All4Labels enters new era of digital transformation

This year’s edition of drupa was long awaited by print professionals hungry for insights into the latest print and converting trends and technologies. When the show finally returned to Düsseldorf for the first time since 2016, it did not disappoint. The organizers reported 170,000 trade visitors from 174 countries and a record number of deals signed on the show floor.

One of those deals that gathered significant interest was the announcement that All4Labels Packaging Group was expanding its digital footprint with a major investment in HP technology, including several HP Indigo V12, HP Indigo 200K digital presses and the enhanced version of the HP PageWide Advantage 2200. The first machines will be deployed across several geographies in the next few months.

‘All4Labels values its longstanding partnership with HP, which extends beyond products and services by encompassing the entire global industry ecosystem,’ explains Günther Weymans, CEO at All4Labels Group. ‘We appreciate HP’s continued commitment to be technology leaders in machines, inks, software solutions, data analysis capabilities and disruptive innovation. This cooperation adds significant value to our business and underscores our shared commitment to delivering excellence across the entire value chain.’

Weymans took over as CEO of the All4Group from Paloma Alonso in June this year after he served four years as chief operating officer. In that role, Weymans supported the transformation of All4Labels into a billion EUR sales company with 56 sites and more than 6,000 employees worldwide. Now he will lead the business into a new digital era.
The group’s recent investment goes beyond digital printing, envisioning the factory of the future as interconnected, smart, automated and entirely digitized.

Sustainable digital future

‘Interconnection and automation are two of the main drivers for the packaging industry of the future,’ states Guido Iannone, chief sales officer at All4Labels. ‘Digitalization not only impacts the printing, which can be faster, more flexible, more sustainable and open to a wider range of customization and serialized options, but it also empowers factories and improves efficiency when it permeates all processes, from data collection to supply chain management, to a predictive analysis of brand owners’ future needs.’

Sustainability and digitization go hand in hand and are core concepts for All4Labels. The company believes the latest investment in its hybrid and digital fleet fits perfectly into that strategy.

“Interconnection and automation are two of the main drivers for the packaging industry of the future”

Initial results from the HP Indigo V12 beta testing show a reduction in energy use of between 25-40 percent compared to existing printing technologies, with comparable reductions in CO2 emissions.

‘The V12 press is manufactured to be CO2 neutral and will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy at All4Labels,’ says Jens Nilsson, All4Labels’ chief operating officer. ‘And it will also produce our innovative and sustainable Star Portfolio. This will significantly contribute to our activities to continue decarbonizing the entire value chain.’

Nilsson also sees digital transformation as a ‘continuous accelerator’ for health and safety at the workplace – ‘turning visible certain invisible risks, eliminating repetitive and hazardous tasks, and, for environmental protection, eliminating physical sources of CO2 emissions like printing plates. It promotes the active engagement of our employees who can now proactively and rationally steer production performance towards a much more sustainable direction.

‘Under our 3Ps sustainable business model, we care about “Products, Planet and People”. To us, caring about our people sustainability-wise means putting health and safety at the core of our activities, as we already did several years ago.

‘We have been able to implement enormous improvements and significantly reduce incident rates, which is now positioning our company among the leaders in our industry.’

Sustainable portfolio

This year All4Labels expanded its sustainable Star Portfolio with StarDirect technology. The StarDirect ‘no label’ look product significantly reduces plastic and waste by eliminating printing substrates. It opens major new decoration opportunities, especially in wine and spirits, personal and home care, beer and beverages, and food – importantly, including products that do not currently use labels.

Guido Iannone says that market demand is expected to be high, and All4Labels is expanding StarDirect production across multiple sites throughout Europe including Spain, Italy and Germany. In parallel a global market strategy has been developed to serve global customers using its strategic network of production sites based in Mexico, as well as in the Central and South Americas region.

‘We act as a global hub for innovation,’ says Iannone. ‘All4Labels devotes an enormous amount of time and resources to creating genuinely unmatched label solutions, by finding new ways to use printing technologies that ensure sustainability gains. StarDirect is an exciting new development that has now successfully completed its testing phase and is already available to our customers.’

StarDirect is suitable for glass, plastic, and aluminum containers. Special linear applicators and rotary applicator modules have been developed and work is underway to increase application speeds.

Comments Chen Yan, All4Labels head of StarDirect: ‘Our StarDirect portfolio offers two major benefits. First, its sheer design flexibility surpasses screen printing, because it can accommodate a wide array of color schemes, finishes and customizations. Second, it meets sustainability requirements by reducing plastic use and waste compared with conventional solutions, promotes reuse and recycling opportunities and lowers CO2.’

“I am looking forward to leading an energized committed management team into the next phase of growth-enhancing our digital leadership and creating sustainable solutions for our customers”

The group is determined to continue investing in R&D to develop and deploy technologies contributing towards a circular economy, and proactively contributes to industry key initiatives like HolyGrail 2.0, Celab, Petcore and RecyClass.

‘When we speak about sustainability, I like to look at metrics and concrete progress,’ states Gabriela Neves Ferri, vice president of global R&D and sustainability at All4Labels. ‘The urgency of addressing climate change has led us to undertake ambitious projects and achieve significant reduction of CO2 emissions inside our operations in the last four years. At the same time, we are striving for an additional 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions compared with 2020 by embracing the latest printing technologies and renewable energy.

‘Over the next years, we will continue decarbonizing our global operations further and we will also contribute to the decarbonization of the entire value chain. Our Center of Excellence (CoE) in Salerno is developing various initiatives all focusing especially on recyclability and recycled content.’