The future is bright for flexo print service providers. In a sector where flexo accounts for the largest share of print revenue and volume, Pira forecasts growth in the printed packaging market of around 6% per year to $535 billion in 2019. With competition from gravure, offset litho and digital (all of which also enjoy healthy growth forecasts) flexo has stepped up its game to meet the growing demands of brand owners and is giving the other print processes more than a run for their money.
Flexography's inherent strength lies in its ability to print high quality graphics cost effectively on a wide variety of substrates and with the widest range of ink types. It doesn't always get its fair share of the industry spotlight, an honor typically reserved for digital printing which, as an aside, is growing rapidly but today still only accounts for just over 2% of printed packaging, growing to a little over 3% by 2019.
Where flexo has quietly come into its own, enabled by a concentrated period of technology development, is the ability for leading flexo printers to truly meet litho and gravure quality standards in a cost-effective daily production environment. It means that the versatility and cost effectiveness of flexo can be exploited by brands without fear of any compromise in quality or shelf impact, critical when a brand has its product side by side with its competitors and relies on the quality of its packaging to affect the first impression that consumers form often in fractions of a second.
It's a demand that is being met across all packaging formats as brands gain confidence in the new capabilities of flexo and it's happening right now, evidenced by the behaviors of Kodak customers around the world. From corrugated case manufacturers that want their flexo pre-print and post print operations to match the litho side of their business and label producers that need offset quality with the inline decoration and finishing capabilities of flexo, to flexible packaging operations that can cut weeks, and typically considerable cost, from a new high-profile product launch cycle by utilizing flexo rather then gravure printing. It won't be a complete surprise to any involved if, over time, the industry data starts to show flexo eroding the market share of these other print processes.
The constant tug of war that printers play today is in trying to guarantee the quality and consistency that brands demand while simultaneously pivoting to a new era in printing that requires them to produce more frequent design changes, greater levels of customization and reduced times to market. At Kodak, we continue to invest in R&D to help our customers deliver high quality, innovative and new packaging applications while also driving efficiencies within their own operations. Flexo printing enables this type of agility and, with the demands of today's packaging market, those putting their brands in the hands of flexo printers with access to leading edge technology are the ones that are going to be able to thrive.