Business Management - Industry Trends

PALO ALTO, Calif.—HP has announced that one of its Graphics Solutions Business customers, Digital Printing and Imaging (DPI), is using an HP Indigo press 5000 to produce nearly two million personalized youth-league baseball cards in an innovative sports-themed promotion with Nestlé Drumstick brand sundae cones. Through the program, consumers can visit a DPI-developed web site, upload an image, enter a youth’s team name and player statistics, view a PDF proof and then order a pack of 16 cards. DPI’s print production workflow for the cards includes an internally developed web-to-print application linked into an HP SmartStream workflow driving the HP Indigo press 5000. The

DUSSELDORF, Germany—At the recent staging of drupa 2008 print media trade fair, the 1,971 exhibitors from 52 countries unanimously reported an extremely high number of promising contacts and successful purchase deals. Overall, drupa exhibitors announced deals concluded worth more than Euro 10 billion. Industry insiders suspect the actual investment sum to be considerably higher. Around 391,000 visitors from 138 countries and 3,000 journalists from 84 countries traveled to Düsseldorf, Germany to gather information on innovations, developments and new fields of business. Accounting for 59 percent of the visitor total, international visitor participation increased by 4 percent compared to drupa 2004. Particularly contributing to this

Times are tough; there’s no doubt about it. Costs are rising, competition is fierce, and the economy is in a tail spin (or nose dive, depending on your perspective) but heading down just the same. “This was a difficult year for the [tag and label] business due not only to macro economic issues including high energy costs and continuing high raw material inflation, but also because of growing competition to labels and tags in the packaging industry itself,” notes Corey Reardon, president and CEO of AWA Alexander Watson Associates. The rising costs of materials—across the board—are at the top of most printers’ lists of

CINCINNATI, Ohio—Schober will exhibit its STP (Smart Tag and Ticket Processor) at drupa stand 11/A44. This machine incorporates Schober’s second Generation RFID technology with the ability to read HF, UHF and EPC GEN 2 tags. The STP product line is designed for contactless readable tickets for public transportation, entrance/access authorization, security identification, as well as airport baggage tracking tags, pallet and case tracking, asset and supply chain management, and more. New features on this second generation RFID technolgy include a redesigned tag dispenser with web tensioning, strategically placed start/stop buttons, and greater information gathering capabilities. An optional static discharge protection package rounds out

Last year, the Flexible Packaging Assocation (FPA) predicted that the flexible packaging industry would grow at a rate of 2 to 4 percent in 2007. In reality, the industry grew about 2.9 percent, according to the FPA—right in its target range. Compared to 2006’s growth rate of 5.1 percent, the more modest increase seems to reflect the hard economic times. packagePRINTING’s 2008 Top Flexible Packaging Converters Survey indicated that growth, though modest, was achieved by the large majority of flexible packaging converters that responded. About 86 percent of these converters reported that their businesses experienced growth in 2007, while 14 percent said business

The flexible packaging industry is, and will continue to be, a relatively healthy segment in the realm of package printing. This doesn’t mean that everything is rosy—not by a long shot. The U.S. economy is being stressed to a significant degree by a credit crunch driven by the sub-prime fiasco, and inflationary pressures fueled by the cost of crude oil, which recently surpassed $110 per barrel. Flexible packaging advantages A slowdown in the economic environment not withstanding, flexible packaging has many factors in its favor. It continues to move into established packaging segments with distinctive product offerings, many times in the form of pouches.

GLEN ALLEN, Va.—NanoMarkets announced an upcoming report that continues the firm’s coverage of the market opportunities arising from the use of silver powders and inks in printable electronics. The report will be available in late March of this year. Silver Inks and Pastes for Printable Electronics: 2008-2015 reports on the use of silver-based conductors used in printable electronics. It examines the changes that have occurred in the market and discusses how the rapid commercialization of printed electronics is changing the demand for silver. It updates and continues the firm’s 2007 report, Silver Powders and Inks for Printable Electronics: 2007-2014. The new report answers

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—As the NFL Playoffs advance to the Conference Championships, Donruss Playoff L.P., is bringing in a new lineman to protect its highly collectible National Football League (NFL) trading cards—Eastman Kodak Company. Donruss announced that it will deploy the KODAK TRACELESS System for Anticounterfeiting on selected high-value Donruss trading cards. The cards, which premier the week prior to Super Bowl XLII, will include an invisible marker that can only be detected with a KODAK TRACELESS Reader. “The TRACELESS System provides an easy method to distinguish genuine Donruss products from fakes, ensuring our customers an authentic product whose value will continue

RFID has been the “talk of the town” ever since Wal-Mart laid out its expectations to its largest suppliers in 2003—lots of press, lots of hype. Now, it seems as though more participants are asking that famous question posed in Wendy’s® commercials many years ago, “Where’s the beef?” It is true that the glowing light of RFID has dimmed during the last couple of years—reality has not lived up to the expectations that were created. That doesn’t mean, however, that RFID is no longer something package printers need to consider. RFID is being implemented in a wide range of applications and some of

During the last few months, packagePRINTING has explored various finishing effects converters can employ to give their customers’ packages the necessary zing to draw and hold the attention of consumers as they walk down the aisles. The holidays are approaching fast, and not only are consumers shopping for good old Aunt Joan, but if the packaging does a good enough job, they may pick out something for themselves. And it’s not only textiles, electronics, or toys—many people enjoy foil-wrapped candies around the holidays. How will consumers find them if they don’t jump out at them from the jam-packed shelves? Stamping/embossing avenue Like anything else,