New paths for Siegwerk
Dieter Spriewald Luciano, senior expert digital innovations, Christoph Barniske, head of the Digital Unit, Kai Limbach, digitalisation project manager.
Siegwerk, one of the leading providers of printing inks for packaging applications and labels, has begun working on some forward-thinking initiatives in order to accelerate its reaction to trends and gain more efficiency.
Strategic partnerships with relevant start-ups as well as digitalised processes aim to help the company develop a successful future and expand on its position in the packaging market.
Partnering with start-ups
Collaboration with relevant start-ups is key for the company to gain insights into new ideas and developments that might initiate innovative ink progression, whilst addressing upcoming trends in the ink and packaging industry.
“Start-ups are the home of trendsetting and exceptional inventive spirit,” said Christoph Barniske, head of digital business, Siegwerk. “As an established market player, we can support start-ups with our technical expertise to develop their ideas through to product maturity, and successfully launch them to the market.”
The future of packaging is about connecting product and consumer. This can involve adding features to packaging that include ink solutions. Smart packaging can require processes that require intelligent pigments, functional coatings, or the integration of digital tags, all of which interacts with the consumer.
Siegwerk has started discussions with start-ups and plans to set up a systematic process, screening for potential partners, offering interested start-ups an easy platform to introduce themselves to the company and discuss the potential for collaboration. Siegwerk has recently launched a microsite where potential start-ups can contact Siegwerk’s digital unit, which can be found here.
Additionally, sustainable and eco-friendly packaging and manufacturing processes continue to gain importance for brand owners, converters and consumers. Finding ways to decrease the company’s carbon footprint whilst not impacting on its performance has already become one of Siegwerk’s key research and development areas. The company is always looking into further opportunities to enable entirely new and sustainable packaging solutions.
Digitalised processes
Siegwerk has made a commitment to digitalisation this year. The company has established a new digital business unit to understand how customer proximity and big data can help improve its services to customers, enhance the work of the sales teams and initiate new infrastructure projects designed to generate worldwide synergies.
Commenting on Seigwerk’s goal for its digital transformation, Herbert Forker, CEO of the company, said: “It is all about making the company ready for the future and helping customers to achieve optimum performance by providing modern solutions and services.”