After several years apart, Xeikon welcomed current and prospective customers to its Packaging Innovation Center in Itasca, IL, USA for Xeikon Café on Tour 2022. Nearly 100 attendees joined Xeikon for the two-day event, from May 18-19, for sessions that focused on label and package printing and the graphic arts/commercial segments.

During Xeikon Café, Patrick Pollifrone, president of Star Tag & Label, delivered a presentation on his company’s decision to invest in the digital printing specialist’s Panther inkjet technology. Star Tag & Label invested in a PX3000 press, which has been in operation for nearly six months at the converter’s Salem, VA, USA, facility.

“Throughout the years, we’ve invested in equipment to make our workers’ lives easier,” stated Pollifrone. “I don’t want to see anybody work too hard, and we want to help simplify their jobs.

“Everything Xeikon has said about this machine has come true,” he added. “The press has run well, sales are up on the machine, and we have saved on ink costs over our previous unit. The whole situation has worked out as well as we could possibly want.”

The event also allowed L&NW to sit down with CEO Benoit Chatelard, who detailed Xeikon’s endeavors over the past few years, as well as the company’s goals for the future.

“There were the obvious challenges in 2020, but we were extremely surprised by our performance, and we have showed that the label industry is very resilient,” Chatelard said. “Then in 2021, the investments were really tremendous. We were running at 50% growth in new footprints year-to-year, and the printing activity of our customers continued to grow very nicely.”

Xeikon has swiftly handled the various challenges of the past three years. The company avoided layoffs and continued to invest in the business. From inflation to the war in Ukraine, Xeikon has continued to analyze the market and prepare itself for the future.

“During the Covid-19 period, we never stopped investing into R&D,” notes Chatelard. “That’s always been our philosophy. We’re optimistic and very entrepreneurial, and we believe in the future, so we never stopped innovating. We made a lot of investments, and what we see today is the result of what we did in 2020-2021, so we continue.

“We had full business continuity, so production never stopped whether it was toner or machine units,” he continued. “All parts of the business were implementing very rigid safety precautions, and we were very well organized. With the protocols we put in place, we never had to stop any plant or activity. We had Covid cases throughout the company, but very few, actually. The Belgian-Flemish region is very disciplined in terms of safety and hygiene. Our employees were very respectful of all our protocols.”

Xeikon did not experience a disruption to its supply chain, either. The company also deftly pivoted to working remotely, conducting product demos through Zoom – leading to “full transparency” with customers.

Xeikon continues to emphasize its label business. According to Chatelard, the label industry accounts for roughly 50% of Xeikon’s business, with 30% in graphic arts and about 20% in corrugated.

“Statistically and holistically, our business is driven by labels,” explained Chatelard. “And it’s amazing, you always think you have covered everything, and then new technologies crop up like TITON.”

TITON is a new toner formulation that offers all the benefits of UV inks without the disadvantages, the company says. TITON builds on Xeikon’s dry toner technology, which, due to the absence of any liquid components, offers an incredibly food-safe technology, even with only paper as the main functional barrier. TITON also boasts excellent resistance to scuffing and scratching, water, sunlight, high temperatures and a large set of liquid chemicals, without any type of protective layers such as varnishing or lamination. TITON is also capable of withstanding heat-sealing temperatures of up to 428-500°F.

“This technology is food compliant and is still fully disposable and fully deinkable,” commented Chatelard. “We never knew three years ago we’d be able to accomplish that. It’s an incredible characteristic for a dry toner. It will help with the high demand present for flexible packaging, since you see sachets all over, especially in the supermarket. Flexible packaging is in high demand, especially as there is a drive for less plastic. That’s really coming from our R&D team, and I’m so proud of our team and what they’ve been able to accomplish.”

Xeikon will continue to meet market demands for both toner and inkjet digital printing technologies. After a modest approach to inkjet, with a journey that started in 2017, Chatelard believes the company has positioned itself as one of the leaders in the inkjet space.

“There are things we had to learn because we were new in the space,” he stated. “To finally come with the new generation of Panther, having the right ink and being able to service correctly, I think we have a very robust product that boasts extremely high quality.

“We decided to be agnostic and focus on the application,” concluded Chatelard. “We provide the technology that is most suitable for the customer, and that’s our growth engine.”