Still groggy, Europe is picking itself up and starting to count the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic. The figures are so enormous they beggar belief. Germany, always the most tight-fisted of European countries, passed a supplementary budget of around $150 billion in March and followed it up in June with a “stimulus package” of another $150 billion. Other member states have waded in with similar, if smaller, relief measures.

In addition to all this, the European Union itself, overthrowing its long-held opposition to debt, is scheduled to issue $600 billion, give or take a billion or two, in debt to fund investments in member states reeling under the effects of COVID-19. The furlough schemes adopted by most European governments to reduce job losses (but at a price) have not prevented a rise in unemployment, now at 7% (and rising) for the euro area as a whole.

The state of Europe’s label converters is much as it was a month ago, with some presses running hot to keep up with demand, and others standing idle while the debts mount up. Manufacturers of presses and other equipment are generally in a bad way as their customers postpone their purchase decisions. For Europe’s converters and its pressmakers, the second half of 2020 will be decisive and bankruptcies seem inevitable. If we apply the rule of thumb from sunnier days that label demand exceeds GDP growth by 1-2%, and apply that to current economic predictions for this year (falls of between 6-11%), the conclusions for the label business scarcely bear thinking about.

Stop-go
In the days of Music Hall, there was a song that went, “She didn’t say yes, she didn’t say no, she didn’t say stop, she didn’t say go.” This seems to fit the French government’s attitude toward packaging and, in particular, toward the use of plastic bags. Almost totally outlawed just a few months ago, they are now being tolerated and even applauded, since the single-use plastic bag is seen as more hygienic.

It is held by authoritative voices, including no doubt those of the makers of plastic packaging, that the COVID-19 virus can stick around on paper but not on plastic. Those eco-unfriendly plastic wraps are also back in force – at least in France – for fruits and vegetables as shoppers shun the loose displays for fear of handling a contaminated carrot. All this is happening as France’s new (pre-COVID) regulations are being published, prohibiting the use of plastic packaging for retail packs of unprocessed fruits and vegetables. Work that one out.

As ye sew, so shall ye weep
As mentioned in the previous Narrow Web Europe column in the May/June issue of L&NW, Italian press maker Durst turned its spare capacity to making face masks, a product in very short supply back in March and April. Several label converters also frantically adapted their production equipment into a mask-making line. Then suddenly in May, European markets were awash with face masks, and all the upstart mask-makers were in tears as they hurriedly reconverted to what they were doing before.

This column does not, as a rule, pass on fake rumors, but it makes an exception to repeat a few of the things that Europeans were saying about the mask shortage: The Chinese were holding back supplies to keep the price up; the Germans were reneging on export contracts so as to supply the home market; and best of all – American businessmen were lurking on the tarmac at Beijing airport with suitcases loaded with dollars to persuade pilots of planes loaded with masks to change their flight plans from Europe to the USA!

On a more serious note, some equipment manufacturers, like Spain’s Enprom (jointly-owned by AB Graphic and Kocher + Beck), have been active during the confinement. They have delivered and set up a converting line for the French converter Janu’Sac. The new line provides “integrated printing, coating, micro/macro perforation by laser equipment, slitting, nonstop automatic rewinding, high productivity and automatic handling, all in a single line.”

Janu’Sac sees this investment as a way to expand its business in the fresh food packaging sector. It will also allow the company to meet new stringent government packaging legislation that is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2022.

The virtues of virtual
With drupa and many other big shows postponed to next year, exhibitors are wondering what can substitute for a trade show. The short answer is – nothing can. The slightly longer answer is the one used by several companies, including labelstock producer Herma: the virtual exhibition booth.

Adapting the technology widely used by real estate vendors, Herma’s website allows the visitor to roam the company’s virtual booth at will, and to call up extra information on any of the products or technologies displayed. Not as good as a show, but a lot better than nothing (and a lot cheaper).

Italy is suited to hybrid presses
Or so Francesco Niorettini believes. And as owner-manager of Italgrafica Sistemi, an influential label converter, he ought to know. Italgrafica started its business making labels for white goods and other technical products. It still makes these, but has also branched out into food, beverage and cosmetic labels, specializing particularly in finding the adhesive to exactly match each customer’s needs.

Over recent years, Italgrafica has bought three customized Omet presses, the latest being a XJet hybrid, with a second XJet flexo + digital hybrid to be installed later in 2020. Although digital printing is more expensive, according to Niorettini, the extra cost is more than compensated by saving time in controlling the variables, especially in jobs where the number of variables is high.

“Time is the most expensive resource we have,” he says. “Saving time on job changes makes up for the higher cost of printing, as compared to flexo. In addition, there are the peculiarities of the Italian market, characterized by many different short print runs. This is not so common in markets abroad. Not only the quantities, it’s also the frequency of orders that makes us believe that hybrid technology is here to stay in our country.”

Omet’s Massimo Bellingardi confirms that most Italian converters are still in good health, as packaging did not come to a halt during the crisis months. The situation is less bright for other press manufacturers, as they wrestle with a flood of canceled or postponed orders. Fear of the future is a powerful deterrent to investment in a new press, and nobody can predict what the business climate will be like six months or a year down the line.

Good news from Serbia
This column does not often have occasion to report on Serbia, so it is a pleasure to report on label and packaging converter Biografika.

Based in Subotica in the North of Serbia, Biografika has flexo, digital and offset presses and has recently added an 8-color multi-substrate flexo press from MPS. Installed recently, this press was one of 12 sold by MPS during Labelexpo 2019.

A breakthrough in surface treatment
You can’t print onto untreated plastic film: the ink just doesn’t stick to it. That is why some 50 years ago a canny Danish inventor called Verner Eisby perfected an electronic treatment, which fired oxygen molecules onto the surface of the plastic so that it became printable. That invention marked the birth of the company Vetaphone, now run by the inventor’s two sons.

They have successfully tweaked and improved the process over many years, but it has remained basically the same as defined by the laws of physics. But, as Vetaphone CEO Frank Eisby explains, “The laws of physics don’t change but the types of plastic do.”

The problem, as Eisby explains it, is that an increasing number of plastics used in packaging and labeling can only be surface-treated using lots of energy or very slow treatment speeds. Vetaphone’s recently launched solution is a plasma treatment in an enclosed, nitrogen-filled environment. According to Eisby, this entirely new approach to surface treatment means that “difficult” films can now be effectively treated at high speeds and with relatively lower energy consumption.

“The plasma process is not right for all uses – a classic corona treatment is still the right choice for many of our customers, but increasingly they are installing both processes inline, so they can switch to whatever is the most appropriate treatment.”

According to Eisby, Vetaphone has already installed over 100 plasma units to customers worldwide. With the pandemic, the company’s business took a knock, but, “Since the first of June, we are back in full operation and the order intake is almost back to budget,” says Eisby.

It’s plastic – or is it?
In terms of ecological awareness, Finland probably ranks first in Europe, and Finland’s UPM Raflatac is arguably a world leader in turning wood into plastic film. According to VP Timo Kekki, “UPM Raflatac Forest Film PP is the world’s first and only wood-based polypropylene plastic label material. This transparent label material is constructed from UPM BioVerno naphtha, a 100% wood-based solution made from tall oil, a residue of pulp production, originating from sustainably managed forests.”

The material is already being used to label mineral water bottles, and Raflatac recently expanded its Forest Film product range to include wood-based polyethylene label film for home and personal care labeling applications. We can be pretty sure, however, that wood-based PE will be a whole lot more expensive than the fossil fuel-based variety. This does not detract from Raflatac’s achievement, but it does limit the potential market for this eco-friendly label material.