Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups and tubes using flexographic, rotogravure, offset and digital printing.

Number of Employees: 5,430 in more than 35 countries (as of December 2024)

Comments: The packaging market continues to enjoy growth, which is ideal for Siegwerk, which is focused on the packaging ink and coating segment. As a result, Siegwerk had an excellent year, with sales growing nearly 10% to €1.301 billion ($1.51 billion). Siegwerk CEO Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann noted that Siegwerk saw strong growth across regions and almost all business units in 2024.

“We were able to win new businesses in many competitive markets and gain market share, putting us in an excellent position for 2025,” Dr. Wiedmann observed. “North America returned to prior profitability levels, Southeast Asia showed an impressive growth track record and Europe benefited from positive trends due to market rebound across almost all countries, which led to growth particularly in solvent-based and water-based solutions.

“Although costs in the value chain, e.g. for raw materials, utilities and wages, remained at a high level or even increased and the effects of inflation were noticeable throughout the year, we entered 2025 with optimism,” he added.

Dr. Wiedmann said that over the past 12 months, Siegwerk has focused its development activities on inks and coatings that not only provide high performance, leading safety, and quality at competitive costs, but also support the realization of circular packaging solutions.

“Today, we already offer a broad portfolio of solutions across all technologies for various substrates, processes, and performance requirements, that enable, for example, the switch from multi- to mono-material packaging or the use of renewable materials for a wider range of packaging applications,” he reported.

“In 2024, we launched, for example, our first full UV flexo deinking system for non-food packaging applications: CIRKIT® CLEARPRIME UV E02, a new primer technology that enables effective deinking of energy-cured inks, thereby improving the recyclability of labeled plastic packaging and enabling the recovery of high-quality recyclates,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “With CIRKIT® NATUBAR CT 4326, we also introduced a paper coating solution that is based on natural raw materials. Thanks to its good barrier functionality against liquids, grease, and oil, it enables innovative paper packaging without the need for plastic lamination, thus complying with the Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD).

“With the introduction of new generations of our well-known UV-curing SICURA Nutriflex 10 and LED-UV-curing SICURA Nutriflex LEDTec, we also launched series that enable the printing of food packaging that complies with the upcoming German Printing Ink Ordinance (GIO) – an even more comprehensive and stringent packaging regulation which will come into force at the beginning of 2026,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “And with the introduction of our new NC-free toolbox for flexible packaging in early 2025, we also further enabled our customers to create future-proof flexible polyolefin packaging solutions that are not only compliant with the latest recycling criteria but also ensure high packaging performance in lamination and surface applications.”

In 2024, Siegwerk also made significant progress in sustainability within its business.

“We remain on track to achieve carbon neutrality for scope 1 and scope 2 and have, furthermore, introduced a comprehensive sustainability program for our suppliers,” said Dr. Wiedmann. “In addition, our global group was once again awarded the EcoVadis Silver Medal in 2024. The improvement in our overall score compared to the previous year underscores our unwavering commitment to sustainability across all business units and regions.

“We also made further progress in digitalization, for example by introducing our new digital customer platform my.Siegwerk, which will further simplify and harmonize all our digital services for our customers,” he added. “Overall, 2024 was a very special year for us, as we celebrated our 200th anniversary as a family-owned company. This was a unique highlight in the company’s history, bringing together colleagues from all over the world to honor our company’s origins and share our vision for the future – a true ‘Ink, Heart & Soul’ moment, as we call it at Siegwerk.”

Siegwerk made a key move during the past year, establishing a new global business unit dedicated to functional coatings.

“With Gilles Le Moigne, we have appointed an experienced expert in packaging coatings as head of this new unit,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “The Circular Economy (CE) Coatings business serves as a cross-divisional hub of excellence for circular solutions, adding specialized functional coating technologies to our conventional coating offering.”

Dr. Wiedmann said that Asia remains a key area of growth for Siegwerk, as is sustainable packaging.

“We still believe in the growth levers that we defined a few years ago: From a geographical perspective, we will continue to invest in further strengthening our regional market presence in Asia,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Particularly India and Southeast Asia have shown tremendous growth in 2024, and we plan to exploit additional regional growth opportunities going forward.

“Moreover, sustainable packaging coatings are a very promising growth area that we will continue to focus on,” he pointed out. “Here, we see one of the greatest opportunities for us – not least due to upcoming regulatory changes such as the PPWR in Europe. But we are not only investing in R&D to further broaden our portfolio with sustainable printing solutions: With Siegwerk Ventures, we also drive the development of new business models and support the establishment of new companies that address existing innovation gaps to drive circularity across the entire value chain.”

Tariffs are an important topic worldwide, with Siegwerk set up well to avoid the brunt of it.

“Thanks to our global production and service network, Siegwerk is largely independent of tariff regulations between individual markets,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Local production sites in all relevant markets ensure the necessary flexibility to remain well-positioned even in situations such as the current one in the US. However, we continue to monitor the situation closely, especially with respect to the import of raw materials from Asia, in order to analyze possible options for further cost optimization and to initiate adequate measures.”

Dr. Wiedmann adds that Siegwerk’s outlook for the rest of 2025 remains positive.

“We are focused on delivering value to our customers through performance, innovation and sustainability. We remain committed to serving our customers worldwide with high-performing, safe and compliant ink and coating solutions as well as reliable services, all at competitive costs,” Dr. Wiedmann said.

“Our strategic priority continues to be enabling our customers to differentiate themselves in the market through sustainable packaging solutions,” Dr. Wiedmann concluded. “By continuously innovating, for example, in areas such as barrier coatings and NC-free ink technologies, we are set to further support the transition to a circular packaging industry. We are also maintaining our high level of investment in future profitable growth. This includes increasing our competitiveness through automation, digitization, and targeted capacity expansion, while further accelerating innovation. These initiatives will ensure that we – and our customers – remain in a position to successfully meet both current and future market demands.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups and tubes using flexographic, rotogravure, offset and digital printing.

Number of Employees: ~5,000 in more than 35 countries (as of December 2023)

Comments: With its focus on packaging inks and coatings, Siegwerk is a key player in the packaging segment. Siegwerk had a solid year in 2023, with sales of $1.36 billion, which considering the various geopolitical and economic challenges, cost inflation and skills shortage, was an impressive feat.

“Despite all this, we were able to significantly improve our results compared to 2022,” Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann, Siegwerk’s CEO, said. “While we recorded significant growth in LATAM and Asia, particularly India and China, we had to deal with weaker markets in Europe and North America, especially in the area of flexible packaging.”

The good news for Siegwerk is that 2023 saw continuous improvement throughout the year.

“Costs in the value chain, e.g. for raw materials, energy and wages, remained still at a high level and the effects of inflation continued to increase over the course of the year,” Dr. Wiedmann observed. “All in all, we saw a clear uptrend throughout 2023 with a weaker start and a very strong end. In the second half of the year, we saw a continuous improvement in total performance. Thus, we ended 2023 with positive momentum, which enabled us to also make a very strong start into the first quarter of 2024. The inks and coatings markets are slowly recovering at the moment, which makes us optimistic for the rest of the year.”

Dr. Wiedmann said that Asia continues to be a bright spot for the company.

“In 2023, the region has once again proven to be one of our growth engines and we are willing to exploit additional regional growth opportunities,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Moreover, inkjet solutions and packaging coatings are two other promising growth areas that we will continue to focus on.”

Packaging coatings are another opportunity for Siegwerk.

“Especially in packaging coatings, we see one of the greatest opportunities for us – not least due to upcoming regulatory changes such as the PPWR in Europe,” Dr. Wiedmann noted. “For this reason, we are already focusing on the development of functional coatings that enable sustainable packaging solutions in the sense of a Circular Economy for some time now. But we are not only investing in R&D to further broaden our portfolio with sustainable printing solutions: With Siegwerk Ventures, we also drive the development of new business models and support the establishment of new companies that address existing innovation gaps to drive circularity across the entire value chain.”

In addition to inks and varnishes, Siegwerk has increasingly focused its development activities on barrier coating technologies over the last 12 months.

“Due to their ability to equip printing substrates with specific functional properties that are crucial for the performance and durability of packaging, functional print coatings play a critical role in realizing packaging solutions in the sense of a Circular Economy,” said Dr. Wiedmann.

In 2023, Siegwerk launched UniNATURE Water-Oil Barrier Coating, an alternative to replace restricted coatings on single-use paper plates according to the Single Use Plastics Directive (EU 2019/904) and other relevant legislations.

“The water-based coating is made from 100% natural content and has proven to effectively reduce the absorption of water, oil and grease on plate stock intended for direct food contact while maintaining its recycling through the paper recovery cycle,” Dr. Wiedmann noted. “This makes it the first functional barrier solution of its kind.”

With CIRKIT ClearPrime, Siegwerk launched a new delamination/deinking primer technology last year that further paves the way for mono-plastic packaging by enabling full recyclability with almost colorless recyclates.

“Together with ExxonMobil, Henkel, Kraus Folie and Windmöller & Hölscher, for example, we have developed a fully recyclable, mono-material PE pouch with similar properties to barely recyclable multi-material laminated pouches,” said Dr. Wiedmann. “By using our oxygen barrier coating CIRKIT OxyBar as well as our deinking solution CIRKIT ClearPrime, the innovative pouch provides a high oxygen barrier and allows for an almost colorless recyclate after the removal of printing ink and coating layers. This co-developed pouch innovation has already been recognized with gold at the German Packaging Award 2023.”

In a key personnel move, Siegwerk decided to expand its management team to better reflect its global presence and adapt even faster to the changing dynamics of the global ink and coatings industry. To that end, Siegwerk announced the establishment of a Group Executive Committee with effect from Jan. 1, 2024, and appointed Ashish Pradhan, president Asia, to join the new committee.

Dr. Wiedmann noted that going forward, the growing focus of printers and brand owners on sustainable packaging solutions and the use of renewable materials in ink formulations will drive the development activities in all ink technologies in line with the general market demand for sustainable solutions.

“We will therefore continue to intensify our own Circular Economy approach in 2024 to further strengthen our market position with regard to this important topic,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “For example, we are increasingly driving the development of functional coatings that enable sustainable packaging solutions in terms of a Circular Economy. The recent establishment of a global unit dedicated to functional coatings with effect from April 1, 2024, once again underlines this new strategic focus. This keeps us well on track to achieve our strategic goal of becoming a Circular Economy solutions company by 2025.

“Even though the ink and coating markets appear to remain soft for the time being, we have entered the year with ambitious goals to further expand our strong global position,” Dr. Wiedmann concluded. “All in all, we are aiming for strong growth in 2024 and beyond and will continue to make every effort to manage potential upcoming economic challenges in the best possible way.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups and tubes using flexographic, rotogravure, offset and digital printing.

Number of Employees: >4,800 in more than 35 countries (2022).

Comments: With its emphasis on packaging inks and coatings, Siegwerk is one of the major leaders in the packaging segment, which continues to enjoy growth. As such, Siegwerk had a very strong year in 2022, as sales rose sharply to nearly €1.34 billion ($1.46 billion).

This is particularly impressive considering the volatility in the global economy. Siegwerk CEO Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann noted that the volatile economic environment, with an ongoing impact of the COVID pandemic, continuously rising raw material and utility costs and the war in Ukraine, which caused serious supply chain disruptions around the world, made 2022 another challenging year full of uncertainties that hit the entire industry quite hard.

“Exploding cost increases for logistics and energy, especially in Europe and the US, and inflation rates at their highest for a long time kept the pressure on a very high level until the end of the year,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “Although the demand for packaging and corresponding inks and coatings stabilized throughout the year, we have seen a few softer months towards the end of 2022. This year, India, LATAM and Turkey are the strongest printing markets so far.”

But despite all the challenges and uncertainties, Siegwerk was able to also celebrate a number of successes around the world, starting in India.

“To keep up with the growing market demands in India and to better serve our customers locally, we for example have commissioned a new solvent-based blending center at our facility in Bhiwadi and have established a new warehouse and color matching center in Tauru, Haryana in 2022,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Due to this new infrastructure, combined with our 100% toluene-free manufacturing plant, we now have a fully food safe operation in India, which in a way revolutionizes the local packaging market.”

The addition of La Sorgente, an Italian manufacturer of high-quality water-based flexographic inks for paper & board applications as well as solvent-based inks for flexible packaging, has also proved to be another key move for Siegwerk.

“By acquiring La Sorgente, we expanded our footprint in Europe and further strengthened our local infrastructure and service for packaging printers in the fast-growing Italian market,” Dr. Wiedmann added.

Siegwerk puts tremendous emphasis on sustainability and earned numerous awards worldwide for its products.

“We have been honored with various global awards in terms of sustainability, from products that got considered as best sustainable innovation, through awards for operational sustainability management to customers developing award-winning packaging with the help of our solutions,” Dr. Wiedmann said.

In addition, Dr. Wiedmann pointed to Siegwerk’s continuous progress on its journey as circular economy driver within the printing and packaging industry throughout the last 12 months.

“We for example received the EcoVadis Silver Medal rating, underlining our leading position with regards to sustainable business practices and solutions across the inks and coatings industry,” he said. “Besides, we were the first ink manufacturer to join the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in December 2022 committing to carbon neutrality in line with the latest climate science.

“In line with our sustainability agenda, we were also continuously extending our portfolio of sustainable and eco-friendly inks, coatings and services to concretely support renewability and recyclability of packaging,” Dr. Wiedmann reported. “In India, we have launched the mineral oil-free ink range VEGA as a response to a growing demand for transparency and safer ingredients in packaging products.

“With SICURA Litho Pack ECO, we have also launched a new sustainable UV offset ink series for non-food paper and board applications that is formulated with more than 40% bio-renewable content, providing an environmentally friendly alternative to standard UV inks,” he added. “Just recently, we were also the first in the market to introduce a barrier coating solution with 100% natural content certified for the application on paper plates. By enabling their recycling through the existing paper recovery cycle, UniNATURE Water-Oil Barrier Coating is a sustainable alternative to replace restricted coatings on single-use paper plates.”

Dr. Wiedmann noted that packaging sustainability is a cross-industry challenge and task, and Siegwerk always partners with other experts along the supply chain to develop advanced packaging solutions with improved performance and recyclability.

“Together with Henkel, we for example created an innovative oxygen barrier coating last year that enables mono-material packaging solutions with better recyclability and better barrier properties,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “In another collaboration with German startup Wildplastic and the Hamburg University of Technology, we could conduct the first successful deinking trials of low density polyethylene (LDPE) packaging, showcasing the potential of post-consumer LDPE recycling. These are just a few examples of our collaboration efforts from the last 12 months.”

There is good news on the raw materials front, as the supply chain is improving. “The supply chain has stabilized again and raw material availability has significantly improved,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “However, energy and freight costs still remain at a high level compared to pre-pandemic levels.”

Overall, Dr. Wiedmann is optimistic about the future, as Siegwerk’s focus on sustainability fits perfectly with its customers.

“Going forward, the growing focus of printers and brand owners on sustainable packaging solutions and the use of renewable materials in ink formulations will drive the development activities in all ink technologies in line with the general market demand for sustainable solutions,” Dr. Wiedmann observed.

Dr. Wiedmann noted that circular economy requirements will be the driving key trend across the packaging value chain.

“We will further intensify our own circular economy approach throughout 2023 to make our mark as a differentiator in the marketplace by assuming a leadership position on this important issue for our future and the future of generations to come,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Siegwerk is on track to deliver on its strategic goal of becoming a circular economy solutions company by 2025. Furthermore, with an increase in industry standards, especially with regards to consumer and employee safety, we expect the demand for low migration solutions to further increase worldwide. Digital printing will also gain market share as it enables manufacturers to react even faster to specific customer demands.

“However, we will continue to face the challenges of strong cost pressures from energy costs and logistics costs throughout 2023,” Dr. Wiedmann concluded. “Nevertheless, we headed into the year with ambitious goals to continue growing our strong position within the packaging and printing markets. We are focusing on differentiation via innovation and digitalization to build new business opportunities while further investing in our infrastructure, technology and personnel to promote long-term growth for our future. All in all, we aim for growth throughout 2023 and beyond, and make every effort to manage the overall economic challenges as best as possible.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based and energy curable inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups, and tubes using flexographic, rotogravure, offset and digital printing.

Number of Employees: ~5,000 in more than 35 countries.

Comments: The packaging market remains very strong, and Siegwerk, which is predominantly focused on the packaging ink and coating segment, had a strong year, with sales up slightly to €1.185 billion ($1.38 billion).

Siegwerk CEO Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann observed that Siegwerk remained on an expansion track over the past 12 months with multiple initiatives across the globe.

“For example, in October 2021 Siegwerk formed a joint venture with Rotopack, marking the company’s entry into the Pakistan ink market,” Dr. Wiedmann pointed out. “Being the fifth most populous country, this partnership allowed Siegwerk to grow in an important white spot market.”

India is an important market for Siegwerk, and the company made some key moves to strengthen its position there. For example, in early 2022, the company commissioned a new solvent-based Blending Center at its Bhiwadi facility in India.

“Together with the company’s 100% toluene-free manufacturing plant, the new center further supports its industry leading growth in the country,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “To keep up with the growing market demands and to better serve its local customers in Northern India, Siegwerk has also established a new warehouse and color matching center in Tauru, Haryana, in April 2022.”

The company has also acquired La Sorgente Spa, one of the leading ink manufacturers in Italy.

“By acquiring the local manufacturer of high-quality water-based flexographic inks for paper & board applications as well as solvent-based inks for flexible packaging, Siegwerk expanded its domestic business and strengthened its local coverage, infrastructure, and service for packaging printers in the Italian region,” Dr. Wiedmann noted.

From a product perspective, there were several development highlights from Siegwerk during the last year.

“In India, we have for example launched the mineral oil-free ink range VEGA as a response to a growing demand for transparency and safer ingredients in packaging products,” Dr. Wiedmann reported. “Additionally, Siegwerk has launched a new sustainable UV offset ink series for non-food paper and board applications: SICURA Litho Pack ECO,”

Another development highlight is Siegwerk’s new generation of NC inks for flexible packaging applications, produced with the most state-of-the-art production equipment at its headquarters in Germany.

“The new NC innovation offers customers a higher flexibility through optimized technical performance and higher color strength, allowing an even better tailoring to individual needs,” said Dr. Wiedmann. “Besides, Siegwerk launched a UV-curing deinking primer suitable for pressure sensitive and wrap-around labels, as well as shrink sleeves made of polyolefin- and polyester-based materials.”

To further strengthen its commitment to sustainability and a circular economy, Siegwerk has updated its sustainability policy: The new HorizonNOW agenda reflects the company’s commitment to the society and the communities where it operates.

“Just recently, Siegwerk has even received the EcoVadis Silver Medal rating across all business units and regions,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “The company’s overall score is considered in the top 15 percent of companies in the manufacture of paints, varnishes and similar coatings, printing ink and mastics industry. This puts Siegwerk in a leading position with regards to sustainable business practices and solutions across the inks and coatings industry.”

Dr. Wiedmann noted that the business environment remains a challenging one.

“There is a combination of factors that are still causing havoc across many industrial sectors and in most markets around the world: The effects of the supply chain disruptions with the easing of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine are felt by all companies across the inks and coatings value chain,” Dr. Wiedmann observed.

“Raw materials, energy and transportation costs remain high due to over demand and shortages in the supply chain. For example, the paper sector has seen significant price increases driven by high energy costs and a shortage of paper and board in Europe. Moreover, with the rising fluctuations in oil prices, there is a strong upward price pressure for resins, which are key raw materials in plastic packaging production.”

In the last few months, Dr. Wiedmann said that Siegwerk has adapted and reorganized its processes systemically to these continuing challenges.

“In a significantly shorter time, we can now evaluate the effects on pricing, availability, logistics and relationships with our suppliers and derive actions more quickly,” he noted. “In this way, we ensure the availability of our products on the market and allow competitive terms for our customers even in a highly volatile environment.

“In this rapidly changing environment, you can only speculate on when the situation will stabilize again,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “For the time being we do not anticipate any immediate relief, but we have optimized our organization, processes, and systems to be able to make better decisions faster and serve our customers and support our employees worldwide.”

As for 2022, Siegwerk is working to overcome all of these challenges, but Dr. Wiedmann said that Siegwerk is in good position to thrive, particularly with its emphasis on sustainability.

“Like the rest of the industry, Siegwerk is suffering from rising costs, the war in Ukraine and the related sanctions against Russia,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Despite the challenging economic environment, Siegwerk is a fundamentally strong company and its teams have been working exceptionally well to serve their customers, achieve their sustainability targets and expand the company’s footprint.

“Going forward, the growing focus of printers and brand owners on sustainable packaging solutions and the use of renewable materials in ink formulations will drive the development activities in all ink technologies in line with the general market demand for sustainable solutions,” he added. “Meeting circular economy requirements will be the driving key trend across the packaging value chain. Siegwerk is on track to deliver on its strategic goal of becoming a circular economy solutions company by 2025.

“However, we will continue to face the challenges of strong cost pressures from increased raw material costs, energy costs and logistics costs throughout 2022,” Dr. Wiedmann concluded. “Nevertheless, we headed into the year with ambitious goals to continue growing our strong position within the packaging market. All in all, we aim for continued growth throughout 2022 and beyond, and make every effort to manage the overall economic challenges as best as possible.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups and tubes using flexographic, rotogravure, offset and digital printing.

Number of Employees: ~5,000 in more than 35 countries.

Comments: As the largest ink manufacturer that is predominantly dedicated to packaging ink Siegwerk has continued to grow in recent years. Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Siegwerk’s sales grew slightly overall.

“As a global company, we have felt the effects of COVID-19 from the very beginning in 2020 – first in China, India and Southeast Asia, then in Europe and finally in North and South America,” Siegwerk CEO Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann reported. “But as inks and coatings are essential for the manufacturing of packaging ensuring the access to critical supplies for food, pharma and hygiene, we have generally seen a solid demand for ink solutions in 2020.

“During the first half of the year, flexible packaging and labels for packaging have witnessed unusually strong growth in Europe and the US, primarily driven by overstocking during the initial months of the pandemic, but this demand normalized again during the second half of the year,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “The demand for water-based inks for paper & board applications like paper cups, tissues or similar has abruptly collapsed due to restaurant closures and event cancellations throughout the year. Besides, sheetfed inks for commercial and luxury packaging have experienced a strong collapse in demand as well due to retail shop closures and a related declining demand for luxury packaging last year.”

Dr. Wiedmann added that Siegwerk has been running its production facilities at peak levels while adhering to recommended practices designed to keep employees safe and healthy.

Compared to 2019 and adjusted for currency effects, Europe remained the most important region for Siegwerk, although it showed a slightly declining sales growth, mainly in the print media business. Asia also showed a slight growth decline, especially related to the pandemic, while North and Latin America in turn showed positive sales growth. As in the years before, the print media business continued to decline, while the market for packaging printing inks showed stable development throughout 2020.

Dr. Wiedmann observed that, in general, the demand for sustainable solutions aligned with the requirements of a Circular Economy has further increased in 2020, making it one of the key drivers in the ink and printing industries going forward.

“Siegwerk is already well-positioned to support customers in the development of sustainable and circular packaging solutions today,” he noted. “Our overall strategy remains focused on packaging printing inks and coatings and the expansion of our market leadership in labels and flexible packaging applications while becoming a circular and digital packaging solutions company enabling the development of forward-looking circular and digitalized packaging innovations.”

In terms of major news, Dr. Wiedmann was appointed CEO, succeeding Herbert Forker. A three-month transition period from January to March 2021 ensured an in-depth handover and smooth leadership transition. Dr. Wiedmann will continue to drive Siegwerk’s most recent strategic transformation to become a circular and digital packaging solutions company, further accelerating company growth with new business models beyond the company’s traditional printing inks business.

“It has always been in Siegwerk’s DNA to combine tradition and trust in a family business with innovation and modern skills,” said Dr. Wiedmann. “The global pandemic has rapidly changed the way of doing business around the world, which has led to economic challenges facing complete industries. Finding ways of working that protect employees and minimize the risk of infection has been in the center for many companies worldwide. Enabling virtual collaboration and work from home became key aspects for change and further drove the need for digitalized solutions.”

Siegwerk’s first priority is always to offer customers the best possible service, and the company opened new blending center sin Vietnam and Bangladesh, in order to optimally serve the local markets and expand its market position in the region.

From a product perspective, one highlight in 2020 was that Siegwerk became sales partner for Varcotec’s Lock 3 technology, further expanding its range of packaging inks and coatings with an antimicrobial dispersion varnish suitable for a wide range of applications and packaging types. Siegwerk also developed a new UV offset ink series and UV flexo coatings with outstanding deinking properties for commercial and packaging printing.

“These newly launched solutions increase the recyclability of UV-coated paper and board packaging and support the material-specific recycling targets according to the EU Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC),” said Dr. Wiedmann. “Besides, we were able to set a new standard for the recycling of PET bottles with our AQUANTUM Alkali Strippable Primer and SICURA UV/LED ink technology. According to the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) this proprietary washable ink technology significantly facilitates the deinking of UV/LED-printed PET shrink sleeves.

“In line with our commitment to drive packaging circularity, we also joined different industry alliances and initiatives such as Project STOP, HolyGrail 2.0 or the Circular Packaging Alliance to actively support the realization of a global circular packaging industry by improving waste management and recycling rates.   “Here it should be noted that sustainability is not just a lip service for Siegwerk. We strongly believe that the circular economy will be one of the most important success factors for our society in the future and thus also for our business as well as for that of our customers. That’s why packaging solutions for a circular economy are at the center of our innovation efforts.”

The last years have been quite challenging for the ink industry dealing with significant raw material supply disruptions, and COVID-19 accelerated these challenges.

“A number of interrelated problems are still exerting considerable pressure on printing ink manufacturers throughout Europe, with higher raw material costs, bottlenecks in key supply chains, and rising freight costs – to just name a few current concerns,” Dr. Wiedmann reported. “That’s why we still remain on high alert continuing to closely monitor overall developments. As global operator with a global purchasing organization, Siegwerk has long-term experience in establishing and tracking alternative suppliers and materials for the manufacture of our products and solutions. We are leveraging our robust global supply network across the world to maintain a competitive advantage and secure a supply as stable as possible.

“Moreover, we are continuously looking for formulation alternatives to ensure a consistently high-quality supply of raw materials meeting the discerning demands of our customers and have again raised our own benchmarks regarding long-term sustainability and recycling standards, which will impact all areas of our business including our raw materials,” he added.

Dr. Wiedmann observed that the ink and printing industries continued to normalize in early 2021.

“We already see that the paper packaging ink business is recovering after the demand plunged last year,” said Dr. Wiedmann. “At the end-consumer level, because of the increased security of availability of basic products, we didn’t experience overstocking and unusually high demand for food and hygiene packaging, which were the biggest winners in 2020. This was despite that lockdowns continued in various parts of the world.”

Going forward, Dr. Wiedmann said that the growing focus of printers and brand owners on sustainable packaging solutions and the use of renewable materials in ink formulations will drive the development activities in all ink technologies in line with the general market demand for sustainable solutions.

“Meeting the Circular Economy requirements will be the driving key trend across the packaging value chain,” said Dr. Wiedmann. “We will further intensify our Circular Economy approach throughout 2021 to make our mark as a differentiator in the marketplace by assuming a leadership position on this important issue for our future and the future of generations to come. Siegwerk is already at work focusing on our new strategic positioning to become a Circular Economy solutions company by 2025.

“Furthermore, with an increase in industry standards, especially with regards to consumer and employee safety, we expect the demand for low migration solutions to further increase worldwide,” he continued.

“Digital printing will also gain market share as it enables manufacturers to react even faster to specific customer demands. We will also see a continued development of digital platforms and digitalization tools streamlining processes and simplifying collaborations.

“We headed into the year with ambitious goals to continue growing our strong position within the packaging market. We are focusing on differentiation via innovation and digitalization to build new business opportunities while further investing in our infrastructure, technology and personnel to promote long-term growth for our future. All in all, we aim for continued growth throughout 2021 and beyond,” Dr. Wiedmann concluded.

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups and tubes using flexographic, rotogravure, offset and digital printing.

Number of Employees: ~5,000 in more than 35 countries.

Comments: As a result of its total focus on the packaging ink market, 2019 has been a relatively good year for Siegwerk, with overall turnover reaching €1,166 million ($1.31 billion). While Europe remained the top-selling market for the company, business in the emerging regions of Asia and Latin America has been constantly growing throughout the year.

“Overall, 2019 was marked by slightly lower industry growth rates due to the general economic environment, current macro-economic trends and rising costs,” said Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker. “However, Siegwerk has reached good growth rates – although below prior year levels – especially in our core business areas Flexible Packaging and Narrow Web.”

Forker observed that the demand for sustainable solutions aligned with the requirements of a Circular Economy has further increased in 2019, making it one of the key drivers in the ink and printing industries going forward.

“Siegwerk is already well-positioned to support customers in the development of sustainable and circular packaging solutions today,” he added. “Our overall strategy remains focused on packaging printing inks and the expansion of our market leadership in labels and flexible packaging applications while becoming a circular and digital packaging solutions company enabling the development of forward-looking circular and digitalized packaging innovations.”

As a result of COVID-19, the packaging ink industry has been responding to the increasing needs of the food and pharma segments.

“The food and pharma industry has been designated as a system relevant industry,” Forker noted. “System relevant industries have a special responsibility to maintain normal operations to deliver critical products associated with the safe distribution of food and medical products.

“Siegwerk has seen an increased demand for ink solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic so far,” he reported. “Inks and coatings are essential for the manufacturing of packaging ensuring the access to critical supplies for food, pharma and hygiene.”

In 2019, Siegwerk started with the construction of two new Blending Centers in Vietnam and Bangladesh to concretely extend its local footprint in South East Asia and India.

“The new centers will enable us to reduce lead times and get closer to our customers in the local markets to support them more effectively with individually formulated ink solutions matching their local requirements,” Forker reported.

Another milestone has been the commissioning of the largest fully automated production facility for printing inks in Europe at Siegwerk’s headquarters in Siegburg, Germany.

“This new Blending Center is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, serving as an example for the networked Industry 4.0,” Forker said. “Herewith, we have not only set a new quality standard for the production of customized inks and coatings but also further driven our own digitalization.”

Forker noted that the Circular Economy is currently the biggest topic. By aiming a maximum gain in recyclable resources and reusing them in marketable products, the Circular Economy ensures high recycling rates, which means on the other hand a lower use of primary or fossil resources.

“Several industry initiatives are already focusing on enhanced recycling properties such as CEFLEX (Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging), who will likely shape the inks and packaging markets with their conclusions driving the achievement of set recycling targets,” Forker said. “As a global ink manufacturer, we are actively cooperating with those initiatives as we are committed to increasing the recyclability of printed packaging with our inks and coatings addressing the needs of circular packaging solutions – today and in the future. Our goal is to become a Circular Economy solutions company supporting customers with customized solutions to rethink and redesign packaging in terms of the three key levers of a Circular Economy: reduce, reuse, and recycle.”

Forker observed that going forward, the growing focus of printers and brand owners on sustainable packaging solutions and the use of renewable materials in ink formulations will drive the development activities in all ink technologies in line with the general market demand for sustainable solutions.

“With an increase in industry standards, especially with regards to consumer and employee safety, we expect the demand for low migration solutions to further increase worldwide. Digital printing will also gain market share as it enables manufacturers to react even faster to specific customer demands,” he noted.

“We headed into the year with ambitious goals to continue growing our strong position within the packaging market, Forker concluded. “We are focusing on differentiation via innovation and digitalization to build new business opportunities while further investing in our infrastructure, technology and personnel to promote long-term growth for our future. All in all, we anticipate continued growth throughout 2020 and beyond.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups, tubes using flexographic, rotogravure offset and digital printing.

Number of Employees: 5,071 in more than 35 countries.

Comments: As the packaging segment continues to grow, so does Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA; the company had an excellent 2018, growing through both organic and new additions.

“2018 was a strong year for Siegwerk, with overall turnover reaching €1,116 billion,” said Herbert Forker, CEO and president Packaging LATAM & CUSA. “Siegwerk continued to grow its business organically and via acquisitions. Our overall strategy remains focused on packaging printing inks and the expansion of our market leadership in labels and flexible packaging applications. Siegwerk is further looking for continuous global expansion, especially in emerging Asian countries.

With the purchase of AGFA Graphics’ UV inkjet ink business for single pass packaging and labels, Siegwerk expanded its product offering for inkjet OEMs and printers. Siegwerk also acquired the Canadian flexographic ink company, Ultra Inks, a leading water-based flexographic ink manufacturer for narrow web and paper and board applications, further strengthening its Canadian business.

“Leveraging on Ultra Inks’ experienced team and strong reputation in the market, this collaboration complements our UV portfolio in the region and allows for a more comprehensive product offering and higher service level for customers,” Forker noted.

Siegwerk also expanded in Asia, adding a new blending center in Bangladesh.

“We decided to invest in a new state-of-the-art blending center in Bangladesh to strengthen our local infrastructure while getting closer to our customers in the country to even better support them with their locally specific printing requirements,” Forker observed. “Siegwerk has been supplying inks to Bangladesh for more than two decades and has developed a strong customer base with sustainable growth. The new center is expected to commence operations by the end of 2019 and will enable us to capitalize on the long-term growth potential of the market.”

The recent acquisitions follow closely on the heels of Siegwerk’s additions during late 2017 and early 2018, when the company added AGFA Graphics’ UV inkjet ink business and Brazilian ink manufacturer Tupahue Tintas.

“With the acquisition of AGFA Graphics’ UV inkjet ink business for single pass packaging and labels, Siegwerk can now leverage a strong platform to further develop not only UV, but also water-based digital inks for packaging and label applications,” Forker said. “Believing in the long-term growth potential of the emerging countries, Siegwerk specifically expanded its presence in Latin America by acquiring Tupahue Tintas, a leading Brazilian flexo and gravure ink provider, in December 2017. During 2018, Siegwerk Brazil focused on ensuring the smooth integration of the two companies to deliver the best possible ink solutions and services to Siegwerk customers.”

Another highlight last year was the launch of mySiegwerk, the new online customer portal for order and color management. With this digital tool, customers have transparent and easy access to the information on their orders while receiving more efficient workflows to make their work easier and faster. It was rolled out in April 2018 to Paper and Board customers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria (DACH region) and was also launched for several business units in China early 2019. It is planned to design and integrate new features into the customer portal on an ongoing basis and roll it out in further countries and locations during the coming years.

Forker added that the company’s charitable work is also a highlight. “As part of Siegwerk’s long tradition, we are always committed to contributing to the welfare of the society,” he said. “In 2018, Siegwerkers in Southeast Asia partnered with SOS Children’s Village to support children and young adults across Indonesia. The YouthCan! Program is one of such initiatives where Siegwerkers act as mentors, enabling the youth to build work skills and provide career guidance or direct work experience to facilitate the transition from the villages to real life.”

Like the rest of the industry, Siegwerk experienced continuous cost increases for raw materials in 2018.

“We took and continue to take all possible actions to minimize the effects on our customers,” Forker reported. “The last two years have been quite challenging for the ink industry dealing with significant raw material supply disruptions. We have seen the impact of REACH in the EC, ongoing supply disruptions due to serious industrial accidents and increased environmental, health and safety regulations in China and Europe, trade wars, and even an extended period of disruptions due to low water levels on the Rhine.”

Forker noted that as part of Siegwerk’s commitment to  industry-leading product safety, the company has always set its own benchmark standards on health and safety, exceeding general market standards, and also has developed built a strong network of suppliers.

“This has allowed the company to largely anticipate the tightened regulations in Europe and other countries,” he added.

“Nevertheless, as the remaining ink manufacturers rushed to catch up on compliance, before agreed deadlines, Siegwerk experienced some disruptions and price increases as existing supplier capacities were filled. As a global operator with a global purchasing organization, Siegwerk has long-term experience in establishing and tracking alternative suppliers for each raw material facilitating the handling of outages due to supply disruptions. All suppliers are audited to ensure that their standards and operating practices comply with the highest standards and in many cases, there are already long-term partnerships with Siegwerk.  As raw material shortages resulted from disruptions in Europe and China, this strong network of suppliers ensured that there were no significant supply disruptions to Siegwerk customers.

“However, Siegwerk was not immune to raw material price increases in the market related to these events,” Forker pointed out.

“As the raw material supply continues to stabilize, we remain on high alert to ongoing changes in terms of health, environmental and safety standards. In addition, we have again raised our own benchmarks regarding long-term sustainability and recycling standards, which will impact all areas of our business including our raw materials.”

Forker spoke about the growing importance of the Circular Economy, and Siegwerk’s efforts in the field
of recycling.

“The Circular Economy is currently the biggest topic regarding sustainability in Europe and already incorporated in legislation setting ambitious recycling targets for plastic packaging,” he added. “By aiming a maximum gain in recyclable resources and re-using them in marketable products, Circular Economy ensures high recycling rates, which means, in turn, a lower use of primary or fossil resources. Several industry initiatives are already focusing on enhanced recycling properties such as the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation or CEFLEX (Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging) who will likely shape the inks and packaging markets with their conclusions driving the achievement of set recycling targets.

“As a global ink manufacturer, we are actively cooperating with those initiatives as we are committed to increasing the recyclability of printed plastic packaging with our printing inks and varnishes addressing circular economy demands – today and in the future.

We believe the focus of current innovation management is clearly on recyclable printing inks, varnishes and packaging design. It is about ‘Design for recycling’ which involves transforming packaging to make it better for recycling than before, in the context of existing recycling technologies, with a corresponding increase in recycling rates without impairing the protective properties of the packaging and its other technical functions,” Forker noted.

As for the coming year, Siegwerk expects that the printing industry in the developed part of the world will grow at a solid pace, but the company foresees stronger growth in the emerging regions, specifically South Asia and the Middle East.

“In India, Siegwerk is already well-positioned to support the transition to safer, toluene-free solutions in the flexible packaging market,” Forker reported. “Moreover, we expect sustainability and the Circular Economy to become leading topics for the flexible packaging industry in the coming years. As a member of CEFLEX, a collaborative initiative of a European consortium of companies and associations representing the entire value chain of flexible packaging, Siegwerk emphasizes its strong commitment towards sustainability by engaging with industry partners and actively driving the development of advanced solutions to further strengthen a circular economy approach for flexible packaging.

“We headed into 2019 with ambitious goals to continue growing our strong position within the packaging market,” he concluded.

“We are focusing on differentiation via innovation and digitalization to build new business opportunities while further investing in our infrastructure, technology and personnel to promote long-term growth for our future. By continuing to produce high-quality products and by providing exceptional guidance and support, in terms of ink room management, color matching, and product safety, we anticipate continued growth throughout 2019 and beyond.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups, tubes using flexographic, rotogravure offset and digital printing.

Number of Employees: 5,051 in more than 35 countries.

Comments: The packaging segment is enjoying the most growth in printing. With its complete focus on packaging inks, Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA is also on the rise.

“Our global business fared quite well in 2017 with overall sales growing from €1.060 billion up to €1.079 billion,” said Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker. “Regardless of a negative sales impact due to the divestiture of our Web Offset business, we could benefit from both organic growth and acquisitions in the packaging segment as well as the resilience of our publication gravure business.”

With an eye on growing its packaging capabilities, Siegwerk has been active on the M&A front.

“In 2017, we have completed several acquisitions significantly expanding our portfolio and further strengthening our position as a full-range provider for packaging applications,” Forker said. “With the acquisition of SCHEKOLIN’s business unit Plastic Tubes and Laminates, we’ve broadened our portfolio by adding specialty UV varnishes suitable for plastic packaging including rigid tubes. We’ve also further strengthened our water-based ink business by acquiring UK-based Hi-Tech Products Ltd., a specialist supplier of high-quality water-based flexo inks for printing on corrugated board packaging, and Van Son Liquids B.V., one of the leading Dutch ink manufacturers of high-quality water-based flexo and gravure printing inks. With Tupahue Tintas, we’ve also added one of the Brazilian market leaders for flexo and gravure printing inks and varnishes to our Siegwerk family, specifically expanding our presence in Latin America.”

Forker noted that 2018 has already started with a very strong top-line performance, especially driven by organic growth.

“Our overall strategy remains focused on packaging printing and the expansion of our market leadership in labels and flexible packaging applications,” Forker continued. “In March 2018, we already reached an essential milestone for this year and significantly strengthened our digital business and inkjet technology by acquiring Agfa’s UV inkjet ink business for the single pass packaging and labels industry.”

The company continues to heavily invest in inkjet inks.

“To further get prepared for the markets of tomorrow, we’ve also opened a new production facility designated for inkjet inks at our Technical Center in Annemasse, France, in October 2017 laying the tracks for further expanding our digital ink offering,” Forker reported.

Another highlight in 2017 was Siegwerk’s new, low migration UV offset ink range SICURA Litho NutriEco, which was awarded Gold status of the “Cradle to Cradle Material Health Certification” by the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA).

“Hereby, we became the first ink manufacturer to market a low migration UV ink range that is suitable for cosmetics and food applications while complying with the highest international environmental research-related product standards,” added Forker.

Raw material prices are heavily impacting the ink industry, and have forced many ink companies, including Siegwerk, to announce price increases of their own.

“The industry has experienced recent sustained cost increases for quality raw materials,” Forker pointed out. “To ensure our customers benefit from continued high levels of quality, service and consistency, it has become necessary to pass on these higher costs. Although we are taking all possible actions to mitigate the effects, there is every indication that raw material supply will continue to be tight and prices will remain at higher levels, and possibly further increase, throughout 2018.”

Forker noted that Siegwerk is constantly working with its technology teams to get as many new sources of raw materials qualified as possible to avoid stock-outs and ensure continuous supply to customers.

“Our teams around the world are also working on how we can reverse engineer certain formulas so that we can produce certain materials on our own,” he added. “We for example internally produce polyurethane (PU) resins instead of purchasing them from third parties, which saves us money and allows us to create PU-based inks, which provide the exact desired result for our customers. We have PU production facilities in Annemasse, France, and Bhiwadi, India, but we also produce with partners in the US, South East Asia, China and in other European countries.

“We are also working on understanding the chemical composition of many raw materials,” he said. “This allows us to work with our suppliers on developing raw materials especially suited to our needs. With our Technical Supply Development teams in China and India, we, for example, have been developing suitable pigment grades that are created directly for Siegwerk and that provide independence, less risk and lower costs at optimal performance levels.”

Regulatory issues remain a serious concern on the packaging ink side, and Forker said that Siegwerk has seen heavy impacts due to the third tier of European REACH legislation, especially targeting low volume chemicals like photoinitiators that are used in UV curing inks.

“In this context, some widely used photoinitiators have been reclassified as reproductive toxic chemicals into category 1B forcing the phase-out of these substances,” he observed. “This phase-out is a direct consequence of the EuPIA Exclusion Policy appealing to the self-commitment of EuPIA members and substitutes to lower toxicity. This effect comes along with a potential short supply of photoinitiators due to governmental initiatives on environmental legislation and coinciding with major incidents at chemical plants in China.

“Even though regulatory activities on printed food contact materials, which were initially announced in Europe, have not materialized in concrete draft legislation yet, the packaging chain in Europe is already actively coordinating an industry position,” Forker noted. “Likewise, there are similar activities in Asia, especially in China, that also haven’t come to a conclusion yet.”

As for 2018, Forker expects packaging printing to gain further momentum this year.

“Growth is expected to continue at its current pace in the regions of EMEA, North America and Asia,” he added. “Latin America is expected to further recover and get back on track. Flexible packaging and narrow web will see the most growth in the market with an increase in industry standards, especially with regards to consumer and employee safety as low migration and toluene-free solutions gain share worldwide.

“Digital printing and UV/EB offset printing will also gain market share as it enables manufacturers to react even faster to specific customer requirements,” Forker continued. “It also addresses the growing short-run demand driven by brand owners looking for regionalization and personalization of their packaging. We have already seen a gradual volume switch from conventional UV to migration optimized UV inks in the printing market. LED UV curing will continue to be one of the growth drivers throughout the printing industry. Further expansion of LED UV ink applications will enable printers to use these inks for the full range of products.

“We headed into 2018 with ambitious goals to continue growing our strong position within the packaging market. We are focusing on differentiation via innovation and digitalization to build new business opportunities while further invest in our infrastructure, technology and personnel to promote long-term growth for our future. By continuing to produce high-quality products and by providing exceptional guidance and support, in terms of ink room management, color matching and product safety, we anticipate continued growth throughout 2018 and beyond,” Forker concluded.

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups, tubes using flexographic, rotogravure offset and digital printing.

Number of Employees: 5,200 in more than 30 countries.

Comments: A global leader in packaging inks, Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA had another strong year in 2016, with sales of $1.1 billion.

In a move to strengthen the business, as the print media market continued to decline, Siegwerk completed the sale of its Web Offset business to Flint Group. The divesture has allowed Siegwerk to further focus on the growing packaging ink segment.

Meanwhile, the purchase and subsequent integration of ACTEGA Colorchemie, and its employees within Siegwerk in May of last year, has given the company a competitive advantage in water-based inks for corrugated board applications.

“While packaging continues to grow significantly, on a global basis, Siegwerk’s strategy remains focused on packaging printing and the expansion of the company’s market leadership in labels and flexible packaging applications,” said Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker.

Siegwerk has been active in the M&A front during 2017 as well. In February, Siegwerk acquired UK-based Hi-Tech Products Ltd., a water-based flexo inks and coatings manufacturer specializing in the corrugated segment.

In the same month, Siegwerk acquired the business unit Plastic Tubes and Laminates from SCHEKOLIN AG, a packaging lacquer specialist located in Liechtenstein, adding specialty UV varnishes for plastic packaging, including rigid tubes.

“Like the acquisition of ACTEGA Colorchemie, 2016 prepared Siegwerk to make additional acquisitions in Europe in the first half of 2017,” Forker noted. “This year, Siegwerk acquired two new businesses – a water-based ink supplier and a plastic packaging business.

“UK-based Hi-Tech Products Ltd. was purchased to expand Siegwerk’s already strong water-based ink business,” he added. “The second acquisition in 2017 was the Plastic Tubes and Laminates business purchased from SCHEKOLIN AG, in Liechtenstein. This addition has broadened Siegwerk’s portfolio by adding specialty UV varnishes suitable for plastic packaging, including rigid tubes. This further expansion of the product line enhances Siegwerk’s position as a full-range provider for packaging applications.”

In 2016, as part of Siegwerk’s strategy to further invest in creating Centers of Excellence in manufacturing on a regional level, Siegwerk opened its most modern office and lab building, the new INKube in Shanghai. Further progress was made in establishing a new Center of Excellence in China for solvent-based inks for Flexible Packaging and Tobacco.

Also in Asia, the important South East Asia region has been strengthened by splitting it into two sub-regions: South East Asia (SEA)-North covering Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam and SEA-South covering Indonesia and Philippines. In India, Siegwerk built a new leadership team under the incoming CEO for India, Ashish Pradhan. In China, Thomas Auris joined Siegwerk as the president of the Greater China operation.

Forker noted that Siegwerk’s digital transformation is fully in focus.

“As a key component of Siegwerk’s forward-thinking Vision 2020 strategy, the digital transformation of the company has been put in motion with the establishment of a new Digital Business Unit, based in Berlin, Germany,” Forker said. “The team has taken the lead on driving digitalization as a means to grow the business and enhance customer service and satisfaction.”

Being an international leader in the demanding packaging field, Siegwerk’s customers count on the company to provide expertise in the myriad regulations.

“Globally, Siegwerk sees a trend triggered by customer protection which concerns the harmonization of the basic principles of legislative approaches to control migration,” said Forker. “These include: positive lists, risk assessments, 10 ppb (parts per billion) as the default detection limit and functional barriers. In general, Siegwerk actively supports these proceedings at the association level, and through direct contacts with the appropriate regulatory authorities.

“Around the world, brand owners have set global safety standards and policies for their products in an attempt to minimalize regional differences and internal complexity,” he added. “Siegwerk has seen a trend in which more and more brand owners are adhering to these global standards. At Siegwerk, there remains strong commitment to apply the exclusion policy developed and defined by EuPIA (European Printing Ink Association) and adhere to the principles of GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) on a global scale. Siegwerk has harmonized its approaches, apart from Product Safety and Regulatory (PSR), which include: occupational safety, plant safety and fire protection. These are all components of Siegwerk’s overall sustainability platform.”

Siegwerk puts tremendous emphasis on community activities, notably the SOS Children’s Village. Forker reported that worldwide, Siegwerk is committed to sustainable development and the advancement of young people as part of the company’s Guiding Principles.

“In the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Siegwerk focuses on supporting disadvantaged children and young adults,” he observed. “The support ranges from lessons and training, supporting refugees and providing food, through to dedicated support for several international communities through the SOS Children’s Village organization.”

Every year since 2010, a larger project has been organized by Siegwerk’s corporate headquarters in Siegburg, Germany. Through 2017, seven Lighthouse Projects have been initiated in Mexico, India, the Philippines, Brazil, Vietnam, Chile, and this year, in Guatemala.

“Throughout our global network, the villages are supported locally by the various Siegwerk country organizations, where we serve as local partners,” Forker explained.

“These bigger projects are complemented by employees’ local activities in the communities of Siegwerk’s worldwide sites. In total Siegwerk, has donated several hundred thousand dollars to SOS Children’s Villages worldwide. For its social involvement Siegwerk received the prestigious SOS Children’s Village Cup three times in a row. In 2016, Siegwerk was awarded with the highest honor of gold.”

Forker said that Siegwerk expects packaging printing to gain more momentum in 2017.

“Growth is expected to continue at its current pace in the regions of EMEA, North America and Asia,” he noted. “Latin America is expected to get back on track during the latter part of the year. Flexible packaging and narrow web will see the most growth in the market with an increase in industry standards, especially with regards to consumer and employee safety (low-migration and toluene-free solutions gaining share worldwide).

“Digital printing and UV/EB offset printing will also gain market share as it enables manufacturers to react even faster to specific customer requirements,” Forker added. “It also addresses the growing short run demand driven by brand owners wanting regionalization and personalization of their packaging. By continuing to produce high quality products and by providing exceptional guidance and support, in terms of ink room management, color matching, and product safety, Siegwerk anticipates continued growth throughout 2017 and beyond.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes using flexographic, rotogravure and offset printing.

Number of Employees: 5,000 in more than 30 countries

Comments: As a global leader in packaging inks, Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA had a good year in 2015, with sales in terms of euros increasing by more than 10%. Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker said that the company’s focus on packaging ink is key to its success.

“Looking at the overall performance, 2015 was a good year for Siegwerk,” Forker said. “We’ve seen some sales growth, achieving €1.1 billion in annual sales. Especially Asia, one of our growth regions in which we are investing continuously to expand our local capacities and offerings, has shown a good performance. As the print media market is still decreasing while packaging continues to grow significantly on a global base, we keep on with our strategy to focus on packaging printing and expand our market leadership in labels and flexible packaging applications.”

Siegwerk enjoyed growth in all geographic regions during 2015, with flexible packaging and low migration ink systems important drivers for expansion.

“In 2015, we could observe the highest growth in the Asian region, followed by EMEA, USA and Canada – all with a moderate growth,” Forker reported. “The demand for publication inks is further slowing down due to a decreasing print media market and therefore had a negative impact on the overall industry performance last year. However, packaging printing is performing very well, with a significant growth in 2015.

“Over the last years, we could especially note a steady growth in the demand for flexible packaging,” he added. “An increasing interest in new packaging materials and new requirements in packaging applications influenced the overall development of the ink market. Next to innovative ink solutions covering the requirements of new substrates and packaging formats, brand owners are also asking for new special effect inks to highlight packaging with unique designs. Besides, we see globally significant demand in food-safe ink solutions, leading to growth in all ink technologies (solvent-based, water-based, UV) formulated with adequate raw materials that fulfill food safety standards. The area of low migration ink systems is one of the largest growing in this context.”

To met the needs of customers, Siegwerk is continuing to invest heavily in technical service and manufacturing.

“In line with our investment focus on creating Centers of Excellence in manufacturing on a regional level that we started in 2014 in order to ramp up our infrastructure and improve global processes, we further followed this way and finished our first sub-projects in 2015,” Forker noted. “In North America we have invested in automation and increased capacity within the manufacturing of water-based and energy curable products in Morganton, NC. This investment has helped to provide a more consistent quality and timelier response to the growing narrow web market in North America.

“The next sub-project will involve investments in the solvent-based manufacturing headquarters in Des Moines, IA, to also improve efficiencies allowing for a better response to a local customer base and access to new opportunities,” he added. “Getting closer to our customers and offering the best quality worldwide is an ongoing commitment for us. We plan on continuing to invest in both the traditional markets like North America and Western Europe as well as the emerging markets like Asia and Latin America.”

At the end of 2015, Siegwerk announced the opening of a new sales subsidiary in the Netherlands, which brings the number of Siegwerk’s locations to more than 70 around the world. The company also is investing in its Asia-Pacific operations.

“We have opened a new application center in Indonesia to address the growing demand of the local market, and have also started investment plans for our footprint in China in order to support our growth strategy and expand our local presence,” Forker said.

In line with increasing demand for low migration and UV applications, Siegwerk introduced new ink solutions and varnishes especially suitable for these print applications.

For narrow web applications, Siegwerk presented a new UV flexo white for sleeves (Flex White Sleeve 0003). Siegwerk also introduced a new low migration two-component UV laminating adhesive especially developed for food labels. It can be used for inline lamination of self-adhesive polyethylene and polypropylene laminated films printed with Siegwerk’s UV series SICURA Nutriflex 10, a low migration series for practically all labeling applications in the food industry.

Low migration UV waterless inks are another area of interest for customers, and Siegwerk launched SICURA Nutri WL for labels and packaging in the food industry.

In the area of sheetfed, Siegwerk introduced an optimization of its UV offset matt varnish for the production of folding boxes for luxury packaging, such as cosmetics, perfumes and spirits. The abrasion resistance of the new varnish has been significantly increased, which is necessary for the harsh transport conditions that apply to packaging. With SICURA Litho Nutrimetal, Siegwerk launched low migration one-component metallic inks.

Interest in environmentally friendly inks continues to grow.

“Another ongoing trend goes towards environmentally compatible inks, which is paving the way for water-based inks to be used in packaging printing too,” said Forker. “Siegwerk experts have created a range of flexo printing inks that meet high market standards in terms of non-absorbent surfaces and reverse printing. An investment plan for a new production line for water-based inks was rolled out in 2015 to strategically extend capacities to meet high quality standards and address the demand for customized printing ink solutions.”

Forker said that Siegwerk anticipates some challenges ahead, with economic concerns are pricing pressures among them, but overall, packaging remains an excellent market.

“In general, we expect a further slowdown of growth in many developing countries, especially in Latin America because of current economic challenges,” he noted. “In mature markets, we will see a pressure on margins and it will be key to continue working closely with customers in order to develop optimal solutions that fit their individual needs and support them with guidance and technical know-how for the best-in-class printing results they desire.

“Packaging printing will further gain momentum in 2016 shaping new trends for the industry,” Forker observed. “One of the current trends is the growing short run demand that is driven by brand owners desiring regionalization and personalization as well as effect varnishes and special finishing of their product packaging. This trend will further drive growth of digital printing technologies in packaging as it enables packaging manufacturers to react even faster to specific customer requirements. In addition, the speed of flexible packaging printing presses continues to increase – up to 2,000 fpm – which also requires new formulation demands on traditional ink technology.

“Furthermore, we expect a volume switch from conventional UV to low migration UV inks in the printing market for this year,” he added. “LED UV curing will also be one of the growth drivers. Further expansion of LED UV ink applications will enable printers to use these inks for the full range of products. The focus of printers and brand owners for sustainable and innovative packaging printing will also drive the development activities in all ink technologies. That’s why we are developing eco-friendly inks for sustainable packaging solutions and always work on assessing ways to further improve the ecological footprint of our inks with no loss of performance.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and specialty liquid inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, narrow web labels, tobacco and folding carton using flexographic, rotogravure and offset printing.

Number of Employees: 4,800 in more than 30 country organizations.

Comments: Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA had a solid year in 2014, with sales remaining steady in terms of euros, although the dollar value declined due to currency fluctuations.

“Looking at the overall performance in 2014, we had a good year,” said Seigwerk CEO Herbert Forker. “We slightly improved our sales figures and grew our business, especially in Asia. In that region we continue to invest significantly, especially in infrastructure to be closer to our customers and increase capacities as well as in people to be able to provide the best quality and service.”

A global leader in the packaging ink segment, Siegwerk has seen growth in the emerging markets, with the highest increase observed in Asia, followed by Latin America and Eastern Europe.

“The reasons for this development are manifold: more people are moving from rural to central areas to find better jobs, to earn more money and to consume more,” Forker observed.

“When it comes to quality improvement, the before mentioned trends lead to a focus on food packaging,” he added. “In this segment, low migration inks, and guidance to apply them correctly, play a pivotal role. Here we offer a wide range of products and solutions going along with a worldwide know-how and service network.”

During the past year, Siegwerk focused a lot of its efforts and investments on ramping up infrastructure and improving its processes worldwide.

“We created new Centers of Excellence, especially in Asia, to produce our master inks, and we upgraded our application technology capacities worldwide,” Forker said. “In Europe and North America, we rearranged our production facilities to focus on one specific ink technology each. We further expanded and globally aligned our business units, especially with regards to our packaging segments. This will help us to better exchange know-how worldwide, become more efficient and to better meet our customers’ expectations.

“In detail, this means we further extended our R&D capacities with our Global Innovation Network (GIN),” he added. “They provide their technical expertise and work on increasing the share of renewable raw materials in our printing inks, for example. Along with this internal development, we initiated a service offensive by creating a global organization for our InHouses in 25 countries. Just as our On-Site Consultant teams, these experts support customers to optimize their processes to create savings potentials and become more efficient.”

Forker said that Siegwerk will continue to invest both in the traditional markets in North America and Western Europe as well as in the emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

“In Asia, we significantly built up staff to grow with the market and meet our customers’ requirements with regards to proximity, service quality and know-how,” he said. “Specifically in the U.S. and Canada, Siegwerk has had key capital projects with regards to its manufacturing capabilities, including new dispensing and automated-fill improvements within its water-based operations and expanded capacity within its energy curable operations. Process investments are also beginning in the solvent-based manufacturing operation as well.”

Along these lines, Siegwerk has become a sponsor of the EPDA (European Packaging Design Association). This provides opportunities to share information, discuss views and insights with other stakeholders of the entire packaging development process. EPDA provides a platform for brand owners, design professionals and the packaging industry, including ink suppliers.

Siegwerk’s R&D team excelled during the past year, introducing a wide range of new products.

“Taking into account increasing demand for low migration and UV applications, we were proud to introduce a whole range of products and solutions,” Forker said. “Siegwerk participated again in several trade shows with topics like UV LED ink technology, shrink sleeve ink solutions and water-based lamination ink solutions.”

In sheetfed, Siegwerk developed the SICURA low energy (NRJ) UV series, which offers high print quality as well as excellent economic and eco-friendly performance. The company also introduced SICURA Board Nutritec, the new migration-optimized UV offset series, which can also be used for narrow web applications. It is now made with raw materials free of BPA (Bisphenol-A).

For narrow web applications, SICURA WL Nutritec, the new UV waterless offset low migration ink series, meets the stringent requirements in the sensory and migration area, especially for labels and packaging in the pharmaceutical and food industry. It provides perfect printability and adhesion with minimal odor and low migration potential.

Siegwerk’s ink experts succeeded in developing a low migration primer for in-mould labels and wet conditions. This two-component UV dry offset primer gives outstanding adhesion on the most difficult substrates and excellent mechanical properties in wet conditions.

The company also developed sophisticated new color matching technology for printers.

“Siegwerk’s new FastMatch value-added service offering allows the label printers to create recipes very quickly and with exceptional precision from basic inks, and then also to mix the inks themselves – a highly refined approach to existing color matching technology reducing downtime and thus wastage as well as facilitating quicker changeovers between jobs,” Forker said.

Apart from daily business, Siegwerk successfully lives up to its family values by supporting children’s causes globally.

“For many years now, Siegwerk has been supporting projects to the favor of children all over the world, with every country organization contributing to this good cause,” Forker said. “In 2014, Siegwerk received the SOS Children’s Village Cup, which was awarded for the first time, for its long-term engagement.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and specialty liquid inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, narrow web labels, tobacco and folding carton using flexographic, rotogravure and offset printing.

Number of Employees: 4,600 in more than 30 country organizations.

Comments: Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA is a leader in packaging inks, and the company recorded a solid year in 2013, with sales growing to $1.33 billion.

“Last year again was successful for Siegwerk, with a continued solid financial performance,” said Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker. “In terms of net sales, Siegwerk was able to grow by 2.3% (FX-adjusted) compared to 2012. Looking at the regional packaging ink business, net sales in EMEA were stable (FX-adjusted, compared to 2012), whereas the emerging markets in Asia and Latin America experienced significant growth, with a double-digit increase in Asia (FX-adjusted, compared to 2012).

“Although the Print Media market has been continuously declining, Siegwerk was still able to win market share,” Forker added. “Over the past years, Siegwerk has continuously shifted its portfolio from Print Media to Packaging, with now 85% in packaging inks, thereby significantly reducing its exposure to the dramatically shrinking Print Media market.”

Forker noted that Siegwerk can see a slight growth in the global market for printing inks, largely driven by packaging in emerging markets.

“At the same time, ink volumes in publication applications have been further declining,” he added. “As a general trend, all ink suppliers have continued to push sustainable raw material sources and to boost the environmental performance of their products. Opportunities in low migration inks for food packaging have been increasing.

“Geographically, packaging ink volume in traditional markets like EMEA and North America has been stable or even declining,” Forker added. “Having said that, we still see growth areas in EMEA, mainly in Southern and Eastern Europe, with countries like Turkey and Poland driving this trend. Looking at the EMEA packaging market development by ink technology, we perceived a decline in all segments, with only UV inks, and to a lesser extent solvent-based inks, growing.”

Forker noted that Asia continues to be the fastest-growing region, and added that the markets in Latin America showed some moderate growth. However, an increasing number of consumers and a subsequent growth of global packaging demand are expected to drive an increase of ink volumes in South and Central America.

In order to increase operational efficiency in the traditional markets and to create the conditions for further growth, Siegwerk started a number of projects, investing in infrastructure and technology upgrades. This includes the consolidation of the company’s supply chain footprint by establishing Centers of Excellence that focus on one ink technology only, thus bundling competencies and know-how to ensure optimized ink performance and production efficiency per site.

“Living up to our growth ambitions, we invested significantly in infrastructure, both in traditional and new markets,” Forker reported. “Investments in Latin America included the opening of a new state-of-the-art facility in Colombia to cover the growing demand in the flexible packaging sector and the expansion of our warehouse in Chile. Additionally, Siegwerk opened a new branch in Peru at the beginning of 2014.”

In the U.S., Siegwerk opened its new Center of Printing Excellence to offer customers on-press testing capabilities. The center houses a pilot press with capabilities to print gravure or flexo for use with solvent-based or water-based ink technology. The equipment is planned to be further expanded to include extrusion lamination capabilities. Siegwerk CUSA’s Center of Printing Excellence is dedicated to ink product development as well as co-development with customers and suppliers on specific projects. The pilot press also allows for accelerated trialing and commercialization of new solutions and technologies.

Looking at Asia, highlights include the commissioning of a state-of-the-art polyurethane resin manufacturing plant by Siegwerk India, the installation of a new GAN (Global Analytical Network) laboratory in Malaysia and the new Blending Center in Vietnam, which successfully went into operation.

In Moscow, Siegwerk Russia established a new Technology Center for Flexible Packaging to meet growing market demand and the resulting need for technical guidance and support. With additional lab space and dedicated technicians, this Center of Competence offers local service with quick response times while leveraging the worldwide know-how of application technology experts across the Siegwerk group.

In order to serve its global customers with the same high standards everywhere, Siegwerk developed further processes and tools to foster global knowledge exchange and to strengthen local capabilities, such as having temporary delegations of colleagues supporting local teams in the emerging markets with their know-how and experience.

“Under the umbrella ‘Global technological guidance and support,’ Siegwerk offers dedicated technical support, consulting and training to customers anywhere in the world, including, for example, ink portfolio simplification, color management, on-site consulting as well as product safety and regulatory support,” Forker said.

In the emerging markets, Siegwerk will continue to invest in infrastructure.

“A prominent example is China,” Forker noted. “With an urbanization rate of around 53%, China has already become a significant market for packaging materials. As this trend continues, consumption will further expand. In order to adapt Siegwerk’s Center of Excellence in Shanghai for future growth, the company is investing in a new office and lab building. This new building will integrate all business units’ sales and technology functions, all labs plus the Global Innovation Network and the Global Sourcing Team under one roof.”

In terms of new products, Siegwerk focuses on the production and development of environmentally friendly inks, and its PSR (Product Safety & Regulatory Support) consulting services contribute to ensuring consumer protection and food safety. Siegwerk inks already contain renewable raw materials, and Siegwerk aims to constantly increase this share.

Siegwerk recently introduced a new generation of sustainable ink products based on hybrid technology, which completely fulfills customers’ requirements regarding sustainability and other quality aspects. This new UniRICS series is a water-based ink system with 10%-20% renewable raw materials for corrugated post print and preprint applications.

“To formulate this premium quality ink, a totally new polymer, a ‘hybrid’ of bio-monomers and ‘standard oil derivate’ acrylic monomers, is utilized,” Forker said. “To increase the renewable content of our ink even more, without losing performance or increasing costs, Siegwerk will further research this hybrid technology.”

Newly developed for label printing are special UV inks for LED curing. This unique achievement involved developing UV inks for the specific radiation spectrum of LED light, which fully cure despite low radiation energy and are equal to conventional UV inks when it comes to drying speed. Machine speeds of more than 300 feet per minute (100 meters per minute) are attained without any problem. Further benefits of UV printing with LED are low energy consumption, no need for ozone extraction and improved occupational safety.

For flexible packaging, Siegwerk developed a robust solution for high speed, high-density flexographic lamination inks. This nitrocellulose-based ink system is designed to perform under high speed printing surpassing 2,000 feet per minute (600 meters per minute) while continuing to provide strong color density and excellent bonding performance.

Another key area of expertise for Siegwerk is product safety. To help customers mitigate regulatory and food contamination risks, Siegwerk provides information on food safety regulations and brand owner requirements, gives practical guidance how to produce safe and compliant packaging solutions and offers related trainings. To proactively provide customers with 24/7 information and support, several web tools have been implemented, such as online support for frequently asked questions, technical and product safety data sheets for download as well as a worst case calculator.

Apart from the development of new environmentally friendly products, Siegwerk actively supports several initiatives for a better future, like the SAVE FOOD initiative, which fights against global food wastage. As part of the Innovationparc Packaging at the Interpack exhibition in Duesseldorf, Germany, Siegwerk presented its sustainability strategy, which was introduced in 2008, and how packaging contributes to avoid food waste, with safe packaging ink solutions playing a major role.

 Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and specialty liquid inks and functional coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, narrow web labels, tobacco and folding carton using flexographic, rotogravure and offset printing.

Number of Employees: 4,500 in more than 30 country organizations.

Comments: A leader in packaging inks, Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA had an excellent year in 2012, with sales increasing more than 4% to €1.01 billion ($1.31 billion).

“Siegwerk did well last year,” said Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker. “We were able to increase our financial performance again after the raw material price driven downturn in the years before and grew as planned in the emerging markets. Our focus on packaging inks paid off, benefiting from rising demands, especially in countries like China and India, where we have a strong presence. However, like our competitors, we have been facing volatile raw material prices, and the publication ink market is decreasing even faster than expected.”

While Siegwerk enjoyed growth in its core packaging ink segment and in the emerging markets, the publication sector in mature markets was difficult.

“There are regions like Asia and Latin America where we encountered a rising demand for inks, but there were also lowlights, mainly in the mature markets,” Mr. Forker said. “The print media markets in Europe showed disastrous tendencies, and I don’t expect any long-term recovery here. Raw material prices overall are now stabilizing at a high level and we are carefully monitoring availabilities and costs.”

To meet increasing demand, Siegwerk continues to invest in its facilities in emerging markets.

“In general, we invested a lot in infrastructure in the emerging markets,” Mr. Forker said. “With new blending centers in the Philippines and in Vietnam, we opened facilities close to our customers in the Southeast Asian region. From our existing production network, we further developed our business in South America and in the Middle East.”

Siegwerk’s R&D team has long been a driver of the company’s growth, and the past year has seen the company move forward with new food packaging products.

“We introduced a new ink series for food applications, Tempo Nutripack 2, which fulfills the highest standards of low migration,” said Mr. Forker. “We are also the first ink producer to make available all product safety data sheets online, so that customers can easily access them.”

One key goal for Siegwerk was improving its performance, and the company reinforced and extended excellence initiatives in all major functions to globally improve its performance.

“We strive for improvement in all parts of the value chain to remain a value adding partner for our customers,” Mr. Forker said. “To even better serve our global customers, exchange of know-how plays a critical role.”

As sustainability and product safety are becoming increasingly important to its customers, Siegwerk is working hard on its end.

“In 2008, our board committed to a sustainability policy and the efforts have paid off,” Mr. Forker noted. “And in everyday work, we continuously reduce the carbon footprint of our products by recycling solvents and reducing energy and water consumption. Beyond that, we develop customized solutions with our customers on a daily basis to help them deliver high quality and safe print solutions.”

Mr. Forker said that Siegwerk is focusing on growth areas while also improving its efficiency in the coming year.

“Looking ahead, we will further follow a two-fold strategy,” Mr. Forker said. “On the one hand, we put our focus on profitable growth in emerging markets. This is crucial because our customers in countries like India, China or Brazil are growing and they expect us to continuously improve our infrastructure and service level. In these markets, we are heavily investing in infrastructure and capacity.

“On the other hand, we will face stagnating or even decreasing volumes in the European markets and the U.S.,” Mr. Forker added. “For some areas like publication, the downward trend will continue. So it will be decisive for us to focus our internal efforts on restructuring and efficiency-increasing projects. All this is intended to best supply our customers with Siegwerk’s quality solutions and services as a reliable partner.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and specialty liquid inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, narrow web labels, tobacco and folding carton using flexographic, rotogravure and offset printing.

Number of Employees: 4,400 in more than 30 country organizations.

Comments: A leader in the packaging ink field, Siegwerk celebrated its 100th anniversary of the Siegwerk brand in style with a terrific year in 2011, enjoying greater than 18% growth as its sales rose to €969 million ($1.34 billion).

Siegwerk and its predecessor organizations date back to 1830 in textile printing. While the vast majority of printing houses produced their own inks, Siegwerk was one of the first companies to also market the inks that it had developed for its own use to external customers.

“The decision to specialize in ink production marks the true birth of the ‘Siegwerk’ brand,” said Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker. “This anniversary was celebrated in each of Siegwerk’s more than 30 country organizations with colorful family events.”

In some locations, so-called INKdays – interactive workshops around the world of printing – were held for Siegwerk’s customers and partners.

“The main event at the headquarters in Siegburg was a great success, as 300 international participants experienced future-oriented topics and interesting discussions,” Mr. Forker said. “In focus were packaging trends as well as our value-added services, such as on-site consulting and HSE-related topics.

The newly opened Siegwerk Museum at the headquarters in Siegburg, Germany, vividly illustrates the company tradition while always pointing to the present and even future developments.”

Food packaging safety and sustainability have become important topics for ink manufacturers. One of the major trends Siegwerk is focused on is low migration solutions, especially for food packaging applications. A whole series of new products has been developed, such as UniRICS and Tempo Nutripack for food packaging, which are mostly based on vegetable raw materials and show extremely good low migration properties.

In the area of services, the On-site Consulting team has been expanded as their expertise has been increasingly requested. With their holistic approach regarding customers’ processes, they are able to optimize resources and achieve process savings.

“Consulting has also been a growing part in our Global HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) and Sustainability department,” Mr. Forker said. “How to protect the environment with regards to products as well as the entire value chain is becoming more and more important. We provide valuable insights and know-how.

“With the Sustainability Brochure we published in 2011, we took a major step forward in sharing our sustainability policy and requirements,” Mr. Forker added. “Many examples from the Siegwerk world show how sustainability is lived today and that it has always been an essential part of the company culture since the early years.”

A major highlight for Siegwerk CUSA in 2011 was the integration of Environmental Inks into the Siegwerk team.

“This union has proven to be an excellent fit in terms of expanded technical offerings, stronger infrastructure, and manufacturing synergies for both organizations,” Mr. Forker said. “This acquisition also allows Siegwerk and Environmental Inks to further develop sustainable solutions for our customer base.”

Siegwerk is building another pillar for future growth in the form of the world’s largest automated ink production plant. Construction work has begun at the headquarters in Siegburg, Germany. At around €20 million and scheduled for completion by the end of 2013, the project is one of the largest and strategically most important projects for Siegwerk.

“Annual production of up to 33,000 tons of nitrocellulose-based packaging inks is planned for the facility in the future,” Mr. Forker said. “Automation, however, will not only provide us with considerably higher capacity. The working conditions and occupational safety will also be greatly improved for each individual employee and we will achieve an even more consistent product quality.

“These are only two of many projects to provide Siegwerk’s customers with the best products and services,” Mr. Forker added. “A special focus lies on emerging markets. Investment in infrastructure and the introduction of new technologies, especially in industrialized countries, will help optimize our offer. Just recently, new blending centers were opened in the Philippines, Indonesia and Colombia. Numerous small campaigns, with the goal of better organizing processes and quality consistency while increasing occupational safety, support our growth objectives. We welcome the future.”

Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and specialty liquid inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, narrow web labels, tobacco and folding carton using flexographic, rotogravure and offset printing.

Number of Employees: 4,400 in more than 30 country organizations.

Comments: Siegwerk had a very successful year in 2010, with sales growing 14% to €874 million ($1.16 billion) and adding Environmental Inks and Coatings (EIC), a U.S.-based label and narrow web specialist, to its fold. Meanwhile, the company is celebrating its 100th anniversary of the “Siegwerk” brand this year.

On Nov. 30, 2010, Siegwerk finalized the acquisition of EIC, one of the largest ink suppliers to the narrow web label market in the U.S. and Canada. The newly formed organization operates as “Environmental Inks – a member of the Siegwerk group.”

EIC had sales of approximately $40 million in 2009. It operates entities in the U.S. and Canada and employs 170 people. EIC is the market leader in the narrow web segment in the U.S., serving the packaging and label manufacturing industries with water-based and energy curable inks and coatings.

“EIC’s strengths complement our product portfolio and our strategy to provide sustainable solutions,” said Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker. “Over the past decades, EIC has built a strong reputation for environmentally friendly water-based inks for the growing and demanding narrow web segment.”

The acquisition of EIC is in line with a clear strategy Siegwerk has defined for its North American business portfolio.

“Like Siegwerk, EIC is known for consistently high quality, reliable technical sales representatives and exceptional individual service, especially in water-based technology,” explained Mr. Forker. “EIC is well positioned to capitalize on excellent growth prospects, particularly in the segment of self-adhesive labels. EIC is the ideal match between Siegwerk’s strategic needs and the existing competencies in the group.”

Today, a large portion of Siegwerk USA’s market share involves flexible packaging customers operating wide web printing presses. Almost 80% of 2009 revenues were realized in this customer segment, which is dominated by solvent-based ink technology. Together with Siegwerk’s recognized competencies in UV-based inks, the combined businesses will be the market leader in narrow web labels, offering state-of-the-art solutions across the whole technology spectrum.

During the past few years, higher raw materials costs have been a major concern for ink manufacturers, and the past year accelerated these problems as availability of key raw materials becomes a serious issue.

“Higher raw material prices have such a big impact on our business that we have to pass on some of these costs to our customers,” Mr. Forker noted. “We work hard to offset as much of the additional cost as we reasonably can; productivity programs, search for cheaper raw material solutions, purchasing efforts and efficiency measures from last year are continued.

“The situation has not eased in the first half of 2011, and recent supplier announcements resulted in further price increases and continued tightness on the supply side,” Mr. Forker added.

Worldwide capacity reductions and new levels of HSE responsibility and sustainability have led to a smaller supply base for defined raw materials and feedstock products. In combination with increasing worldwide demand, this has resulted in a significant and continued inflationary environment for raw materials and continued shortages in 2011. These developments resulted in dramatic volatility of raw material prices, which have to be reflected in more flexible pricing models and shorter contract terms. Existing contracts and agreements are being reviewed case by case.

For example, prices have risen for materials like pigments, e.g. violet 23, by more than 100% because of a force majeure situation, and gum rosin and polyamide resins have risen by more than 70%. Titanium dioxide prices have increased more than 25% compared to last year.

Meanwhile, nitrocellulose and other binders, as well as energy, will continue to become more expensive. These increases shall be covered by temporary, flexible, and, where available, index-based surcharges.

“We will not compromise on product safety. Siegwerk will maintain its position as a quality supplier guaranteeing the highest standards,” Mr. Forker continued. “We will continue to invest in those areas that make us a reliable partner for the entire packaging and publication industry and support our customers with consistent, quality products coupled with value-added services.”

In 2011, Siegwerk celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Siegwerk brand. The group and its predecessor organizations date back to 1830 in textile printing. While the vast majority of printing houses produced their own inks, Siegwerk was one of the first companies to market the inks that it had developed for its own use to external customers. The decision to specialize in ink production marks the true birth of the “Siegwerk” brand.

This anniversary is celebrated in each of Siegwerk’s more than 30 country organizations with family events. In some locations, so-called INKdays – interactive workshops around the world of printing – are held for Siegwerk’s customers and partners.

“The recent event at our headquarters in Siegburg was a great success, as 300 participants experienced future oriented topics and interesting discussions,” said Mr. Forker.

“As a family-owned company, we take a long-term view, and are devoted to outstanding performance, the satisfaction of our customers and the well-being of our employees,” Mr. Forker concluded. “Over the last century, these values have grown into a strong tradition – one that will endure. With all our experience, knowledge and passion, we are well prepared for the future, and will continue to shape the world of inks. Because one thing is certain: at Siegwerk, tradition has a future and the future is our tradition.”