The packaging ink segment has long been a success story within the ink industry. Even before the pandemic, sales of packaging inks were growing, and this trend continues to this day. The simple reason is that people are always buying products, and these products generally have packaging.

Packaging is a huge market in itself, with estimates from Smithers placing it at more than $1 trillion in annual sales. New packaging innovations compete to catch the consumer’s eye while protecting the items inside the package. Whether the packages are flexible packaging, shrink sleeves, corrugated boxes, folding cartons or others, the packaging we see around us is highly complex.

The inks themselves are also complex. Aside from color, these inks impart key characteristics to the package, from gloss to chemical resistance and much more. They are also carefully formulated, as regulatory concerns, particularly with food products, are becoming ever stricter.

In “The 2025 Packaging Ink Market,” which begins on page 18, packaging ink executives offer their insights into the trends in the market. These include growing interest in sustainability and digital printing, the latter of which will appear in a separate feature in our July 2025 issue.

One interesting trend worth noting is the consolidation among major converters. Smurfit Westrock, the merger between Smurfit Kappa and Westrock, was completed last year, creating a company with expected annual sales of $32 billion. The merger between International Paper and DS Smith, which was just finalized, has $28 billion in consolidated sales, while the merger between Amcor and Berry Global ($13 billion in consolidated sales) is nearing completion; these offer both opportunities and challenges for ink suppliers.

I mentioned sustainability, which has its separate feature in this issue (“Sustainability and the Ink Industry,” starting on page 22). Ink industry leaders spoke about the importance of sourcing environmentally friendly materials, manufacturing in a cost-efficient manner, the need for reuse, recycling, and other product end-of-life strategies, and also the use of renewable energy while pursuing the goals of decarbonization and reducing emissions. The ink industry is working hard on all of these matters, and their efforts are paying off.

David Savastano
Ink World Editor
dsavastano@rodmanmedia.com