MARKETS

Boom in gravure package printing

JAMES SIEVER East and Latin America, which has,
_________________________________________________________________________________ for some time now, returned to a
more prosperous economic devel-
While publication gravure has been struggling for several years with opment.
structural market changes caused by the Internet, such as a decline in
print runs of magazines and the ongoing replacement of the mail order What has triggered
companies »big books« by smaller specialised catalogues, gravure the boom?
package printing is currently booming. Press manufacturers reported
record sales of gravure package printing presses in 2010. This is a However, compared to Asia or Latin
rather astonishing development, because only a few years ago America, packaging gravure is
packaging gravure was stagnating, whereas flexography was seen as stagnating in the USA. In compari-
the more flexible and more cost efficient process. son with flexography, which is the
dominating process in packaging
printing in the USA, gravure’s mar-

A glance at the share of the dif-

ferent print processes in the
production of flexible packaging
The USP (Unique Selling Proposi-
tion) of gravure, such as excellent
quality and high consistency even
ket share of below 20% is at a rela-
tively low level. What are the rea-
sons for this? On the one hand, it is
material – used in huge quantities with very long print runs, naturally the effect of successful marketing
by the large brand owners to pack favours gravure’s position in these by the suppliers of flexographic
food products and confectionery – markets. The high printing formes. On the other hand,
shows gravure to be excellently number of pack- the lower quality demands in the
positioned. Whereas in Europe gra- aging gravure USA are a cost advantage for flexo-
vure and flexography have about printers in these graphy, especially in prepress. This
the same market share in this im- countries shows would not be the case in Asia, where
portant segment, gravure clearly is the enormous po- cylinder manufacturing, due to
the leading process in the dynamic- tential for the gra- lower labour costs, is significantly
ally developing packaging markets vure industry. In cheaper than in the USA. Moreover,
in the emerging countries in Asia. India alone, there are some 500 gra- in the USA investments in modern
vure package printing plants, a sig- gravure equipment have been
Popular in nificantly higher number than the rather low, which does not promote
emerging markets 350 plants, in total, operating in the more favourable development
Europe. of gravure. This is shown by the
ERA's International
Packaging Conference
This is particularly the case in China In fact, many of the packaging relatively high cylinder costs which
past November in and India with their rapidly grow- gravure printers in India are not are more than 100% above Euro-
Starnberg/D was well ing markets and both with more equipped with the latest gravure pean cylinder costs, and signific-
attended. than one billion consumers each. technology. However, they are now antly higher than 200% of the cost
investing in modern gravure tech- level in Asia.
nology in order to meet the increas-
ing demands of the growing Indian Chinese engravers establish
market. This is currently changing themselves in Europe
the country’s traditional structures
of retail trade, particularly in the big For some time now, Chinese cyl-
cities where all kinds of consumer inder engravers have been trying to
goods, and everyday essentials, are transfer the cost advantage of man-
now distributed by large super- and ufacturing engraved gravure cyl-
hypermarkets. inders in China into the European
A significant number of the new markets. They are increasingly ex-
packaging gravure presses built in panding into Europe, where the
2010 has been delivered to India. largest Chinese cylinder engraver
But more and more users and
buyers of modern gravure printing Secretary General of the ERA European
technology are also from the Middle Rotogravure Association, Munich/D.

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 MARKETS

Left:
Packaging gravure in
Europe: number of presses.

Right
Packaging gravure in
Europe: number of plants.

operates production plants in the its ongoing renaissance in packag- higher efficiency and simplification
Ukraine, and recently also in some ing. Despite gravure’s undoubted in laser engraving.
EU countries such as Poland and printing quality, only a few years As the print runs in packaging
Czech Republic. Although this has ago the process was regarded as are becoming increasingly shorter,
further increased the cost pressure conservative and not very innova- reduction of makeready times is of
in the highly competitive European tive, and less cost efficient in com- great importance for the packaging
market, this alone would not be parison with its competitor, flexo- printers. This is the field where the
worth mentioning. However, they graphy. This somewhat antiquated press manufacturers have recently
are trying to gain market share in image of gravure has now changed been very innovative: they have
Europe by »dumping prices« and due to numerous technological developed trolleys and other special
other dubious methods. So far with- innovations in the process. devices on the presses to increase
out great success, as the gravure Improved automation in pre- the speed of changing cylinders,
cylinders manufactured and offered press, which now can be operated which meanwhile is done auto-
by the Chinese engravers in Europe fully automatically, and faster en- matically. And at the printing units,
do not fulfil the quality require- graving and shorter makeready which are now individually driven,
ments of the European markets. times on the presses, have signific- cylinder changes can be done in
antly increased the productivity such a way that at the beginning of
Well positioned and cost efficiency of the process. In a printing job, not much time is
fact, flexography has practically no needed for setting the correct regis-
As in Germany, Europe’s strongest cost advantage over gravure any- ter, equally not too much substrate
economy and largest single market, more: as flexography has improved will be consumed.
and the other Central and Western its quality over recent years it has
European countries, gravure has become more expensive and there-
not only well defended its market fore lost the cost advantage which it ERA – The association for gravure
share in Europe as a whole, but also had in the past. This shows that The European Rotogravure Association (ERA), the Munich-based
further strengthened its position. there is always a price to be paid for technical organisation of the gravure industry plays an important
Particularly in the production of quality. role in the innovative development of gravure package printing.
packaging for the large brand To maintain its competitiveness Founded over 55 years ago as a platform for technical informa-
owners and retail chains, gravure is and good market position, the gra- tion by some large publication gravure printers from different
going strong. vure industry is continuously work- Western European countries, ERA has developed into the leading
organisation of the gravure industry. In addition to the publication
The latter was already revealed ing to further develop the process
gravure printers and the major suppliers, some of the most im-
some years ago by a study by the towards even higher productivity portant European packaging gravure printers and cylinder en-
German market research institute and efficiency. The testing of the gravers are also among its membership.
GfK on the brand owners’ percep- Cellaxy direct laser engraving into Apart from services for the industry such as the organisation of
tion of the different print processes. Copper system developed by Hell conferences, seminars and technical meetings, and presentations
According to the study, eight out of Gravue Systems has been conclud- at exhibitions and events, ERA among other things regularly
ten brand owners prefer gravure to ed successfully. Unlike the Daet- prepares a list including all packaging and decorative gravure
print their packages, as only gra- wyler Laserstar, which is often used presses operating in the European market. An important catalyst
vure guarantees the best quality, for cigarette packaging because of of ERA’s packaging group in Germany is the »ProTiefdruck« forum
which is the most relevant factor for its sharp linework, laser engraving (ProGravure), which has not only supported the development of
the brand owners' choice of print no longer requires a Zinc surface. PaC.Space, but also the design of the well known GfK market study
on gravure’s image among the brand owners.
process for their packages. It is Cellaxy is able to engrave directly
To gain more publicity for gravure printed packages and inno-
finally the appearance of the pack- onto the conventional Copper cyl- vative developments in the process, ERA is organising the »Euro-
aging which plays an important inder, and is now in regular produc- pean Packaging Gravure Award« every two years. The winners of
role in the competition in the super- tion. This has not only led to further the competition, which takes place again this year, will be present-
market shelves. technical progress such as high ed at ERA’s International Packaging Conference in Graz/A on
However, it is not only the high sharpness in linework, but it is also November 17–18, 2011.
quality of gravure which explains a significant step forward towards

FLEXO & GRAVURE INT'L 2-2011 51

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M AR K ET S

Left:
Flexible packaging: world-
wide market share of the
different print processes.

Right:
Comparison of cylinder
costs worldwide.

Technological progress paration of the necessary prepress can be used without any further
propels the boom data for the cylinder engraving was finishing touches for the engraving
simplified significantly. Usually the of the cylinder. This procedure not
Progress has also been made in the cylinder engraver receives the data only saves time and money, but also
difficult issue of standardisation. of the packaging design in digital guarantees the usual high quality of
Under the leadership of Janoschka, form directly from the brand owner gravure printed packaging mate-
Europe’s largest cylinder house, and or his agency. But very often in the rial.
GMG,a leading supplier of prepress past, the cylinder engraver had to
software, the first colour standard adjust this data, so that he could use Outlook
in gravure package printing PaC. it correctly. This is now not neces-
Space was developed (FLEXO & GRA- sary anymore: if the agencies follow What will the future hold? ERA’s
VURE INT'L 3-2008, p. 18). Thanks to the guidelines of PaC.Space when International Packaging Confer-
PaC.Space the workflow in the pre- preparing the design data, the data ence, which took place on Novem-
ber 3–4, 2010 in Starnberg/D,
demonstrated that gravure has built
on its strong position in packaging
markets and should remain a pro-
cess of choice for brand owners.
Particularly the ongoing dynamic
economic development in the
emerging markets in Asia such as
China and India, and the remark-
able economic »renaissance« in
Latin America with its rapidly
growing market for consumer
goods and the changing of the retail
structures towards the North Ame-
rican and European models, offers
gravure the best opportunities for
further positive development. Pro-
vided that gravure can keep its high
technical standard and even
continuously improve the process,
the gravure industry has good rea-
sons to look forward with confi-
dence.
➜ www.era.eu.org

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