Siegwerk’s strategic focus on packaging printing gains momentum

Packaging Solutions

Siegwerk is committed to focusing on its core business in packaging printing. During the last few months the company completed some strategic investments and disinvestments to enhance its product and service offering.

Siegwerk sees a clear need to devote its resources to serving the markets of tomorrow in order to ensure sustained success. In addition to divesting parts of its print media offering, it has invested significantly in the expansion of its water based ink business. ‘In line with our goal to offer solutions for all packaging applications – in other words to strengthen our portfolio as a full range provider for packaging printers – we invested in the expansion of our position in the European market for water based printing inks,’ said Dirk Weissenfeldt, vice president Paper and Board and Liquid Food Packaging at Siegwerk. ‘Next to the acquisition of Actega Colorchemie, which opened up new segments and further enhanced our profile as a supplier of water based printing inks, we recently completed a comprehensive investment project at our technical centre in Annemasse, France, and opened a brand new Blending Centre for the production of water based inks.’

The integration of Actega Colorchemie – now Siegwerk Buedingen – into the family has made good progress since the end of April 2016. Strengths are being bundled, technological skills are being shared, and product portfolios are being integrated. ‘By combining the best of both companies we will be able to offer a comprehensive product portfolio and strongly expand our position in the paper and board market in Europe,’ added Dirk. ‘The new automated production facilities in France will further support a continuing expansion of our market positioning in the area of water-based inks.’

The company’s site in Annemasse (France) is its European Centre of Excellence for water based ink production. At production capacity of more than 25,000 tonnes per year, Annemasse accounts for 10% of the Siegwerk group’s annual output. In total, Siegwerk has invested a double digit million figure in the automation of its production facilities over the last two years.

Beyond investments in Europe, Siegwerk is further investing in the creation of regional Centres of Excellence in manufacturing in order to improve global processes and therefore getting closer to customers and offer its solutions at the same high quality worldwide. In line with this goal, the company just invested in automation and increased capacity within the manufacturing of water based and energy curable products at its site in Morganton, North Carolina, USA, and also initiated comprehensive investments in its footprint in China to support its growth strategy and expand its local presence in Asia.