Digital Packaging Summit Highlights Huge Advances in Digital Tech

By Kalie VanDewater and Allee Bruce

Once again, the Digital Packaging Summit opened its doors to package printers and converters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, to provide updates on the digital technology driving growth in the industry.

Andy Paparozzi, chief economist for PRINTING United Alliance, dove into a topic many have major concerns about: “What’s Next for the American Economy?”

Paparozzi doesn’t see the economy doing the industry any favors in 2025 for two reasons:

Fiscal stimulus created during the COVID-19 pandemic is fading: “Washington ran record budget deficits averaging $2.9 trillion per year, an extraordinary 14.1% of GDP during the pandemic, deficits unlike we’ve ever seen in peacetime — and they worked,” he said. “They stimulated the economy and, frankly, they prevented the COVID-19 recession from becoming the COVID-19 depression.”
Long-term interest rates aren’t cooperating: “Regardless of what the Fed does, even as the Fed continues to cut short-term rates, the global bond market may keep long rates elevated depending on Washington’s fiscal, tariff, and immigration policies,” Paparozzi noted.

With that, he cautioned business owners about waiting for interest rates to fall to make capital investments and he offered two must-do’s for package and label printers:

Increase productivity company-wide via automation, including everything from HR and risk management
to operations.
Build robust databases and superior data analytics, fostering accurate decision-making.

The AI Revolution

Many package and label printers already recognize the importance of artificial intelligence (AI), seeing it as a game changer for production, workflow, and more. Those who don’t embrace it will be left behind, Paparozzi stressed.

Beyond automating processes such as estimating and invoicing, AI can strengthen pattern recognition, analysis, and forecasting; and it can analyze unstructured data (audio, video, text, images) as efficiently as structured data (financials, demographics, customer profiles), which Paparozzi said is the revolutionary part of AI.

“AI can enhance every mission-critical operation across our companies,” he added. These include predictive maintenance, quality control, cybersecurity, supply chain management, and logistics.

The Labor Challenge

According to Marco Boer, conference co-chair and vice president of IT Strategies, labor is a major trend that will drive the packaging industry into the future.

Not only are boomers set to retire, but younger generations are showing less interest in getting into print. In fact, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that print careers are within the top 20 fastest declining occupations, with prepress jobs expected to drop 18.5% and finishing jobs expected to drop 17.5% between 2023 and 2033.

Boer anticipates digital technology and automation will become a higher priority to counteract labor challenges, transforming companies within the packaging industry from labor-based to capital-intensive business models.

For packaging providers, the good news is that digital printing equipment manufacturers are investing heavily in packaging, Boer said.

“The one area [investment] is not shrinking is packaging,” Boer said, “and in terms of the volume of output, we don’t stop eating and drinking; it’s going to continue to grow. If I’m an equipment vendor, where do I invest long term? … And I’m thinking five to 10 years and beyond — packaging is really where I think most of the effort is going.”

Firsthand Insights Into Digital Tech

To give people an idea of what their peers are doing, a panel of printers and converters took center stage to discuss digital technology’s role in their operations.

Kurt Michalak, director of manufacturing at Fortis Solutions Group, noted that while well-established companies often transition to traditional printing methods once they increase their volumes, newer brands tend to stick with digital technologies.

“We have customers today who reach a certain point, and they want to keep their work on digital,” he said, “and they’re willing to pay a premium to keep their work on digital because they love the quality so much.”

One challenge with digital is that customers sometimes overestimate your capabilities — something that is partially due to how packaging providers are explaining digital technology to them.

“The oversimplification of what digital can mean to the customer changes their wants and needs from us,” said Jason Hamilton, president and CIO at Innovative Displays, which has used digital technology since 2008. “To them, you do a conversion from traditional to digital, they think automatically it’s 60% faster to market — so then we get into the burst capacity problem.”

To minimize issues, Hamilton suggested countering the question of “How quickly can it be done?” with “How good do you want it to be?”

Digital Adoption and Its Advantages

NAPCO Research Analyst Cory Francer shared key takeaways from the “Digital Packaging: The Pursuit of Prosperity” report, which includes insights from 106 package printers and 131 brand owners surveyed in September 2024.

From fast turnarounds, reduced costs, and equipment optimization to sustainability and personalization, digital technology is filling the gap. In fact, 61% of package providers plan to invest in digital in the next 24 months, using it for pressure-sensitive labels (42%), folding cartons (30%), rigid boxes (23%), and flexible packaging (11%).

Additionally, consumer demand for increased variety is pushing SKU proliferation. Brands recognize digital printing’s ability to meet that demand. Because of this, package providers expect an increase in digital print sales.

Navigating Sustainability and Compliance in Digital Packaging

Sara Osorio, environmental, health, and safety affairs coordinator at PRINTING United Alliance, shared information about the growing buzz around sustainability.

According to Osorio, major drivers of change pushing sustainability to the forefront include:

Climate change and the need to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation in various states, focusing on a package’s end-of-life.
Concerns around PFAS and PCBs in packaging.

Sustainability trends trying to address some of these issues include fiber-based materials, plant-based polymers (e.g., plastics made from seaweed and plants), using recycled content, and monomaterial packaging.

Osorio emphasized the seriousness of greenwashing and the importance of having a sustainability plan.

“If you take anything away from this entire presentation: Do not make environmental claims that you cannot back up,” she stressed. “It’s demanding greater accountability to your consumer, to regulators, to your customers; these claims have to be really, really carefully considered.”

Digital technology also brings huge benefits for e-commerce, which has secured a foothold in our everyday transactions. Lior Krasnovsky, senior program manager for Transparency at Amazon, explained that Amazon’s Transparency service was key in combating counterfeiting for more than 40,000 brands and more than 1 billion products in 2024.

“Transparency uses secure, unique codes to individually identify a product,” Krasnovsky said. “... The way it works is basically to stop the counterfeit from ever leaving our fulfillment centers — it doesn’t go into the truck, it doesn’t go into the shipping process.”

This helps brands preserve their reputations and ensures customers don’t receive counterfeit products. The Transparency codes also enable consumers to interact with brands digitally, improving the overall customer experience and potentially boosting sales.

The Role of Interactive Print

One of the up-and-coming technologies that will affect packaging is an evolution in QR codes. Not only do they serve to connect brands with consumers, but they will become essential in creating a “digital identity” for packages, according to Corey Daugherty, head of business development at Flowcode.

The current standard UPC barcode — and EAN codes in Europe — on CPG items can only store basic data about a product. However, GS1 has developed Sunrise 2027, bringing more information through two-dimensional barcodes including Flowcodes. It will become available starting in 2027, and CPG will be one of the first areas where the standard is adopted. Thus, Daugherty said QR codes will serve as both a GS1-compliant code and a consumer engagement channel.

In the EU, an initiative to give consumers more information about products is the digital product passport, which is being rolled out for EV batteries and industrial applications first. CPG products will be targeted for a 2030 deadline, at which point they will need digital identification.

Jason Rambler, director of strategic innovation at Avery Dennison, also indicated that these codes will help with labor and efficiency issues.

“If you think about a retail store today, they’re spending a lot of operational hours to understand where their inventory levels are.” Rambler said. “… There’s really a focus on, how do I get that labor efficiency out of the store, just like we’ve seen at self checkout as well — the same push to try to drive down some of those labor costs.”

Mark your calendar for the next Digital Packaging Summit: Nov. 10-12 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.