Barthel Gruppe has installed the world’s first EcoLeaf metallisation unit from Actega Metal Print as part of a hybrid press set-up.
This has seen the group, one of the largest label printers in Germany and the Netherlands, join the decoration technology’s beta programme by integrating an EcoLeaf unit into a Mark Andy Digital Series HD hybrid press at the company’s eprint facility in Bünde, Germany.
Barthel Gruppe, headquartered in Essen, Germany, specialises in providing labels for some of the world’s leading brands in markets including chemicals and automotive, food, pharmaceuticals, wine and spirits. In January 2020, Barthel Gruppe acquired the cosmetics specialist eprint to expand and complete its portfolio. The company now has printing and storage facilities across Central Europe.
The EcoLeaf unit is enabling Barthel to offer an alternative to traditional cold foil, while providing its cosmetics-based customers with high quality, cost-effective but sustainable short- to medium-run metallised silver labels. Additionally, by using the Mark Andy press to overprint the EcoLeaf trigger image, the Barthel Gruppe can now offer new forms of profitable decorative effects including a rainbow of metallic colours.
Mr Barthel, the owner of Barthel Gruppe, said, ‘We are always looking for new ways to support our customers with labels that leap of the shelf and increase retail sales. Through finding and testing new technologies, we ensure that we have an eye on sustainable production processes that could reduce our environmental impact. EcoLeaf is a great opportunity for this, and one we wanted to utilise.
‘Our team has already run commercial jobs through EcoLeaf. As a result, we are now very optimistic that EcoLeaf will provide us with an important competitive edge, while enabling us to dramatically reduce our use of foil. We can also see that in time, we’ll be able to expand our business with new types of spectacularly decorative, profitable metallic labels too.’
Jan Franz Allerkamp, managing director at Actega Metal Print, commented, ‘As our first unit in a hybrid solution, we can’t wait to see how Mr Barthel and his team utilise our technology to develop their business. With eprint now being part of the larger Barthel Gruppe, we expect EcoLeaf to help them unlock many other growth opportunities.’
