From a new plate production line to renewed hope for trade shows

News Digest: – a quick run through of all the stories from the last few weeks that didn’t merit a post in their own right, including a new plate production line in the UK, expansion for Scodix, Xaar and Global Graphics as well as new label and packaging press installations

MacDermid Graphics Solutions has broken ground on a new photopolymer plate production line at its manufacturing facility in Wigan, UK. 100-foot fully enclosed photopolymer plate production line will be a parallel operation to the company’s current production line in Morristown in Tennessee, USA. The new state-of-the-art line will double MacDermid’s current production capacity and will be the primary supply source for customers throughout Europe, Africa, The Middle East, Asia, and Australia.

Matt Bennett, Vice President of Mcdermid EMEA, explained: “We are experiencing substantial growth in demand in the European region along with our global business. The new manufacturing line in Wigan is a logical investment to expand our production capacity and bring manufacturing closer to a significant portion of our growing customer base”.

Scodix has completed its initial public offering and is now listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange having raised approximately NIS 62 million ($19 million). 

Eli Grinberg, CEO, and founder of Scodix, states: “Scodix has identified significant demand for enhanced printing solutions in the packaging and Web-2-Print markets and aims to increase its foothold. In recent months, we have worked with leading global packaging manufacturers and recognize the growing interest in our solutions. At the same time, we continue to serve the commercial print market.”

Xaar has opened a new Customer Service Centre in Shenzhen, China to improve support for its growing Chinese OEM and partner customer base. It will be headed up by Samuel Tam, Xaar’s General Manager for Asia. Graham Tweedale, General Manager of Xaar’s printhead business unit, said, “We are thrilled to be opening our latest Customer Service Centre in Shenzhen, which will allow us to offer enhanced support to our customers, suppliers and strategic partners for years to come. This is an important step for Xaar in cementing our growing position in China and unlocking the regional potential for the latest inkjet technologies as we see the innovation planned by our ImagineX platform come to fruition.” 

Peter Kushnieruk has joined Global Graphics Software as manager of OEM sales for the Americas as the company looks to expand its business in north and latin America. He has over 30 years experience in selling printing equipment to the print market as well as experience of enabling technologies for print applications and other manufacturing processes. 

Prepack, a flexible packaging printer based in Thailand, has invested in a Comexi Offset CI8 printing press and an ML1 MC laminator. Prepack, which was established in 1973, supplies diverse industries, which includes food, snacks, personal care and hygiene, chemical and industrial, and various other consumer areas. Since 2015, Prepack Thailand has been affiliated with SCG Packaging, Thailand’s largest packaging company, and a subsidiary of Siam Cement Group, a leading industrial conglomerate in the Southeast Asia Region. 

The Danish company Primoreels, which manufactures dairy lidding, has installed a new Nilpeter FA-17 to replace an earlier 9-colour FA-17 that was damaged in a fire in 2020. Fortunately Primoreels had a contingency plan and was able to avoid any disruption for its customers by buying a refurbished Nilpeter FA-2500 to run production as quickly as possible after the fire.

A survey from Messe Frankfurt has concluded that 97 percent of companies want to continue with trade shows as Wolfgang Marzin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Messe Frankfurt, shared his interpretation of the findings: “This is a clear vote of confidence for in-person events. Only 3 percent of respondents wanted to see events move entirely online. In fact, 67 percent of our customers would like events to take place solely in person, with another 30 percent expressing a preference for hybrid formats. In total, 97 percent of our customers remain convinced that in-person events are an essential component of trade fairs.”

Of course, Messe Frankfurt is hardly a disinterested party, since its entire business model depends on trade shows such as Formnext and Heimtextil. Nonetheless, 59,000 companies took part in this survey, which included both a questionnaire and more in-depth market research.