US

More than 500 entries from Flexo printers around the world were evaluated in the 2013 Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) Excellence in Flexography Awards. The awards were presented at the FTA Forum & INFO*FLEX show in San Diego. Kodak customers Sunshine Plastics Corp., Colbert Flexographic Packaging Corp., and Encore Envelopes Ltd., UK, took home the coveted "Best of Show" honors. Full story at Kodak.com/go/domorewithless

NAFTA’s flexible packaging converting industry is dominated by Bemis Inc. with a 20 percent share, according to PCI Films Consulting Ltd’s latest review of the market. This position was consolidated with the purchase of Alcan Packaging Food Americas in 2010. Bemis is now twice as large as the next biggest player, Sealed Air Corporation, and triple the size of the number three supplier, Printpack. Another important recent development has been the emergence of Prolamina Corporation via acquisition and green field investment as a major new force in the converting industry. With current annual turnover of around $300 million in

Kraft Foods has introduced Yes Pack, a new sustainable flexible pouch for salad dressings which is expected to help the US food major's aim to reduce 100 million pounds of packaging material from its products globally by 2015.

The plan to split the company into three divisions put forward by major German trading and manufacturing group, L. Possehl & Co. mbH, has won the approval of the manroland administrator. manroland’s Offenbach sheetfed printing systems site is to be restructured in the form of a management buyout under the planned three-way split of the company as part of its ongoing insolvency proceedings. The web press manufacturing site at Augsburg, where the IPMG and PMP 96-page presses are being made, will be acquired by L. Possehl &Co. Plauen, the third manufacturing site that was restructured last year as a

NAFTA flexible packaging market including the US, Canada and Mexico will reach $22bn by 2015, growing 3.5% annually, according to a market report. Nearly 90% sales of flexible packaging material is concentrated in the US, while Canada and Mexico account...

Currently there is not a good enough infrastructure in place to get optimum benefit from biodegradable packaging, even if it is widely available. Europe leads regulatory reform, with the US trailing behind. Asia and Australia are making headway, but Asia (and in particular China) suffer from a confused approach. Consumers are driving demand, with major retailers including Coca-cola and Walmart getting on board. However, despite increased demand, the key cost barriers for suppliers are R&D costs, production costs, and economies of scale. PLA dominates bioplastics use, but new materials are being developed from algae and microbacterial sources and advances