Sound Bite: The New Competitive Forces

The package printing and converting industry has always been highly competitive with printers seeking innovative ways to serve their customers’ varying needs. But as the rise of digital technology has permeated the printing industry as a whole, converters are finding that even more competition is coming in from previously unlikely sources.

During the Digital Packaging Summit, held Oct. 31-Nov. 2 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Kevin Karstedt, CEO of Karstedt Partners and the event’s co-chair, explained that with the expansion of digital printing, the technology does not just impact how print is being done, but where it is being done.

For printers and converters of both folding cartons and labels, this means that in addition to competing with companies within their own market segments, new competition can come in the form of brand owners bringing printing in-house, work being lost to contract packagers and commercial printers with digital capabilities seeking a slice of the packaging pie.

Fortunately, experienced converters have an advantage due to their familiarity with the applications. But as the physical footprint of digital presses continues to decrease, they can be installed in locations that may not have been possible in the past, increasing the competitive forces impacting established label and package printers.

Click below for Karstedt’s insight into the new competitive forces that converters have to keep an eye on.