Siegwerk’s strategic focus on packaging printing gains momentum

Siegwerk, one of the leading providers of printing inks for packaging applications and labels, is committed to focusing on its core business in packaging printing. During the last few months the company completed some strategic investments and disinvestments to enhance its product and service offering for packaging printers.

Siegwerk sees a clear need to devote its resources to serving the markets of tomorrow in order to ensure sustained success for the company. In addition to shrinking parts of its print media offering, it also invested significantly in the expansion of its water-based ink business.

“Next to the acquisition of ACTEGA Colorchemie, which opened up new segments and further enhanced our profile as a supplier of water-based printing inks, we recently completed a comprehensive investment project at our technical centre in Annemasse, France, and opened a brand new Blending Centre for the production of water-based inks,” said Dirk Weissenfeldt, vice president paper and board and liquid food packaging at Siegwerk.

The integration of ACTEGA Colorchemie – now Siegwerk Buedingen – into the Siegwerk family has made good progress since the end of April this year. Strengths are being bundled, technological skills are being shared, and product portfolios are being integrated.

“By combining the best of both companies we will be able to offer a comprehensive product portfolio and strongly expand our position in the paper and board market in Europe,” added Weissenfeldt. “The new automated production facilities in France will further support a continuing expansion of our market positioning in the area of water-based inks.”

The company’s site in Annemasse, France is the European Centre of Excellence for water-based ink production. At production capacity of more than 25,000 tons per year, Annemasse accounts for 10 per cent of the Siegwerk group’s annual output. The French site has about 250 employees. In total, the company has invested millions in the automation of its production facilities over the last two years.

“It was great to see Siegwerk’s commitment to its site in Annemasse and to exchange views, experiences and future trends with Siegwerk experts and other industry partners at the opening event,” commented Alain Zumsteeg, board mill manager at Rossmann Group. “The investments in the site and state-of-the-art technology are a good base to intensify our partnership with Siegwerk going forward.”

As well as visiting the site, customers could also attend interactive workshops, so-called INKtalks, during the event, where they had the opportunity to get deeper insights and discuss specific topics in more detail.

Beyond investments in Europe, Siegwerk is further investing in the creation of regional Centres of Excellence in manufacturing in order to improve global processes and therefore getting closer to customers and offer its solutions at the same high quality worldwide. In line with this goal, the company recently invested in automation and increased capacity within the manufacturing of water-based and energy curable products at its site in Morganton, North Carolina, USA, and also initiated comprehensive investments in its footprint in China to support the company’s growth strategy and expand its local presence in Asia.