Haiying Printing delights brands with digital flex pack expertise

Haiying Printing, founded in 2013, invested in the company’s first HP Indigo 20000 digital press at the end of 2017. From the customization of shopping bags to flexible packaging, Haiying has explored a wide and diverse range of products on the road to developing its digital printing business.

L&L’s earliest contact with Jiang Haitao, CEO of Haiying Printing, was in 2018 when the company held an Open Day after the installation of its HP Indigo 20000. After several months of equipment debugging, upgrades and sample testing, the printing performance and quality of this digital press have been widely recognized by the company’s customers.

The investment in digital printing was a bold move by Haiying Printing after many years of cultivating expertise in conventional flexible package printing.

Flexible packaging

The company has a complete supply chain for conventional flexible package printing, including plate making, material research and production, printing, laminating, coating, pouch making and bag converting. For example, the film manufactured at Haiying’s Huzhou factory reaches annual sales of nearly 1 billion RMB (USD 140,000); Haiying’s Nantong flexible packaging factory produces 4.1 tons or 10,000sqm of material.

‘I entered the printing industry in 2008. Before investing in digital printing equipment, I only knew gravure, offset printing and other traditional printing technologies,’ Jiang Haitao tells L&L. ‘With our in-depth understanding of the flexible packaging and carton businesses, we found that market demand for short orders, personalized and small batches of products was increasing, and the launch cycle of brand customers’ new products and the delivery cycle of products was getting shorter and shorter. These requirements are difficult to meet with existing traditional printing equipment, or the cost will be very high.’

“We found that market demand for short orders, personalized and small batches of products was increasing”

After a period of deep market research, Haiying Printing pivoted its investment strategy to digital printing technology. At that time there was not much use of digital printing technology for flexible packaging and there was a limited choice of equipment suppliers.

After establishing contact with HP, the company spent a long time learning and understanding this new technology. In 2015, Haiying ordered an HP Indigo 20000 digital press, which was the first installation in east China.

Haiying Printing is today a recognized expert in HP Indigo 20000 technology. The press prints up to seven colors, enabling it to meet the most demanding color and quality requirements, says Jiang Haitao. ‘The press has a width of 762mm and a repeat length of 1100mm, making it suitable for most flexible packaging printing sizes. The material thickness range from 10 to 400 microns is compatible with almost all standard flexible packaging substrates.’

Creative solutions

Haiying Printing found that the expansion of new business was not as easy as they had anticipated.

The first thing the company encountered was a technical problem. Digital printing is only one part of the whole flexible packaging production process. The printed roll needs to go through a series of follow-up processing, such as laminating, aging, slitting and filling/sealing. During these processes, adhesives, coatings and seaming conditions will affect the final quality of the flexible package. However, because the ink used in digital printing is completely different from that used in traditional printing, the post-press processing cannot completely replicate that of traditional flexible packaging.

After continuous exploration and testing, Haiying Printing finally found a set of flexible packaging post-press production processes for digital printing, and the appearance and functionality of flexible packaging and bags now meet the needs of brand owners and customers.

After solving these technical problems, Haiying Printing focused on innovation and developing application solutions to create new business. They mainly targeted the personalized, variable data, small run and multi-SKU orders market.

After several years of unremitting efforts, Haiying Printing has accumulated vast experience in helping brands innovate. To provide a better and more rapid service for brands, they established an office in Lingyi in Shanghai.

With the help of digital printing and the company’s rapid response supply chain, Haiying Printing has implemented many innovative market solutions, including the rapid proofing of new products, joint-IP solutions, variable imaging and stand-out designs.

Waiting scene in a noodle restaurant

Zhichishi is a Chinese instant noodles brand. Using Collage technology, Haiying created a uniform background picture and a seed file of different diners, and then an automatic map of the diners coming and going in front of the noodle restaurant was generated. Using the HP Indigo 20000, these variable designs are printed quickly.

The consumers get a visible sense of a busy noodle shop through these bag designs.

“We also discovered that packaging is not only a medium to protect products and present product information. It can be a bridge to enable brand and consumer interaction and communication and increase consumers’ loyalty to the brand”

Dunhuang Silk Road scenic spots package

This package is for a local tea drink in Dunhuang, which is the center and transit point of East-West trade on the Silk Road. Haiying used automatic imaging technology to create pictures of local scenic spots. The finished packages appear to consumers as if they are traveling into different landscapes. Before consumers open the external carton packaging, they do not know which scenic spots are shown on the drinking bottles, which enhances the mystery of the ‘unexpected encounter’. It is like they are opening a closed box filled with an unknown surprise. The brand owner has also enhanced their brand recognition among consumers.

Personalized daily vitamin packaging

This is a complete package for a vitamin brand, including an external carton package and internal flexible packaging. For the users, the customized packaging shows their name, the time to take their vitamins, and an encouraging slogan. The final packaging vividly displayed the brand’s concept ‘Creating Exclusive Health for You’.

Mengniu Bing + self-made laboratory ‘super variable’ packaging

Haiying Printing worked with a brand owner at an early stage to create a ‘super variable’ packaging design. The design team used the current red color trend for dresses, popular on social media in China, as inspiration. The brand then designed a group of variable elements, which can randomly generate personalized variable packaging images.

This allows each consumer could buy a unique and exclusive pack. The new packaging combined with exposure generated by the brand’s marketing strategy on multimedia platforms such as KOL, Mingniu Bing+ increased sales by 210 percent and the brand’s ranking rose by 15 places. These case studies are displayed in Haiying Printing’s Packaging Innovation Center in Shanghai.

‘During the implementation and fulfillment of these new solutions, we realized that the application of digital printing technology needs to completely break the concept of traditional printing and build a “digital thinking way”’, says Jiang Haitao.

‘What’s more, we should cooperate more closely with brand owners to let the seemingly impossible ideas come true. In this process, we also discovered that packaging can be a bridge to enable brand and consumer interaction and communication, and increase consumers’ loyalty to the brand.’