This week, from concerns about the ethics of packaging and recycling, to a rise in security packaging printing to cope with a rise in counterfeit products sold online.

Nessan Cleary · Journalist & Editor · Week commencing 7th June 2021

Converter magazine, based in Italy, reports that the Ethical Packaging Charter Foundation is looking for companies to act as ambassadors in creating a new packaging culture. Converter points out that every year each of us comes into contact with at least 8000 packages, representing both a communication opportunity and an environmental issue.

Labels and labelling carries a story from CEFLEX - the Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging - a European umbrella organisation that includes companies, associations and organisations from throughout the supply chain, and which has agreed a common position on the essentials for collecting flexible packaging waste in a circular economy.

Elsewhere, Labels and Labelling reports that Rick Michelman will become the next president and CEO of Michelman, the American company that produces coating machinery. He takes over on the 1 January 2022 from Steven Shifman, who has overseen a global expansion of the company.

Print 21 of Australia reports on James Hannan having taken over as CEO of the region’s Ovato print group. The company is in the process of selling its Retail Distribution and Marketing Services businesses to focus on printing, having been through a turbulent few years recently, not helped by the pandemic.

From Canada, Print Action writes that Spicers Canada has planned a number of investments including building a new 80,000 sqft distribution centre in Anjou, Quebec, to serve the Montreal market, as well as integrating its All Graphic Supplies division into the Spicers Vaughan facility in Ontario.

Graphic Arts Media says that Sun Chemical is planning to increase prices to its North American customers from July on a brand range of products, including packaging and commercial sheetfed inks, coatings and adhesives, due partly to weather events in Texas as well as the ongoing pandemic.

Elsewhere in the Americas, InkWorld writes that Smurfit Kappa has acquired Cartones del Pacifico, a paper-based packaging company in Peru, expanding its footprint in the region from 12 to 13 countries. As part of the deal, the Emusa Group has acquired Smurfit Kappa’s flexible packaging business in El Salvador.

Indian Printer and Publisher covers a statement from the Editors Guild of India demanding the repeal of India’s laws on sedition, noting the Supreme Court’s concerns over the chilling effect these laws have on journalism and democracy.

Indian Printer and Publisher also has a story on the French competition regulators having fined Google €220 million over misusing its dominance in online advertising, and adding that the Indian Newspaper Society has written to Google asking for a better share of revenues and might be preparing for its own legal action.

ME Printer reports that the Al Jazirah Corporation for Press, Printing and Publishing is to establish a new Digital Investment Center and Entertainment Project in Saudi Arabia to “develop, manage and invest all digital media products on the Internet, social media and other emerging digital means”.

Back in the UK, FlexoTech has covered a new report from Smithers - The Future of Anti-Counterfeiting, Brand Protection & Security Packaging to 2026 – which predicts a rise in security printing, helped by the growth of e-commerce during the pandemic, which also saw a rise in counterfeit products sold online.

On a lighter note, Printweek points out that the upcoming EUFA Euro 2020 football tournament, postponed from last year by the pandemic but not renamed, is offering printers plenty of opportunities from wall charts to promotional activity. As for the football itself - we can but dream…

Jun 11, 2021

Author: Nessan Cleary