Oki printed products on show
Packaging Innovations and Luxury Packaging London closed its doors in October to record numbers. Over 3930 visitors, an increase of 10% on last year, 180 exhibitors, 80 product launches, 50 seminars and two new show features all packed into the Business Design Centre in London to celebrate the most innovative in the world of packaging.
The event witnessed a successful fifth year with the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Hotel Chocolat, Tommy Hilfiger, Molton Brown, Harrods and Procter & Gamble walking through its doors.
‘The attendance figures are absolutely spectacular and we couldn’t be more delighted with how this year’s show turned out,’ commented director for easyFairs’ packaging events, Alison Church. ‘Packaging Innovations and Luxury Packaging combined have truly established themselves as the exclusive event for branded and inspirational packaging, attracting world class visitors, speakers and international exhibitors from all corners of the globe. Each year to date the show has grown exponentially, but now with a sold out venue we are focusing on delivering the utmost quality of events to both our exhibitors and visitors in the coming year.’
Maria Almeida, exports at Leca Graphics, visiting the show, remarked, ‘Great show, very well organised, much bigger than last year with a huge variety of exhibitors. It’s great to see the luxury side expanding, definitely a packaging show worth attending.’
Around the show
OKI had a couple of its label printers on stand including the ES9541 five colour A3 printer which offers CMYK plus either clear or white. Featuring LED curing technology, the printer is fully compatible with EFI Fiery XF v5 digital front end and can print on substrates up to 360 gsm, ideal for packaging prototypes.
Andrew Hall, marketing manager, said, ‘This is the first five station LED printer on the market with CMYK plus either clear for spot varnishing or white for printing onto darker substrates. This opens up a whole new market for us. Having the flexibility in house to be able to print on the fly professional output of creative concepts is fantastic for brand owners. Being able to see in an instant what a printed package design or label would look like and being able to make amends instantly will benefit the industry.’
Also on OKI’s stand was Caslon Limited, which had the FoilTech FT-10 Junior foil fusing machine on show. This is a very cost effective and quick solution for samples, mock ups and short run jobs where foiling can add value. The hand fed model works from a toner image to produce a range of colours and effects including holograms at a fraction of normal foiling costs as no dies are needed.
This foiling system from Caslon was a show highlight
The Sherwood Group was also promoting its sample and mock ups capabilities as was YRG Group under its Eclipse division.
EFI was a first time exhibitor at the show, promoting its Radius software amongst others. One of its UK customers is Firstan Cartons, which also had a stand at the show. The carton packaging manufacturer recently moved from an in-house bespoke MIS system, which had been built during a 20 year period, to Radius as its continued growth demanded greater functionality, integrated data handling capabilities and the potential for JDF compliance.
Esko was demonstrating the 3D capabilities of its Studio Store Visualizer by letting visitors don high-tech glasses so they could ‘walk around’ in a virtual store environment complete with outside space and neighbouring stores rendered in detail. A new LOD (level of detail) system has been implemented in Studio 14. This optimises the efficiency of rendering by decreasing the complexity of a 3D object representation as needed, eg items in the distance or as the viewer looks away from the object in less detail.
Part of the programme
The show featured a packed learnShops programme, with speakers from DHL Supply Chain, Taylors of Harrogate, Kimberly-Clark, Unilever, Tesco and many other leading brands.
Simon Oxley, packaging technologist at M&S, gave a talk on how to change consumers’ negative view of packaging along with an overview of the retail chain’s various sustainability initiatives.
Packaging manager at Tesco Paul Earnshaw described packaging as a ‘Cinderalla’ discipline and spoke about supply chain complications and how the company is tackling these. He said, ‘We need to open up the conversation about innovation more, but how do you get your product in front of the right person?’ As part of a new ‘Food Academy’, he is now able to talk to all links in the value chain and help get products to market more easily.
Tesco’s Paul Earnshaw showed this ‘simplified’ supply chain chart
Mr Earnshaw outlined the main trends in the retail market: promiscuous shoppers, food crime, nomadic life style/eat on the go, waste, sustainability and omni channel shopping – all issue that affect packaging. ‘But,’ he said, ‘with all the new technologies, including digital print, it is an exciting time to be in packaging. We are the future.’
The show also provided a mass of interactive show features including the Innovation Gallery showcasing the top 10 packaging innovations at the show, the Marketing & Brand Directors’ Networking Breakfast, the Lions’ Lair competition, and the Packaging Consultancy Clinic.
A show favourite was The BIG Packaging Debate, where a large audience gathered to hear a panel of packaging experts discuss ‘Is Legislation stopping you innovate?’ This panel was chaired by Kevin Vyse, Head of IoPP UK, who remarked, ‘Currently EU legislation is a drag on innovation so in the short term both graphic and structural packaging is going to have to work harder than ever before; eventually the use of technology will prevail and smart technology solutions will become normal to every consumer. In a few years’ time we won’t need to put all this legislation on the packaging – the technology will be there and change the way we give consumers the essential information.’
The next easyFairs UK packaging events will be Packaging Innovations, Empack and Label&Print, taking place at Birmingham’s NEC on 25 and 26 February 2015.
