New Mark Andy CEO Kevin Wilken Shares His Perspective on the Packaging Market

pP: You mention commercial printers stepping into the label and packaging space. This sounds like a natural transition but it's actually not as simple as it seems.

KW: It's not. Workflows within a typical label or packaging operation are actually quite a bit different than commercial operations. Customers want to vary copy and graphic content, print on both sides of the web, add and evolve package decoration so they have to mix several print options, decorations, and reverse and/or turn the web. Then jobs are converted in line, where it has to go through diecutting or sheeting resulting in completely finished product in one-pass. The difference between the commercial shops and converters is that most converters are continually evolving with new product development, adapting to changing consumer product packaging trends, looking for ways to differentiate themselves and offer the highest quality with most efficient production processes. They all buy much of the same equipment but customize it to add features and capabilities to help differentiate their businesses.