Gallus Group, a subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, announced that Italian label producer Artes Etichette has installed the first Gallus Five hybrid press worldwide. Installed in December 2025, the system is already operating at an industrial scale, helping the company migrate a growing portion of its conventional label work to digital production while reducing setup time, waste, and material costs. The investment reflects continued growth in the Italian label market, which is valued at roughly $2 billion and expected to expand as packaging complexity and product variation increase.

Within months of installation, the Gallus Five has become a central production platform at Artes. The press runs two shifts per day and routinely produces label jobs of around 10,000 linear meters, with runs reaching up to 60,000 linear meters. CEO Luca Airoldi said the system delivers the speed, reliability, and precision required for demanding food label production and other applications, including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals. Operating at speeds up to 100 meters per minute, the hybrid platform reduces makeready time and eliminates much of the startup waste associated with conventional printing.

The new installation builds on Artes’ long relationship with Gallus technology dating back to the 1970s. In recent years the company added two Gallus Labelfire presses and Europe’s first Gallus One before installing the Gallus Five. According to Gallus CEO Dario Urbinati, the project demonstrates that hybrid digital printing has moved beyond niche use cases to become a true industrial production solution. He noted that converters are increasingly adopting hybrid technology to scale digital printing while maintaining the premium quality standards expected in the label market.