LABELEXPO EUROPE
2011 PREVIEW
LABELS &
LABELING
SPONSOR OF
LABELEXPO
EUROPE 2011
A roundup of the new technology on
show at the biggest ever edition
of this world-leading labels and
package printing exhibition
DEEP
IMPACT
CONVERTER
EXPANSION
Label converters in mature markets
are expanding their operations
into fast-growing economies
New product launches must fit into
brands’ social media marketing strategies
DIFFICULT
TO CURE?
What’s new in narrow web drying
and curing, including a
status report on LED
THE WIDER WORLD OF NARROW WEB
VOL.33 ISSUE#4 SEPTEMBER 2011
WWW.LABELSANDLABELING.COM
4|
CONTENTS
L&L CONTENTS
67 CONVERTERS EXPAND EASTWARDS
Top Central European converter Marzek group is
investing heavily in growing markets in the East
142 GET READY TO ROCK!
This year’s Labelexpo Europe is the biggest show in the event’s history and features
ground breaking new launches across all types of technology and materials
FEATURES
23 ONE COMPANY,
TWO BRANDS
Rotometrics plans to integrate the
technology of the Gerhardt brand
following its acquisition
25 MPS UNVEILS STRATEGY
77 IRAN SEMINAR FIRST
Tehran sees the launch of Iran’s first
dedicated label and package printing
seminar
54 BAUMGARTEN REBORN
Since splitting from its carton division, this leading
Brazilian converter has invested heavily in technology
78 AVERY AND APPAREL
L&L visits Avery Dennison’s RBIS retail
management business in China’s
manufacturing hub
107 GREEN LINING
MPS launches variable sleeve offset
technology and retools flexo press line
41 SUSTAINABLE WINE
85 HYBRID PIONEER
Etiquetas Anver is the first Spanish label
converter to install a Nilpeter Caslon digitalanalog press
109 PHENOL FREE
A leading French wine producer and its
label partners launch an ambitious Green
program
61 WHAT MAKES A CEO?
94 EXPO OPERATOR DAY
A panel of CEOs discuss their
experiences running market leading label
converting companies
European associations come together to
promote operator day at Labelexpo Europe
71 SLOVAK SUCCESS
Common mistakes in implementing an MIS
– and how to avoid them
Family run wine label specialist Purgina
is carving out a successful business in
Central Europe
LABELS & LABELING
101 MAKE MIS WORK
Mondi has invested heavily in release liner capacity
and expanding global operations
Jujo Thermal develops new line of phenol-free direct
thermal papers as phenol
111 METALIZER CAPACITY GROWS
Lecta Group increase production capacity of
metalized papers at its Leitza plant.
113 BRAZILIAN MIS
Brazilian MIS supplier Metrics increases focus on
label and packaging industries
LABELS&LABELING |67
STANDING in front of the Rotatek Perfect press at the Pechatny Dvor plant in Ukraine are
(L-R) Alexander Schneller-Scharau, head of technology and sales at Marzek group; Dr
Johannes Michael Wareka, CEO Marzek group; Dmitri Nudel, CEO of Pechatny Dvor
Marzek Group invests
in Eastern promise
WITH GROWING OPERATIONS in Austria, Hungary and Ukraine, the Marzek group of companies is investing
heavily in becoming a major pan-European player. Andy Thomas reports
Austria-based label and decorative
packaging converter Marzek Etiketten has
become a major pan-European player
with the acquisition of plants in Hungary
and Ukraine, and is currently in the middle
of an 11 million euro investment program
to boost productivity and efficiency across
the group’s operations.
The Marzek group today has a turnover
of 50 million euros and 500 employees
across Europe. Its Eastward expansion
began with the acquisition of Kner
Packaging in Hungary in 2005, an offset
converter of both cartons and wet glue
labels. In a significant investment, the
Hungarian operation will now take
delivery of a new Heidelberg CX105
press, equipped with UV and aqueous
coating. Additionally, Marzek has started
a roll-fed operation at the plant.
Marzek made its first move into the
Ukraine as early as 2000, when it entered
into a profitable joint venture with a local
converting group, which ended in 2005.
This time the deal gives Marzek the
major share in a joint venture with
Pechatny Dvor, one of Ukraine’s leading
packaging printers based in the city of
Dnipropetrovsk.
The deal keeps on board the highly
entrepreneurial CEO of Pechatny Dvor,
Dimitry Nudel, who started his graphic
arts career selling carbonless paper
before recognizing a growing demand
for multi-color commercial printing. His
first press was a Ryobi, which is still
running. ‘I then decided that labels and
flexible packaging were more profitable,’
says Nudel.
To take full advantage of the growing
Ukrainian consumer market and to
promote exports to Central Europe,
Nudel needed significant investment, so
the approach by Marzek was well timed.
The JV agreement was signed in 2009.
‘Mr Nudel’s strengths are spotting new
packaging opportunities in the Ukraine,’
says Marzek Group CEO Johannes
Michael Wareka. ‘He has a fantastic eye
for market niches.’
The first year of the JV was a great
success, with the new company growing
over 30 percent. ‘We expect the same
this year,’ says Michael Wareka.
There are estimated to be only some
30 specialist label converters in Ukraine.
‘There is a lot of potential, but the
market still grows more slowly than it
could,’ says Dimitry Nudel. ‘But with
the Marzek connection we have the
possibility to export to Central Europe.
We are an international group and can
serve customers locally where they
need to be served.’
LABOR EQUATION
To what extent is the decision move into a
developing economy about relative labor
costs? ‘A good manager here in the Ukraine
costs more than in Western Europe,’ says
Marzek’s Michael Wareka. ‘But there is a
bigger gap between manual labor, and this
means production costs overall are cheaper
than in Austria. Hungary has an average 25
percent of the production-personnel costs
per capita in Austria, and Ukraine has half
the personnel costs of Hungary. The ratio
would be 100 (Austria), 25 (Hungary) and
15 (Ukraine). Of course the productivity is
still quite different, but in addition people here
(in Ukraine) are highly motivated and there is
more long-term growth potential.’
SEPTEMBER 2011 | L&L
68 |
L&L
DMITRI Nudel and Dr Johannes Michael
Wareka with the Gallus TCS250 press
Current per capita consumption of PS
labels in Ukraine is around 2.8 sq meters,
which compares to over 12-13 sq m per
person in Central Europe. ‘We are partly
creating a market where today there is
still a lot of cheap quality direct print,’
says Michael Wareka.
The company’s customers are both
Ukrainian and global brands – with the
business tilting towards international
companies – across a diverse range
of sectors from food and dairies to
wine labels. ‘There is a significant wine
industry in Ukraine and the Krim region is
particularly famous throughout the region
for its sparkling champagne-like wines,’
says Michael Wareka.
Marzek’s current two-year group
investment program includes powerful
support for the rapid growth of the
narrow web business at Pechatny Dvor.
The existing plant is overwhelmingly
a sheetfed operation, with multiple
MAN Roland 300 offset presses and
Heidelberg Speedmasters and plates
provided by a Kodak Magnus CTP unit.
But the narrow web business was
already growing in importance before
the Marzek acquisition. Dmitri Nudel had
installed a raft of finishing equipment
including a Focus Reflex and multiple
rewinders, as well as a highly specified
Rotatek Perfect press.
The Rotatek Perfect is a fully modular
shaftless rotary offset press, and this
installation was the first to combine
gravure, offset and flexo. The gravure unit
is mainly used for whites and metallics,
while the six UV offset and two flexo
coating units can be switched between
solvent, waterbased and UV drying. Web
width is 520mm and when L&L visited
the plant the Perfect press was printing
roll to roll at speeds up to 200 m/min.
LABELS&LABELING
The machine is configured with E+L web
guide, Eltromat color control system,
Arcotec corona treater and IST UV.
Marzek subsequently installed a Gallus
TCS250, a second Rotatek Perfect
press with almost exactly the same
configuration, and additional finishing
and embellishing equipment. ‘We worked
closely with Rotatek technicians on
the press and they took on board our
suggestions,’ says Michael Wareka.
The two Rotatek presses convert a
wide range of labeling and packaging
substrates including shrink sleeve labels,
wraparound labels, monofoils and
aluminium laminates.
‘We have already printed films down
to 12 microns,’ states Dimitry Nudel
proudly. ‘Rotatek did not believe this was
possible – before they quoted 20 microns
as the thinnest materials for this press.’
The Perfect presses can be equipped
with a sheeter module which allows wet
glue labels, among other things, to be
printed. A unique roll-fed application is
decorated ice cream cones, for which
Pechatny Dvor is the biggest supplier in
the country and is now moving into the
Russian market.
‘When we have our new lamination
capacity we will move more towards
packaging on these presses,’ says
Michael Wareka. ‘We do not want to
compete head to head with the gravure
printers, but instead to produce niche,
short and medium runs of packaging.
We are confident we can match
gravure quality.’
The lamination capacity that Wareka
refers to is now being commissioned.
‘First we started at the beginning of
the learning curve,’ says Wareka. ‘Our
staff are highly ambitious and we are
advancing very fast, already having
developed a high level of knowhow.’
Marzek is also looking to upgrade
Pechatny Dvor’s sleeve seaming/
inspection system. ‘We are about to
invest in a faster line, as we also see
shrink as one of our opportunities for
growth,’ says Wareka.
With consolidation of converting
groups across Europe now a key trend,
the Marzek group is well positioned
to take advantage of the service it can
now offer to pan-European label and
packaging buyers.
MARZEK PROGRESS
When L&L last visited Marzek Etiketten in
Austria three years ago, the company had
just introduced a digital asset management
system. Today the company has 75,000
labels stored on the system, with some
companies storing over 1,000 label designs
and specifications, accessible to authorized
personnel anywhere in the world via a secure
website. Marzek has also further developed
its 3-D virtual prototyping tool to include
structural carton design. Designers can
see how complex creases will work before
outputting physical prototypes on a plotter.
The company’s virtual prototyping software
capabilities have also expanded to allow the
simulation of foil stamping, embossing and
other special effects.
‘This means we can prototype virtually, and
then physically, any packaging design, for a
one-stop decorative packaging shop,’ says
Michael Wareka.
Since 2009 Marzek has had a digital
capability, claiming to be the first European
converter to install an HP Indigo WS6000.
‘We have marketed this as digital offset to
mark the fact that the quality is better than
regular offset,’ says Wareka. ‘For example we
can reverse print out of four colors. In the first
year we ran 1,000 orders and 2,500 in the
second year – the first full year of operation.’
The press is equipped with an ABG Digicon
finishing unit configured for both off-line and
in-line operation. ‘Going off-line increases
waste, and you have to produce 120 percent
of the job to account for 20 percent waste.’
The breakeven point averages about 4,000
running meters, ‘but longer runs are carried
out where it makes sense.’