One stop shopping

The Nuceria Adesivi group is one of Italy’s biggest converters of labels and printed packaging. It is a source of great pride to the Iannone family – which founded the company back in 1984 – that its base is in Naples, in the south of Italy. The company subsequently expanded into the north with a narrow web operation near Milan, and today the family-owned company runs a total of 29 presses across three plants and employs 150 people.

Nuceria Adesivi began life in adhesive tape manufacturing, and still sells ‘void’ security packaging tapes. Today, its business model is to offer end users a ‘one stop’ packaging solution which currently takes in wet glue and self-adhesive labels, re-sealable and multi-page promotional labels, shrink sleeve labels and cluster packs, wraparound and in-mold labels. The company already offers folding cartons, and its Salerno operation is to see a major investment in Heidelberg presses and finishing equipment (see below).

In terms of end user markets, Nuceria Adesivi is strongest in the health and beauty care sector, which accounts for over one third of the company’s business. Other important markets include household products and food and drinks.

This move towards a ‘one stop’ strategy has clearly been a success: the group has grown at a rate of 20 percent per year over the last two years and closed 2010 with a turnover of 30m euros.

Export growth

Nuceria Adesivi built its business servicing the Italian plants of global FMCG giants like Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Nestle and Reckitt Benckiser. But decreasing margins in its domestic business are driving the company decisively into the export market, as sales manager Paola Iannone explains: ‘We were able to weather the financial storm because we offset the decline in domestic orders by attracting lots of international customers.’

Export sales today account for 40 percent of Nuceria Adesivi’s business, with key foreign markets including France, Greece and North Africa. The Middle East and Africa are targeted for strong future growth, says Paola Iannone:

‘The multinationals want to sell the same high quality products in emerging markets, as for example Africa, as they do elsewhere. We are working for it.’ The Iannone family is even considering starting up its own operation in Africa.

Complementing this international sales drive are plans to forge commercial relationships with foreign companies.

‘With profit margins decreasing, it’s imperative to respond to increase volume,’ says managing director Guido Iannone. ‘Partnering with like-minded businesses is an excellent way to cost-effectively drive revenue.’

Paola agrees: ‘Servicing the same customers in new markets is a better strategy than getting new customers.’

Technology

Nuceria Adesivi runs multiple print technologies across its three plants, with sheetfed capacity located in the South and most narrow web capacity in the North. Its offset capabilities include a 7-color 50 x 70cm Heidelberg Speedmaster, three 7-color Nilpeter MO3300 combination presses and an 8- color Codimag VIVA intermittent press with hot stamping and embossing.

On the flexo side, Nuceria runs six 8- color Gidue 380mm Combat presses and two new 9-color 420mm-wide Master M5 machines. The company still has significant letterpress capacity, operating 12 x 8- color Gallus R-200 letterpress combination machines, a Gallus R300 and an 8- color, 250mm-wide Kopack with silk screen unit. For shrink sleeve label work, Nuceria runs two 360mm ‘no-stop’ converting lines.

The company has extensive in-house pre-press and platemaking operations across all print processes, including two Kodak offset CTP systems purchased last year.

Nuceria Adesivi has developed its own comprehensive MIS, which includes inventory control, order management and production scheduling. Orders are turned around from receipt of artwork in ten days for PS labels and 20 days for flexible packaging and folding cartons.

The MIS hooks into EskoArtworks’ graphics management systems. All artwork is held on a central company-wide server, which means labels can be printed at any plant. ‘This is useful because our Naples plant is bigger and more flexible than our Milan plant,’ notes Paola Iannone.

Investing for growth

Nuceria Adesivi is currently in the middle of an ambitious 10m euro investment program. This will see the installation of a new 9-color 650mm gravure/offset combination press dedicated to sleeves and wraparound labels. This will be matched with a new shrink sleeve converting system incorporating video inspection for layflat and glue width. The company also plans to move into digital printing with a hybrid press solution, still to be decided. 

An integrated coating system is another key investment, and future R&D efforts will be targeted at areas such as RFID solutions, digital technology, linerless and coating in-line. This builds on the company’s existing expertize in adhesive tape converting.

Southern Italy will see a major investment in two new Heidelberg presses, marking the debut of Nuceria Adesivi’s folding carton operation.

The 5- color Speedmaster XL 75 with in-line acqueous coating has a sheet size up to 605x750mm and prints at up to 15,000sph on substrates between 0.03-0.8mm. The Speedmaster CX102 has a maximum sheet size of 720x1020mm and a print speed of 16,500 sph on substrate thicknesses between 0.03 -1mm. This press is specified with six offset units, UV and aqueous coaters and in-line cold foil.

The cold foil unit is an exciting addition, and will allow a wide range of special effects to be applied in one pass, including scented, gold and silver effects, metallic inks and coatings, lenticular, combined matte/gloss effects and printing on metalized papers.

‘We used the Heidelbergs for wet glue labels originally, but now we are looking at more value added applications, like in-mold labels on the CX102,’ enthuses Paola Iannone.

‘This is part of the new positioning for our company. Nuceria today is an integrated partner for labels and folding cartons, and also for strategic consulting for companies which strive for success in innovation and savings.’  

Strategically, Nuceria Adesivi will concentrate manufacturing in the
south. ‘The print quality is very high, but the costs are very much lower than in the north of Italy,’ continues Paola. ‘This allows us to be as competitive as printers based in north Africa.’

HP launches European digital packaging event

HP Indigo’s first European user group event targeted at the labels and packaging sector, SHIFT, was held in Berlin in February and attracted 73 companies – a total of 123 people from 19 European countries. Speakers at the event came from both Europe and North America, and HP partner companies present included AB Graphics, EskoArtwork, SMAG, Labeltraxx, Kamma, Cerm, Avery Dennison and UPM Raflatac.

Sessions were held on a wide range of subjects, including a discussion panel looking at how to market digital labels, which included Cynthia Tyr from Profecta labels Canada – which prints labels on thin wood substrates – Jay Dollries from American converter ILS and Steve Smith from Lightning Labels.

Another theme was the ‘one stop packaging shop’, where digital label printers also print and convert other packaging materials such as flexible packaging, shrink sleeves and cartons. Kama and ABG both made presentations on digital converting of folding cartons, and both companies reported a high level of interest from attendees.

An interesting feature was a ‘Windigo’ zone which focused on digital wine label printing and converting (as well as drinking!).

A high level of positive feedback means SHIFT will become a regular fixture on the European digital scene, according to Christian Menegon, the company’s worldwide industrial business development manager.

Sustainable operations

Sustainability is fully built into the Nuceria Adesivi business model. The company has PET liner recycling programs in place, and its waste glassine liner is sold to a contractor for conversion to pellets for energy recovery. ‘We are considering offering our customers to pick up their glassine and guarantee the waste will be recycled properly if the quantity justifies the collection costs,’ says Paola Iannone.  ‘This will mean they can cut the cost of their labeling operation without cutting the price of the label.’

Nuceria’s Lean programs have decreased warehouse volumes by 20 percent and fuel consumption by five percent. The use of CTP has eliminated film and related exposure chemicals, and service water is fully recycled. Indeed, water waste throughout the company’s plants has been reduced by eight percent through use of closed loop feed water systems.

Master M5

Nuceria Adesivi installed the world’s first Nuova Gidue Master M5 press, a 9-color, 430mm wide machine equipped with hot stamping and turn bar. The press can accept print cylinders or sleeves.

The Master M5 press incorporates a major innovation, what Gidue calls the ‘Snowball’ waste stripping system. Instead of taking the waste above the press onto a rewind roll, the waste matrix rewind shaft is mounted on a horizontal guide, which starts from the stripping shaft. As the waste matrix reel diameter grows, the rewind shaft slides laterally, keeping a constant distance between the rewinding point and the
stripping shaft.

‘Frankly speaking, we had never seen a label press printing, die-cutting and stripping a PS paper label at 175 meters per minutes, in real production,’ comments Nuceria Adesivi managing director Guido Iannone. ‘On the same job with our current presses we could run at a maximum speed of 70-80 meters. On special shapes, which would normally see the press run at 20 m/min, we are seeing speeds up to 60-70m/min. It also makes it easier to take the matrix out through our vacuum removal system. 

Pictured: Paola Iannone, sales manager

This article was published in L&L issue 3, 2011