Following Trends at CPP Expo 15

The mornings are cooler. Kids are heading back to school. College football is invading your television on Saturdays. And the busiest season of the year is right around the corner for the package printing community. That can only mean one thing … it’s Chicago time!

The Converting and Package Printing Expo (CPP EXPO), co-located with GRAPH EXPO 15, is set to touch down in the Windy City’s McCormick Place from Sept. 13 through 16. While you can set your watch to some of the more traditional and constant aspects of the show, it certainly has a host of new attractions that attendees may find intriguing. Here’s a taste of what’s new for this year’s event:

• Co-located Events. The annual printing and packaging event finds itself with new neighbors for 2015, including PROCESS EXPO, the International Dairy Show and InterBev Process shows. GRAPH EXPO and Process Expo will have a two-day overlap, Sept. 15 and 16, offering attendees at any of the five events all-access admission to all of the exhibit halls. Printers, packagers, processors and converters can network and explore the common ground and crossover opportunities. Sadly, this year’s batch of Jersey Cows will not be on display.
• The Industrial Printing Pavilion. Interest in printing and plastics, particularly in 3D printing, industrial applications and decorative applications, is pretty high. Attendees can get a glimpse of the machines in action, along with a dossier of possible (and profitable) applications.
• Application Island. Speaking of applications, this island-themed exhibit (itself created in print applications) garners the best opportunities to sell and tells you how to peddle them to your customer base. Periodic Tiki presentations featuring some of the industry’s best-known gurus will provide sage advice on devising and selling said apps.
• Materials Matter. This booth celebrates the role materials play in the print ecosystem as multiple substrate manufacturers demonstrate the role substrates play in print jobs.
• Education Main Street. Printers looking for that next batch of skilled employees need look no further than Main Street, where representatives from some of the most renowned colleges, universities and educational organizations will be on hand. Learn about curriculum, scholarships and even internship opportunities from schools that have long populated the industry with tomorrow’s talent.

As an aside, booth 570 will showcase, “The Hiring Hub: Closing the Skills Gap!” This recreation of the SkillsUSA championship challenge is designed to ensure a quality future workforce.

According to Ralph Nappi, president of the Graphic Arts Show Co. (GRAPH EXPO’s organizer), roughly 400 exhibitors representing more than 1,000 different product brands will be on hand, making it essentially the same size as the 2014 edition. Nappi expects somewhere in excess of 20,000 visitors to grace the South Hall.

Barbara Fischer, regional manager, North America for OE-A, presents on packaging and converting.

From the CPP EXPO point of view, this year’s event offers a number of intriguing story lines. While no earth-jarring developments have occurred since the last pilgrimage to Chi-Town, several industry trends continue to influence what vendors are showcasing in the booth. One of the more notable hot topics is the issue of sustainability, according to Jane McDermott, director of marketing for CPP EXPO. The reduction of energy usage, the inks that are used and how they are dried, and the overall carbon footprint effect continues to garner mindshare among converters.

“Converters realize that by introducing their product, they have to be really mindful because decisions that are being made by packaging professionals and brand owners are specifying they want to be able to say that their packages follow guidelines,” she notes. “It’s really driving a lot of decisions.”

The growing use of varied substrates in packaging designs, 3D printing and printed electronics are all influencing the printed package, McDermott says. Color management, particularly within the flexo printing process has also been garnering plenty of attention, she adds.

Variability, and the ability to swap out messages, continues to command attention for package printers, and multichannel campaigns are incorporating social media.

“The messaging on package and the ability to be able to change that messaging, regionalization or any type of promotional messaging … that is all tying into the overall branding that’s going through the social networks,” McDermott states. “The packaging has to reflect that type of messaging, which is happening in real time. It’s branding driving the messaging through all of the elements, including the packaging.”

The trend in packaging types continues to evolve. Kevin Karstedt, CEO of research and consulting firm Karstedt Partners of Eden, New York, points out that the past five years have witnessed a cultural shift from folding carton to flexible packaging. This is particularly true for food packaging, which has migrated from box to pouch. By the same token, innovations on the folding carton end are making an impact and stemming the tide shift toward flexible, he says. Convenience packaging on the consumer food side continues to support the need for microwavable and direct-to-oven solutions.

While on the subject of food, a tendency has developed toward a greater number of product SKUs. Where there was once one or two flavors of a given cereal 10 years ago, that figure has seemingly exploded tenfold. The beverage and beer market is another example of this, where the proliferation of microbrews has led to a casserole of choices on market shelves. Extending brands and regional packaging has led to a bevy of opportunities for package printers.

“There’s brand proliferation,” Karstedt says. “All of this is driving huge numbers of graphics changes. It’s also driving short-runs. Printers are going to be looking at ways of getting graphics onto packaging more effectively, more quickly.

“If printers used to have 10 jobs a week, they now have 100 jobs a week,” he adds. “And they can’t shove those 100 jobs through the same funnel as before. They need workflow efficiencies on the plant floor in order to do changeovers more efficiently, and they need to get graphics through. They need image carriers—whether it’s plates, cylinders or digital images—to get through the pipeline more quickly. It’s got to be done more economically and quality is a given.”

The move toward shrink sleeves is not as pronounced as in past years, Karstedt observes, but still continues. He notes that several label manufacturers have had trouble in making the shift to sleeves. The trend parallels the move from cartons to flexible packaging, but on a smaller scale. The same can be said for corrugated to folding carton, or at least shifting from heavy to light corrugate.

One misnomer Karstedt points to is the feeling that digital is cannibalizing flexographic work, when it’s simply not the case. What the digital press does, however, is free up the flexo to do the heavy lifting—longer, big-ticket runs or gang jobs—by taking care of the smaller 10,000-count label runs.

These are just a few of the trends that are turning the packaging world. What other hot-button issues could impact what we see in Chicago? You’ll need to punch your ticket to the show to find out.