EMBRACING FUTURE POSSIBILITIES WITH PRINTED PACKAGING
By Shadi Bakhour, B2B Business Unit Director at Canon Middle East
Digitally printed packaging is one of the world’s fastest-growing print sectors, with projected growth to $23.6 billion in 2027 and $45 billion by 2032[1]. While digital’s current share of the total global printed packaging market is small, the technology’s potential is enormous, as are the opportunities for wide-format and display graphics print providers looking to extend their portfolio with new, exciting packaging applications.
Why Digital Packaging is a perfect fit
Thanks to its ability to quickly produce short runs of variable, full-color print, digital printing technology fits perfectly into a packaging industry where segmentation dominates.
Only with digital print can brands customize packaging designs to efficiently and profitably cater to specific demographics and audiences in small numbers. Primary packaging can be personalized to address individual customers, creating experiences and fostering brand loyalty.
Only digital technology gives brands agility, creating a meaningful point of difference to respond to changing market trends, test-market new products, quickly launch promotions, counteract competitor activity, or size a commercial opportunity. By its very nature, digital printing is a more sustainable process than analog production, producing only the needed packaging, reducing waste, and minimizing inventory.
Corrugated — the gateway to digital packaging
For converters and PSPs seeking a position in digital packaging, it makes sense to go where most of the business is. Corrugated packaging – used to display, promote, and package almost every kind of product – and corrugated boxes are the most-used form of transport packaging and the most common form of secondary food packaging. Responsibly managed, corrugated packaging, which, according to Smithers, is expected to be 65.6% of the global fiber-based packaging market by volume and 45.5% by value by 2027, is more environmentally sustainable than plastic packaging, as it’s manufactured from natural fibers and so meets consumer demand for renewable, recyclable and biodegradable materials2.
Two workflow options for manufacturing printed corrugated packaging are ‘pre-print’ and ‘post-print’. In the simplest terms, the ‘pre’ and the ‘post’ refer to whether the top liner (the outside of the box) is printed before or after the corrugation process (when it is glued to the flute and the bottom liner).
Post-printing involves printing directly on the top liner after the constructed corrugated sheet. Post-print is generally printed flexo because of the uneven surface and the limited requirement for high-quality images on outer transit packaging or in industrial applications. However, there are opportunities to post-print digitally on wide-format, flatbed devices when only very short runs are needed.
Pre-print involves printing the top liner on a large roll before feeding it into the corrugator. Because pre-print is the process of choice for retail, consumer, or luxury packaging applications requiring higher image quality, the top liner is traditionally printed offset before being laminated onto the flute and bottom liner, or ‘litho laminated’ as the process is known.
There’s a significant opportunity here for wide-format digital production to gain a foothold. While litho lamination is suitable for long runs involving no variable data, consumer demand for more personalization and marketers’ drive for increasingly customized/versioned packaging play into digital’s customized and personalized short-run strengths.
The Growing Market Opportunity
The packaging market is experiencing growth. A report by Mordor Intelligence forecasts that the GCC digital printing market will reach USD 1.16 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 9.20% from 2024 to 2029. Technological advancements and increasing demand for creative packaging across various industries will fuel this growth.
Demand for good quality packaging to safely transport goods through complex distribution channels is becoming increasingly important. This is especially true for corrugated board packaging, as thanks to its sustainability advantages, it can provide a viable solution to fulfill this requirement. Technology solutions for the pre-print corrugated packaging market can offer the ideal solution for customers looking to enter or expand.
Canon offers specialized service offerings and technologies such as UVgel, which produces high-quality scratch-resistant prints that often don’t require additional lamination, streamlining processes for PSPs.
Canon’s Colorado UVgel Packaging Factory provides a productive and profitable end-to-end digital alternative to litho lamination for packaging production. Suitable for corrugated packaging converters who would otherwise have to outsource their digital pre-print packaging, it enables in-house production of short, custom runs at digital speeds and quality, enhancing a print service provider’s creative offering.
In line with Canon’s commitment to driving innovation in digital printing, we will display our cutting-edge wide format portfolio at the inaugural Gulf Print & Pack (GPP) KSA. Join us from 14 – 16 January 2025 at the Riyadh Front Exhibition Conference Center (RFECC) to witness first-hand the capabilities of Canon’s UVgel Packaging Factory, enabling on-demand corrugated packaging production and the Arizona 1360 FLXflow supporting short-run packaging needs.
[1] Smithers – The Future of Digital Printing to 2032 (2022)
2 Smithers – The Future of Fibre-based Packaging (FBP) to 2027
