addressing the above trends and end users are continuing to find new efficiencies in cost reduction and faster turnaround times, education will remain a key tool for flexo to support growth in the sector. As the technological improvements appear, and the historic disadvantages are addressed, informing the end users of this progress will ensure its continued growth. Through clear and updated communication in the packaging supply chain the market can have the necessary information to make the most informed decision on what flexographic printing can achieve.