Commercial and Package Printers Prepare for Battle

Published: December 01, 2002, By Yolanda Simonsis, Associate Publisher/Editor

In my last editorial, I warned that package printing converters may lose incremental business to some “new” competitors — commercial printers.

Then I explained the reason for my fear, citing the theme of Graph Expo/Converting Expo's Executive Outlook conference of Emerging Technologies/Shifting Markets — Turning Threats Into Opportunities. One of its sessions on which I was asked to participate was titled “Package and Specialty Printing — An Opportunity for Commercial Printers.” While it didn't feel right telling commercial printers how to take jobs from my converter readers, I had other personal reasons for being unable to participate.

As if this aptly named conference session wasn't threatening enough, I thought, in advising commercial printers how “easy” it is to take business from package converters, it seemed that many of the show's exhibitor press conferences also specifically addressed how their machinery could easily adapt from printing commercial applications to packaging.

Crystallizing my concern for the package converting industry, during lunch one day in the press room, I had a heated conversation with a fellow editor whose publication covers the commercial printing sector. As a result of attending many of the same seminar sessions and press conferences I attended, he was convinced package printing represented the “promised land.” He thought adding the capability of package printing could salvage the businesses of commercial printers, many of which are attempting to reinvent themselves and/or are on the very edge of simply closing shop.

My fellow editor rejected my explanation that the converting industry, not unlike that of commercial printing, has experienced incredible consolidation and overcapacity over the last several years (see my October 2002 editorial, p6), indicating a lack of package converting jobs even for those companies that specialize in package converting. While he conceded that package printing is a lot more than simply putting ink on coated or un-coated paper, he didn't seem to understand the complexity of the package converting industry. Most of the time converters deal with an extraordinary range of colors, substrates, and printing materials (frequently due to food contact issues), making the printing process a nightmare of complicated considerations every step of the way.

The package converting industry has alternatives to fight this intrusion on territory it has traditionally served. If the victor in this war is the one best equipped to handle the demanding needs of customers that are seeking efficiently produced quality materials on their cost terms, then converters must either buy into the digital revolution or partner with a discriminating list of commercial printers that can complement the technologies they lack. Commercial printers are readily armed with digital workflows and computer-to-plate technologies; they are well equipped for battle. But it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing war, even if converters remain reluctant to adopt new digital technologies.

Be prepared for the future. Your familiar — as well as your new — competitors are.

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