Buck Trends

The tag and label segment looks set to spend the most in 2000; flexo presses top printers' shopping lists.

By Susan Friedman

SUPPLIERS CAN BREATHE easier for another year. According to packagePRINTING's Annual Equipment Purchasing Survey, the majority of package printers have budgeted healthily for equipment upgrades, and don't intend to simply let this money languish in their pockets. One in four plan to increase spending on equipment by more than 25 percent than in 1999, and nearly one in five plan to spend up to 50 percent more. Twenty-two percent expect their budgets to mirror last year's totals.

Price still rules package printers' purchase decisions most often, with 58 percent of respondents putting cost among their top three considerations. When paying up, respondents prefer "cash and carry" over bank financing and leasing. Thirty-one percent will coordinate major purchases with trade shows this year.

Analysis of each packaging segment's responses revealed a mix of progressive purchasing attitudes. Tag and label converters expect to spend the most this year, and appear the most likely to invest in either a digital press or computer-to-plate equipment. Folding carton converters, by contrast, reported the highest usage of the Internet for product information.

Carton converters' top product preference—the folder/gluer—remains the same as in 1999. The tag and label and flexible packaging segments, on the other hand, were hottest on slitter/rewinders last year, and now favor flexo presses.

2000 Purchasing Profile—Tag and Label Converter

Most popular projected budget range:

$500,000 to $1,000,000 (28 percent). Five percent of tag and label converters plan to spend more than that. Details: More often than not, these converters spent exactly what they budgeted in 1999 (41 percent). The highest number of respondents plan to follow suit in 2000 (28 percent), followed closely by plans to spend up to 25 percent more (23 percent), or up to 50 percent more (20 percent).