Flash 2015 Edition
Customer magazine
Digita l prin ting
Boost your brand’s success at the POS Markets The Wipf Group launches film production in Thailand Product diversity Flexibility, reliability, and printing expertise 5th wipf day 2015 Securing the future with innovation
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Editorial
Flash | 2015
Mastering challenges individually Dear customers and partners, On 15 January 2015, the Swiss National Bank abandoned the exchange rate floor of the franc versus the euro after having defended it for over three years. So overnight, our costs increased by 10 to 15% in comparison with those of our competitors in the eurozone. The move imposes formidable challenges on all Swiss industrial enterprises. Of course, consultants with turnkey solutions showed up the next day, eager to quickly “help” the company with a catalogue of measures and strategies. The question is: which recipes really work? Obviously, it can make sense to relocate parts of the value chain into the euro area, especially personnel-intensive activities. And it is no doubt a good idea to procure as much as possible in euros, even though this certainly doesn’t mean that the respective products actually originate from the eurozone. Keeping a close eye on investments is another important facet. But are these measures really effective? We see some other options. Read more about this topic in our 2015 Flash issue. New products that give our customers opportunities to be successful in the marketplace. They also help strengthen our position and are welcome growth drivers. Investments in digital printing provide access to totally new solutions, such as personalized packaging. This approach is still largely uncharted territory. We have already implemented such a project: with the creation of a personalized Christmas card last December. Individualized solutions are more personal, more direct, and thus more effective than mass merchandising. They give producers the leverage needed to set themselves apart with distinctive and innovative presentations. Alongside many other approaches, we will harness this challenge mainly as an opportunity for positive change. Explore your options personally at our customers’ day on 25 June 2015. I look forward to welcoming you in Volketswil. Take a brief early summer break to discover the positive spirit on the spot. With kind regards,
Hansruedi Schafflützel CEO
Impressum Publisher Wipf AG, Industriestrasse 29, PO Box 235, 8604 Volketswil Switzerland Phone +41 (0)44 947 22 11 Fax +41 (0)44 947 22 89 info@wipf.ch www.wipf.ch www.wipfgroup.com
Responsible for content Karin Weidmann, Marketing Manager, karin.weidmann@wipf.ch Editorial staff Wipf AG, Marketing Graphic Design Concept FBM Communications AG, Zürich
Published once a year / Downloadable as a PDF from www.wipf.ch
Photos Wipf AG © Copyright by Wipf AG, 2015 All rights, especially distribution rights, reserved. Reproduction of text and images, translations into foreign languages and duplication are prohibited.
Shortlist
New agency in Brazil
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NCA Convention 2015 – successful show presence
Starting in mid-year, Wipf AG is expanding its global network. In the Brazilian market, we will be represented by a newly established company: WICO BRASIL. The agents in charge – Edson Nogueira Marinacci and Manoel Campos Neto – have already been successful for several years with their RENILA agency. Based in São Paulo, they will handle all Brazilian projects and address the needs of local customers. This new hub will allow Wipf to further consolidate the position of WICOVALVE® aroma-protection and pressure-relief valves in Brazil.
In mid-March 2015, together with our US representative, Wipf AG showcased the WICOVALVE® product line at the NCA Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Numerous visitors acquainted themselves in detail with the extensive valve portfolio. The environmentally friendly sample packaging with the W606E Bio valve was a highlight that attracted considerable attention among NCA attendees. “Visitor feedback was consistently positive,” said Malte Jonsson, VP Sales & Marketing. “We are taking it home and consider it as an incentive to further promote our existing products as well as to continuously improve our services in the US market.”
New sales team member Left: Manoel Campos Neto Right: Edson Nogueira Marinacci
Wipf AG welcomes aboard an experienced specialist to enhance customer support quality. Isabell Thürk joined us in the autumn of 2014 as a Key Account Manager at our headquarters. In this position, she is responsible for liaising with and serving Frenchspeaking customers in Switzerland and neighbouring France. Isabell Thürk has over 20 years of packaging industry experience. For many years, before joining Wipf AG, she worked for Huhtamaki and Amcor as well as other packaging companies in Germany and Switzerland. Her profound know-how in the field of flexible packaging and its applications will help increase customer satisfaction, gain new customers, and implement new projects.
Isabell Thürk
In this Flash 2 3
The motto of this year’s wipf day is “Securing the future with innovation”. In the course of the day, you can familiarize yourself with the most important trends in the flexible packaging market. You are cordially invited to come to Volketswil. / Page 7
Editorial Shortlist
New agency in Brazil/ NCA Convention 2015 – successful show presence/ New sales team member
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Markets
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Product diversity
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Marketing and communication
Boost your brand’s success at the POS/ Incorporation of RC-Film Co. Ltd., Thailand Flexibility, reliability, and printing expertise 5th wipf day 2015
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Markets
Flash | 2015
Mass customization thanks to digitally printed Wipf AG pack aging films and pouches
Boost your brand’s success at the POS Thanks to digital printing, it has become possible to realize marketing and promotional activities with target-group-centric designs on flexible packaging in short runs and on short notice. This adds appeal to packaging and generates greater advertising impact. All major retailers are struggling with continuously growing product variety, a problem compounded by many generic-brand items. Growing diversity reduces the demand volume for certain products or increases their inventory levels. For packaging manufacturers like Wipf AG, the consequences are easy to identify: To accommodate variety, large runs are being superseded by a large number of short runs that need to be produced on very tight schedules. Speed to market is a key criterion for the life cycle of a product and crucial for its marketing success. Market launches are almost always preceded by market tests with different packaging designs to determine how they measure up to consumer preferences. Since more and more products exhibit shorter life cycles, the fast market launch criterion is difficult to fulfil in most cases. Additionally, customers prefer just-in-time
deliveries. This calls for short-term printing in short runs. The new HP Indigo 20000 digital press can consecutively produce a multitude of small jobs. The entire workflow is digital and print jobs can be managed individually. Switching from one job to the next is also possible without having to stop the digital press. Orders for proofs or one-off printing tests can be seamlessly queued into a running production stream. The press makeready waste is minimized and the output corresponds exactly to the quantity specified by the customer. This has a beneficial impact and offers new options in order, printing, time, and cost management. Personalized packaging is a must Digital presses make it possible to print different versions of a packaging system in a single production run at the specified deadline and in the required quantity
(on-demand). The printing data can easily be archived and retrieved whenever needed with pushbutton convenience to produce follow-up runs. Since all press settings (such as colour profiles) are stored, setting up a job involves little effort. Digital presses require no plates, which eliminates platemaking time and costs. Because of its personalization flexibility, digital printing technology offers a host of interesting possibilities. Thanks to a contiguous digital workflow, the specific data of every single packing unit can be transmitted to the press. This guarantees promising marketing approaches. With its personalized marketing campaign, the Coca-Cola Company showed how it works. All it takes is a good idea. Protect the product, reflect its value, or – ideally – enhance it: packaging has many different functions and their number is growing. More and more marketing professionals
Markets
are aware of the communication potential and are developing personalized packaging produced with digital presses. Technical specification HP Indigo 20000 The HP Indigo 20000 is a web-to-web digital press that was designed primarily for the production of flexible packaging. It processes 762-mm rollstock with a repeat length of up to 1100 mm. With this width, the press covers virtually all formats and materials used for flexible packaging films
and pouches. The HP Indigo 20000 is equipped with seven inking stations (four CMYK process colours and three spot colours). A multitude of challenging colour specifications can be achieved with Pantone simulations. The press delivers a maximum resolution of 2438 x 2438 dpi (High Definition Imaging) in offset quality. Wipf AG now uses the Esko WebCenter to coordinate the “OK to print” process online. The Esko WebCenter is a high- performance web-based platform for
packaging that handles the entire digital data organization procedure. Because of the intelligent approval and review process, the user-friendly interface, and not least the tools that are perfectly tailored to packaging, Esko WebCenter is the ideal platform for managing and responsively releasing large-volume graphics files.
HP Indigo 20000
I n co r p o r at i o n of R C - Fi l m C o. Lt d.
Wipf Group expands to Southeast Asia with a film production line in Thailand Together with our joint venture partner Thung Hua Sinn Group in Bangkok, we have established RC-Film Co. Ltd. with headquarters in Bangkok. RC-Film Co. Ltd. is a strategically very important specialist in the production of highquality cast polypropylene (CPP) films. Thailand is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and logistically very well positioned to service the growing Asian market. The company will deploy latest-generation technologies to produce new CPP films based on customer formulations for the retort CPP, medical CPP, and pharma CPP markets. These growing markets demand ongoing innovation. The modern production facility is located in a new industrial zone about 2 hours by road outside of Bangkok. It has a base area of 11,000 m2 and is equipped
with a special clean room for compliance with strict hygiene standards for the pharmaceutical industry. It will accommodate Asia’s first Colines Polycast system, a highly advanced, stateof-the-art CPP production line. A capacity expansion with a second line is possible and planned to boost output to as much as 14,000 tonnes per year. Starting in April 2015, the first CPP films will be produced with an annual capacity of 7000 tonnes. “We are convinced that we are uniquely positioned in Thailand with this new production line and that it will make RC-Film Co. Ltd. and the Wipf Group highly successful,” noted Paolo Rimini, General Manager.
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Modern production site with cleanroom outside Bangkok.
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Products
Digital printing supports variety and short runs
Flash | 2015
BOV for environmentally friendly spray, gel, and foam products
Coffee capsule with prominent gold-bronze lacquer
Pr oduct d i ver s i t y
Flexibility, reliability, and printing expertise Three varieties produced in short runs
Bag on Valve System – a forward-looking market with growth potential
Lidding film with striking design
Scies Miniatures SA, a Swiss company headquartered in Vallorbe, produces high-quality precision saw blades in high-grade steels for various applications. For the first time, the toolmaker was able to produce the packaging for these products in various sizes, short runs, and with very short turnaround times – thanks to digital printing.
Bag on valve (BoV) is a popular and proven packaging technology with advantages that have defined the benchmark in the cosmetics industry, mainly for shaving foams and creams. But the food industry has begun to rely on the same system as well. It is environmentally friendly and requires no propellant gases.
ARVID NORDQUIST, a well-known Swedish company founded in 1884 and now managed by the founding family’s third generation, has developed a new design concept for the coffee capsules it markets under the propri etary ARVID NORDQUIST brand. Fine lines and glossy gold lettering are key elements of the classy design.
Finally, digital printing offers entirely new and promising dimensions in the design of flexible packaging. Scies Miniatures SA is delighted with the result. Not only does its packaging grab more attention at the POS, short-run printing on short notice is now easily possible. This new capability is an important criterion for the Swiss company which aspires to remain successful in the long term. The three different blade packs are printed on a POLIVEL® laminate. Six colours are used to print the designs. The new packaging will be presented on the shelves of professional hardware retailers.
The BoV system combines a hygienically clean aluminium pouch with a sealed valve inside a pressurized spray can. The barrier properties of the three- and four-ply POLIALUVEL® laminates protect the product against the ingress of light, oxygen, and water vapour. They fulfil the strictest hygiene requirements and assure high safety standards as regards the protection of the chemical and aggressive products. The laminates are suitable for low- and high-viscosity products. Standard spray heads and spray cans can be used. The BoV system offers the consumer many advantages. The pouch content is dispensed almost entirely, no pumping action is needed, and the product can be sprayed in any orientation. Wipf AG has already successfully implemented projects in Europe and the USA.
The new design with particularly wispy lines is printed in six colours, including an ink with gold pigments, on our 10-colour gravure press. The resulting sparkle effect enhances the noble and exclusive look of the product and supports the consistent brand experience. The capsule lid is manufactured with an aluminium-free POLIVEL® laminate. The laminate fulfils all system-related requirements, allowing the film to withstand the water pressure and the high brewing temperatures that occur while the beverage is being prepared. Our custom-developed lidding film with an extremely high bond strength optimally protects the coffee against aroma loss, oxidation, moisture, and extrinsic odours. The coffee capsules with the upscale design were launched in the market by Scandinavian retailers in the spring of 2015.
Marketing & communication
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5 t h w i pf day 2015
Securing the future with innovation The motto of this year‘s event is “Securing the future with innovation”. In the course of the day, you can familiarize yourself with the new trends in the flexible packaging market. In an era characterized by growing cost and competitive pressures as well as ambitious customer expectations, innovation is an important market differentiation factor – more than ever before.
Programme 25 June 2015
Our guest speakers are Simon Jacomet and Benedikt Germanier, the founder and the CEO of zai AG, Europe‘s most exclusive ski manufacturing company. They will acquaint you with the exciting world of their product innovations. Additionally, they will brief you on promoting innovation in your company and pinpoint the most significant drivers and trends. The event will give you inspiration, know-how, insights into best-practice examples, and interactive experience-sharing opportunities. It will be followed by an eclectic evening entertainment programme. Don‘t miss the chance to liaise with us as well as our guests, and enjoy unusual culinary delights at an unforgettable location.
11:30 – 12:30 12:30 – 14:00 14:15 – 15:15
Registration by no later than 12 June 2015 at www.wipf.ch/site-en/registrationwipf-day-2015.html or by scanning the QR code.
9:30 – 10:00 0 10:00 – 10:10 10:10 – 11:15
15.30 – 16.30 17:00 – 22:00
Arrival Welcome speech Hansruedi Schafflützel, Wipf AG Do you know what‘s possible with digital printing? Oliver Fankhauser, Wipf AG followed by a panel discussion Hans Joerg Z‘graggen, Melanie Hauser Live digital printing demonstration Digital Printing Team Wipf AG Lunch at the wipf restaurant Success at the POS with our innovative packaging ideas Othmar Wohlhauser, Wipf AG From the vision to perfection Simon Jacomet , Founder, zai AG Benedikt Germanier, CEO, zai AG Europe‘s most exclusive ski maker Soirée with entertainment Your master of ceremonies: Miriam Rickli, popular TV and event presenter. She has an extremely likeable and charming onstage personality. In the summer of 2014, she had her debut on Germany‘s Pro7 TV channel as the moderator in the Crash Games series.
Speakers 5th wipf day 25 June 2015
Simon Jacomet, Founder, zai AG For Simon Jacomet, PASSION is in the focus: from the lofty vision to the smallest detail. For Bentley, he developed a ski that rides as fast as a Bentley goes on the road. Over ten years ago, he founded zai, Europe‘s most innovative ski manufacturer.
Oliver Fankhauser, COO, Wipf AG Oliver Fankhauser started his career with Wipf AG in 1997 and was promoted to production manager in 2005. In 2009, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer. For the past two years, he has been responsible for building the digital printing department.
Benedikt Germanier, CEO, zai AG Benedikt Germanier was a star Wall Street banker before be became CEO of zai AG, a small manufacturer of skis in the Graubünden mountains. He has celebrated many a success during his tenure. Benedikt Germanier inspires people to act.
Melanie Hauser, Sales Director, Wipf AG Melanie Hauser has been with Wipf AG since 2012. She has been successfully heading up the sales team for Germany and Switzerland since 2013. Together with her motivated team, she is progressively expanding our digital printing activities.
Hans Joerg Z’graggen, Head of Marketing & Sales, Mibelle Group Nutrition Hans Joerg Z‘graggen has been the head of marketing and sales at Mibelle Group Nutrition since 2012. Previously, he held various positions at home and abroad with respected food industry players.
Othmar Wohlhauser, VP Development and Engineering, Wipf AG Othmar Wohlhauser has been developing packaging solutions for over 20 years. Together with his 5-person team and his many years of experience at Wipf AG, he repeatedly succeeds in developing top-tier innovations.
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Wipf AG Industriestrasse 29 PO Box 235 8604 Volketswil Switzerland Phone +41 44 947 22 11 Fax +41 44 947 22 89 info@wipf.ch www.wipf.ch www.wicovalve.com