Sensational interpack

Many exhibitors experienced such a rush of visitors that their stands reached capacity limits. They reported strong visitor interest and a willingness to invest, rating spontaneous sales concluded as particularly positive.

Friedbert Klefenz, president of Bosch Packaging Technology (and also president of the interpack Exhibitors Advisory Board), sums up his company’s feelings: ‘We were very satisfied with the quantity and quality of visitors; and interest in our technologies was enormous. We’re pleased with the high number of leads, including many top executives and potential new customers.’ His sentiments were repeated by numerous other exhibitors.

Ishida’s most successful show ever

Ishida Europe enjoyed its most successful interpack ever – in one week generating over 1 000 quality leads and orders for snack systems, multihead weighers and checkweighers worth more than €3-million   

The company reports strong interest across its entire product portfolio. Inspection and quality control – including Ishida’s latest X-ray models – were a particular area of focus for visitors, while the need to maximise efficiencies through effective integration of equipment was another recurring theme.   

Interpack also saw the launch of Ishida Europe’s latest marketing campaign. Its pay-off line – ‘Whatever you make, make certain’ – underscores Ishida’s ability to create packaging systems that deliver on three critical requirements for brand owners: increase margins, reduce costs and enhance brand reputation, with equipment that ensures accuracy, reliability and effective automation backed up by top-level after-sales service and support.    

The campaign uses genuine customer feedback to highlight these capabilities, with imagery that shows users hugging their machines because their performance is a key contributor to success.   

‘We’re delighted with the hugely positive results of our participation at interpack 2014,’ comments Steve Jones, Ishida Europe’s marketing director.   

‘The media has been highlighting evidence of an improving economic situation and this was clearly reflected by the level of enquiries. Nevertheless, customers still seek value in their investments and it was evident that our systems provide genuine benefits in terms of line efficiencies, cost savings and improvements in margins, all of which contribute to fast payback.’   

Sun Chemical helps brand owners seize opportunities    

Brand owners visiting the Sun Chemical stand discovered a broad portfolio of ideas to help them optimise their packaging from conceptual stage through to end use.   

Sun Chemical prides itself on working hand-in-hand with brand owners and their packaging suppliers to seize opportunities to enhance shelf impact, improve brand protection, ensure regulatory compliance, boost packaging performance and increase cost-effectiveness.   

For instance, as part of an extension programme for the SunLam family of performance lamination adhesives, Sun Chemical has introduced oxygen barrier adhesive technology that’s compatible with the current range of SunBar coating products. Combined or used independently this allows lightweighting while retaining or improving barrier properties.    

Visitors also witnessed demonstrations of Sun Chemical’s SunLase laser marking solutions, a late stage differentiating coating that can be used to add variable or bespoke messaging to both secondary and primary packaging after the filling and closure of the pack, using clean laser technology and without the need for labels or ink in the packing line area. Live demonstrations showed how a collection of images, such as QR codes, barcodes, logos, text and serial numbers, appear on various substrates.   

Sun Chemical’s packaging brand lifecycle management agency, known as SBS (Sun Branding Solutions) helps brand owners explore the extended potential of their packaging as a platform for increased consumer engagement and improve consumer loyalty.   

Today’s brand owners have access to an array of devices such as AR (augmented reality) and mobile marketing to drive purchase and consumption, and to deepen consumers’ emotional connection to the brand. At interpack, visitors saw demos of SBS AR Packaging, an app that offers four different platforms –product display (to enable the consumer to see contents without opening the pack); social responsibility (to provide more information about product and pack provenance); sales promotion (for special offers or competitions); and entertainment (for interactive elements or fun games). SBS AR Packaging is available as a standalone app, or as part of SBS’s broader Brand Lifecycle Management offering.   

Sun Chemical also took advantage of interpack to launch the fourth edition of its Low Migration Best Practice Guide, helping brand owners and their suppliers to meet and exceed regulatory requirements for the packaging of sensitive food and healthcare products (see page 19 for a fuller report).   

Bobst interpack success mirrors its leading market position   

For Bobst, it was a first-time participation in interpack, and it was highly successful. ‘We were able to finalise projects, kick-off new ones, foster existing relationships and make new contacts with professionals of the industry,’ comments Eric Pavone, business director (web-fed).    

Giving reasons for this success, he comments: ‘Not only are we continuously improving the performance of our high-end solutions for mature markets, we’re also extending our product offering for emerging markets. Last but not least, our customers appreciate our service capabilities that have been expanded significantly over the last 12 months.’   

Committed to the global packaging industry, this Bobst BU offers printing presses, laminators, web coating and metallising lines for flexible materials, as well as equipment for web-fed folding carton printing and inline converting.    

The F&K 20SIX range of CI flexo presses has recorded excellent market penetration in both mature and emerging markets. In the gravure printing market, Bobst has maintained its premiership mainly with its comprehensive Rotomec 4003 platform; and Bobst’s web-fed systems for folding carton production have over-performed against sales targets owing to a high level of investments in South East Asia, reflecting the well-balanced positioning of its Lemanic printing lines.    

Bobst portfolio of laminating machines has also made progress with compelling sales in the US and Europe, mainly for the high performance duplex and triplex converted products. In special coating applications, Bobst extrusion coating and lacquering equipment sales are growing for highly-customised applications with high added value in Europe and the US.    

Leveraging the performance of its latest products such as General K4000 and K5000, Bobst vacuum metallising solutions continue to make strong inroads into the converting segment.    

The level of business activity at interpack has provided evidence that sales are likely to increase further in 2014, despite the challenging business environment and economic uncertainty.    

Book launch at interpack

The Instituto de Embalagens (Brazil) too advantage of interpack to release a book entitled ‘Better Packaging. Better World’.   

This publication represents a fundamental step in the internationalisation of this institute. Several packaging institutes around the world have supported this initiative by distributing copies of the book.    

Among sponsors are such well-known companies as 3M, Brückner, Comexi, FuturePack, Henkel, Silgan White Cap and Sleever.