The old definition is true enough: if it can fall on your foot it’s a product, if it can’t it’s a service. And it’s no secret that services, including software, are making the running in the world economy. Which brings us to Omikai. This Scandinavian specialist is in digital transformation for printing and packaging. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, Omikai’s tools include web scheduling, warehouse management, logistics, you name it. And in a recent takeover, Omikai has been bought out by Belgium’s CERM. It’s early days, but this merger seems made in heaven, for CERM has been investing in developing “a next-generation cloud platform that will offer label and packaging converters the option to evolve from the current CERM product portfolio to a cloud-based MIS solution.”Mathias Erlandsson, founder of Omikai, has commented: “Together with CERM, we now have a unique opportunity to accelerate our mission and deliver even more innovative digital solutions to the printing, label, and packaging industry.” (For more on CERM, turn to page 58)

Volati gets Clever

Clever Etiketten is a German label converter with 200 employees and annual sales of €260 million. Volati, based in Stockholm, is in the way of being a conglomerate industrial investor. It manages vehicle inspection stations in Sweden, systems for repairing water damage, companies buying and selling tractors, health products, and even grain handling systems. All things you can uncomfortably have fall on your foot.

But among Volati’s vast range, it also owns Ettikettoprintcom, a printing company with sales of just under $90 million making self-adhesive labels and tickets, and also manufacturing labeling and packaging machinery. This is the group’s first entry into the German market, which it plans to use for further expansion into Central and Southeastern Europe. At the same time, the acquisition will enable synergies and continued operational improvements. Following the acquisition, Volati Group’s label division will hit approximately $120 million in annual revenue. Etiketto has grown largely by acquisition, Clever being its sixth takeover since 2020.

A B Graphic expands

A B Graphic International (ABG), the British manufacturer of finishing equipment for the label industry, has embarked on a significant expansion of its production site in Baesweiler, Germany. Launched in December 2024, the works will double the surface area of the plant to over 40,000 square feet. Originally acquired by ABG in 2006, the Baesweiler site proved to be timely when in 2016, Britain, to many people’s surprise, voted to leave the European Union. Thanks to judicious shifting of some production to Germany, ABG was able to service its many EU customers with a minimum of hassle, paperwork, and customs duties.

Another government for France?

Political uncertainty is reckoned to inhibit investment, and Europe has more than its share of uncertainty at present. France’s minority government could fall at any moment, and next door, Germany may or may not be able to cobble together a working coalition. However, for the label sector, things seem to be moving along, if not always nicely, then at least moving. The family-owned Pierotti & Léger was founded in Nice in 1923 and is now in the throes of a major facelift.

At the helm of Pierotti & Léger since late 2024, Viviane Léger is determined to modernize the company founded by her grandparents in 1923. In a short time she has already initiated major changes, installing new machinery and diversifying into new services. The company, which today employs around 20 people and produces leaflets, self-adhesive labels, and packaging for the food, pharmaceutical, wine and public sector administration, is expanding and has invested in new pieces of equipment, for a total of 360,000 euros, including a TrojanLabel T3-OPX printer from AstroNova and Grafisk Maskinfabrik’s finishing equipment, which integrates hot foil stamping, embossing, and reel-to-reel screen printing.

The company has also invested in the Ricoh Pro C7500 sheet-fed toner press, a CMYK machine plus special inks such as gold, white, and invisible red.

At the other end of France, in cool and windy Brittany, Alliance Etiquettes is also making some changes. The group owns two converters, Bernetic (55 employees) and NS Etiquettes, specializing, respectively, in long and short-medium runs. Benoist Velay (pictured at left), recently appointed CEO of Bernetic, can claim 35 years’ experience in the printing industry. As well as developing new products, he undertakes to continue and expand the group’s commitment to its social and environmental responsibilities, and to reducing its carbon footprint.

From water to recycling

The French group Veolia traces its origin back to an imperial decree (gives you some idea how long it’s been going) for supplying water to the huddled masses of France’s burgeoning cities. While still centered on water treatment, Veolia now focuses on other major challenges: combating climate change, treating pollution, optimizing resources, and improving the quality of life.

“Political uncertainty is reckoned to inhibit investment, and Europe has more than its share of
uncertainty at present.”

This has brought the group into recycling, in which Veolia is a name to conjure with, and more and more in the production of rPET. It has just modernized its post-consumer PET bottle recycling facilities in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, and Norrköping, Sweden. These sites’ processing and production will stay largely the same, but their output of food-grade recycled PET (rPET) will increase by around 30% to roughly 6,000 tons per year for each sit.

According to Guido Adomssent, CEO of Veolia Environmental Group, the collection systems in Scandinavia and Switzerland offer ideal conditions for closed-loop PET recycling. Sweden, for instance, has mandatory design regulations for PET bottles, which ensures very high recycling quality and, in turn, high-quality rPET. Veolia is also looking closely at the German market and is keeping close watch on developments at the EU level about a circular economy strategy in Germany, which could create new opportunities.

A recipe for disaster?

Some 23 years ago, a lady called Marie Aubin was fed up with her job and looking around for anything different. Almost by chance she acquired a disused label press from a couple who had just retired. They agreed, reluctantly, to take her money, while warning her that you don’t just press a button to run a label business. Marie Aubin recalls: “Through a friend of a friend I located a young man rumored to have some printing experience, and who was looking for a job. I asked him, ‘Marie Aubin remembers, what he knew about label presses?’ He replied: ‘More than you do,’ so he got the job.”

The young man, known to everyone as Jiji, did not disappoint her. Against zero competition, he rose from odd-job boy to production manager in a few weeks. He later admitted, “I actually knew nothing about printing, but I’ve done 36 different jobs, always with machines, and I can say modestly that there aren’t many bits of machinery around that I can’t get to work. Label presses are no different. You try it, it doesn’t work, so you try again and pretty soon it’s up and running and they all say, ‘Jiji you’re a genius.’ I’m not, but I don’t let on.”

Fast forward to 2024, and Marie Aubin, now herself nearing retirement, has handed this small but profitable enterprise over to one of her long-term associates. Which proves the old Chinese proverb: “If at first you do succeed, don’t look back.”

UK converters benefiting from MAPP and Wink partnership

The partnership between Mark Andy Print Products (MAPP) and Wink has created strategic opportunities for converters in the UK and Ireland to fully capitalize on the benefits of flexible diecutting for narrow web applications. Introduced earlier this year, Performance Flex Die flexible dies are manufactured by diecutting specialist Wink at its facility in Germany and offered into the UK and Ireland by MAPP, a provider of equipment, parts, and consumables to the print industry. They are suitable for cutting a variety of label shapes and sizes, for kiss cutting, cut-through and other diecutting processes, and can be used in semi- and full-rotary and flatbed systems.

MAPP’s Performance Flex Dies can be provided with MC or MCR coatings, laser hardened, or with a non-stick coating to minimize transfer of adhesive and ink residues. The Performance Flex Die range forms part of MAPP’s growing Performance Line portfolio of parts and consumables. These products are available to all converters and suitable for all equipment, regardless of manufacturer.

Using Wink’s 35-plus years of expertise in manufacturing high-precision tooling means MA Performance Flex Die flexible dies combine these benefits and more.

Andy Clarke, MAPP European operations director, says, “We are committed to raising quality standards across the label industry. Diecutting is an important area for the industry, with every label touched by tooling at some point in its journey from the jumbo roll to the applicator.

“With flexible dies being essential to the label industry and its continued evolution into a streamlined and highly efficient manufacturing sector, having access to reliable and rapid delivery of high-quality tooling is of utmost importance and gives converters an edge in the highly competitive label industry.

“Our partnership with Wink positions MAPP as the pre-eminent supplier of diecutting technology, with converters in the UK and Ireland benefiting directly from the nature of our partnership. This grants MAPP customers priority access to high-quality and precisely engineered flexible dies at a competitive price and available with a 24- to 48-hour turnaround time. This means you can order today and convert tomorrow,” says Clarke.