Packaging is the Next Frontier for Digital Technologies

“It’s the kind of application that a creative print business can develop for the packaging market,” Weymans contends.

Supply chain solution
Traditional packaging printers are not used to dealing with the small numbers that digital offers, again providing an opportunity for new entrants to the sector. One of these is Mediaware Digital in Ireland, which has a Xerox press connected to a StoraEnso Gallop finishing line. It produces personalized packaging for Microsoft, adding a customer name to each carton and printing only when an online purchase is made. Director Noel Candon explains, “Microsoft needed to address a supply chain problem. Now it only gets supply goods to order, and we print on demand. The quality is consistent, better than litho, and we have never had an issue even though we have printed thousands of boxes for them.”