FDBusiness.com

Huge growth is expected in the digital print for packaging market, forecast to reach $15.3bn (£9.4bn) by 2018, according to a new report by Smithers Pira, the packaging research and consultancy group.

“The Future of Digital Print for Packaging to 2018” market report says the digital print for packaging market is currently estimated to be worth $7.3bn(£4.5bn).

It found the success of this technology is partly down to the variable data capability of digital presses, which Coca-Cola used for it’s global “Share a Coke With . . .” campaign.

The campaign involved using versioning and personalisation to roll out the campaign in 35 European countries over 750 million packs.

“Without digital print the project would not have been possible; printing the labels using analogue methods would give the same number of individual bottles, but they would then be labelled and delivered together. Randomly printing names sequentially is the only way to get the right distribution at the point of sale,” said the report.

Other drivers behind the evolution of digital print are the ability to produce short print runs economically.

“Printing on demand means less waste, ensuring that new designs or changes in ingredients don’t result in redundant stock,” said Smithers Pira.

“After successful campaigns like ‘Share a Coke’, it seems that more and more companies need to consider digital print to avoid being left behind in this fast-moving market.