Zanders increases market presence

Regular readers of labelsandlabeling.com will be aware of the volume of M&A stories that are reported, while Bob Cronin’s series of ‘Options for the future’ articles published in the printed magazine outline continuation and exit options for label entrepreneurs. 

 

PE M&A

Zanders is one such supply chain member that has been a subject of the M&A trend, identified by former owner Metsä Group as a ‘non-core asset’ and divested to German private equity firm Mutares in May 2015. 

 

John Tucker, sales director at Zanders, says this was an opportunity for the company to become a standalone business unit, and expand its portfolio ‘quite dramatically’. ‘Mutares acquires mid-sized companies with a strong market position and growth opportunities; we fitted the mold perfectly. And over the last two years, this has allowed us to redevelop and broaden our portfolio as we seek to offer a full range to our customers.

 

‘Our biggest sector is the label market, and we offer a full range of cast coated, standard coated and uncoated products. With metallized, pearlescent versions and more, we have the full gambit of label paper options.’

 

The cast coated Chromolux is Zanders’ premium label paper, and is a 60-year-old brand for offset, flexo, gravure and silkscreen printing. It is said to exhibit ‘excellent labeling properties’, and Tucker notes, ‘Chromolux has been engineered to have one of the best bottling performances, with a rough back side that grabs the bottle.

 

‘A lot of people look at the top side and print surface, but so much work goes into the back side because if you have a beautifully printed label but it doesn’t label properly, you’ve wasted a lot of money.’

 

Chromolux is available as a wet-strength label paper and is approved for direct food contact applications by ISEGA, meaning returnable and non-returnable bottles, food and non-food container labels, and wrap-around labels are applications suitable for it, as well as a facestock for self-adhesive labels.

 

The Zanlabel range includes: Zanlabel gloss, a paper double coated on one side which is suited for numerous applications such as wet glue labels for disposable, returnable and PET bottles, food and non-food container labels and sleeves; and Zanlabel touch, an uncoated paper to give a natural finish. Zanlabel gloss and Zanlabel touch are available with linen embossing, which adds a non-slip finish to beer and other bottle labels. 

 

Packaging

All three products will be presented by Zanders at Labelexpo Europe 2017, alongside its efforts to move further into the packaging market with products like Zanflex and Zanbarrier.

 

Zanflex is a one-side double coated flexible packaging paper, applicable for flexo, offset and gravure printing, and for use in food and non-food applications, from dairy products and confectionary to tobacco. Like Chromolux, a benefit of Zanflex identified by Zanders is its rough back side, in this instance useful for lamination applications. Zanbarrier OGR is an uncoated grease and oil resistant wet-strength flexible packaging paper for food applications. There is also Zanpack, one-side coated SBS board products.

 

‘We were previously heavily into two-side coated paper production, but tomorrow is all about value-adding papers,’ notes Tucker. ‘Label is our most important sector and will continue to be in terms of volume, but there are more new products coming through in food packaging.’

 

As well as expanding its product portfolio, thishas opened the door for Zanders to strengthen existing customer relationships and forge new ones. In terms of product, Tucker notes that label papers can be used for the base construction from which to build value-added products and apply the barrier to, ‘so there is commonality between the two’, although adds that when it comes to customers, the crossover is minimal.

 

‘For Zanflex and Zanbarrier OGR, there is a different set of customers buying that type of product, depending on what they’re manufacturing.’

 

Digital

As well as opportunities in packaging, Zanders has also identified the intrinsic value in digital printing as that market grows. The company already offers digital grades, including Silver Digital, double two-side coated papers and boards designed for toner-based printing, and the one-side, double-coated Zanpack Silk Digital.

 

‘In labels, a lot of products are being produced for the digitally printed self-adhesive market. We are developing a range of digital grades for toner-based printing, and are developing a family of inkjet products.

 

‘UV- and water-based inkjet require different drying properties with the paper, and when you start looking at coated, semi-coated or uncoated options, you increase the complexity needed.

 

Then you’ve got different manufacturers, each with slight variations.’ 

 

Infrastructure

Such product developments require a concerted investment in research and development (R&D). Further, within the wider packaging industry there is a lot of work going on to advance the environmental performance of materials while maintaining the desired and required barrier and conversion characteristics. This is driven by a deep level of R&D, which is going on for both plastic and fiber-based materials. Take Taghleef Industries’ Nativia NESS and Treofan’s HybraPack products as examples.

 

Zanders is actively expanding its R&D department in numbers to meet the challenges faced by the new markets it is playing in and new customers it is working with. R&D is going onto to enhance its legacy products, such as Chromolux, which is being advanced to ‘add more value to the product and cover tomorrow’s printing needs and technologies,’ says Tucker.

 

Sales and technical support are also being invested in as the company looks to grow its footprint even further. It has expanded its sales team in the US in response to its growth in the market, while it has also seen strong growth in South America and Asia. ‘Central Europe is our core market, with sales personnel in France, the UK and Benelux, as well as specialist language staff to work in other markets, such as Italy. Our investment in technical support includes specialists to help if there are issues throughout the supply chain, from the paper and printing, to the bottling. This allows us to understand and support the whole production process.’

 

‘We want to offer the full gambit of products – labels, flexible packaging and cartonboard,’ he reiterates. ‘We are happy to work with clients to develop new products also, and are working on a number of projects now where people are looking for different embossed finishes. Embossing is a trend at the moment, as brand owners look to give their products a differentiated look.’

 

‘People were unsure what our future was as we were rebuilding the business,’ concludes Tucker. ‘We had a successful 12 months last year, and there are lots of positives to look forward to in the future.’