FMCG brands and their printers are embracing fixed color palette printing (FCP) to create more sustainable supply chains, and it’s such an important signpost for the future of packaging and label printing.

Here at Creation Reprographics, we believe that FMCG brand owners, under heightened legislative pressures and evolving sustainability legislation, are setting the groundwork for more meaningful industry change by reducing the need for spot color inks. The result is a fundamentally more robust and sustainable print sector.

FMCG brand owners are under pressure to deliver more sustainable supply chains and their printers are really stepping up to the plate. It can prove to be a real balancing act, but we are seeing a marked shift towards fixed color palette, or extended gamut printing. We are expecting to see this technique shift into high gear in 2022 and with sustained momentum, we may see a reduction in spot colour ink demand emerge.

Extended gamut printing can replicate around 90% of Pantone colors using a fixed palette of up to seven colors. Many businesses today rely on spot color inks that could be made on-press with standard CMYK/OVG inks. Reducing our reliance on spot colors means less bespoke ink is manufactured, also reducing pressure on storage and handling – so it also simplifies press operations. Without the need for spot inks, printers are ultimately reducing the environmental burden of flexo while seizing greater control of colour consistency. This is one of the reasons we are seeing flexographic print continuing its rapid rise throughout the FMCG sector, eclipsing rotogravure as printers’ technology of choice.

Creation provides prepress services to printers and converters, with a particular focus on sustainability. Alongside solvent-free flexographic plates, the business offers color management services and digital workflow solutions, all designed to reduce the carbon impact for printers. The business has recently joined thousands of businesses across the UK in signing the SME Climate Commitment, pledging to halve its carbon emissions by 2030 and make the Net Zero targets of 2050 easier to achieve.

In the realm of FMCG, we are talking enormous volumes of packaging. If we could eliminate spot colours altogether, that’s a potentially astronomical sustainability edge for the FMCG sector and its packaging partners. As a dedicated prepress company, at Creation we have worked with printers on reducing their ink inventory while maintaining exceptional quality. We still tend to think that sustainability means compromising in other areas, such as speed or quality – but that’s not the case.

When today’s fixed color palette technologies are so advanced and so readily available from a partner like Creation, it makes a lot of sense from environmental, cost and logistical perspectives. 2022 could be the year we dramatically reduce the FMCG sector’s reliance on spot colors and truly underline the value of greener print.


About the author: Matt Francklow is the managing director of Creation Reprographics.