With its centenary year having now drawn to a close, Gallus Group is proud to reflect on a year of growth, innovation and substantial development in its mission to lead market transformation – with an extremely positive outlook and trajectory,company-wide, for 2024.

Last year’s busy events schedule saw the Gallus team, a subsidiary of HEIDELBERG, share its solutions and insights on stages and tradeshow floors across the globe – from Labelexpo, Belgium, and Interpack, Germany, to Printing United, US, FuturePrint, UK, and more. Notably, however, the company also opened its doors to the Gallus Experience Center – the brand new industry hub in St. Gallen – marking the milestone with its ‘Gallus Experience Days’ week-long event program in June 2023. Dedicated specifically to the ‘digital transformation’ of the label and narrow-web industry, the Center aims to facilitate the industry’s future success by fostering collaboration to drive innovation and sustainability. Situated at the company’s headquarters, just one floor from the Gallus Classics division, the Gallus Experience Center has already hosted customers, partners, academics, and industry associations since its opening in June.

“As we venture into 2024, we do so with the understanding that the labels and packaging industry sits at the crossroads of some of the greatest challenges it’s faced in our lifetime. From supply chain issues to increased costs and inflated interest rates, profit margins continue to be squeezed,” comments Dario Urbinati, CEO, Gallus Group. “Combined with the shortage of skilled labour echoed throughout almost every region, businesses continue to feel these ongoing pressures – as a result, the 2024 road ahead is likely to be challenging and complex. However, for the first time, we have a clear, achievable path to alleviating some of these pain points and shifting the industry towards a profitable, flourishing future.

“2023 saw the accelerated adoption of ‘smart, connected printing’– a new category and a brand new way of thinking about our industry that encapsulates the vast potential of advanced, modern digital technologies for the labels and packaging market,” he explains. “With connectivity integrated from the outset, the intelligent, automation-ready print ecosystem of tomorrow will provide a means of addressing these labor shortages, whilst unlocking revolutionary production and manufacturing efficiencies. As we look ahead, these savings and this new way of working will be key in providing converters with a level of competitiveness and profitability that will be critical in future-proofing their businesses. What’s more, it will also be crucial in ensuring the success of our industry long-term.”

Against the challenging backdrop of the past year, strategic decision-making has become ever more important for businesses industry-wide – indeed becoming the linchpin for navigating through the ongoing uncertainty. Where businesses can make capital investments, they are increasingly seeking solutions that improve production efficiencies, reduce costs and enhance productivity. With this in mind, Gallus has continued to bolster its portfolio throughout 2023, bringing multiple strategic new solutions to market – all built on its modular system that provides converters with the ultimate flexibility to pivot or expand as business needs evolve.

An evolution of the Gallus One – Gallus’ first fully digital press, specifically designed to remove the total cost of ownership (TCO) barrier for the adoption of reel-to-reel digital labels, with the highest level of automation and cloud-based technologies – last year also saw the launch of the Gallus One with Converting capabilities. Further optimizing the TCO benefit, the new solution brings everything inline, featuring a digital printer with an inline flexo station, a semi-rotary die cutter that can change a job within one minute and process up to 70 meters per minute. Since last year’s market debut, the solution has already brought about a strong sales pipeline, with installations completed throughout Q4 2023 and continuing well into 2024.

Also announced last summer as part of the Gallus Experience Days celebrations, Gallus’ newly available digital printing unit (DPU) for the Gallus ECS 340 flexo press also marks a significant stride towards being able to harness the flexibility and versatility of digital printing across the board. Turning a traditional Gallus ECS 340 into a Gallus Labelfire 340 hybrid press, without the additional platform investment, the new press is already opening up new opportunities for numerous labels and packaging converters across the industry, expected to make an even greater impact as installations continue in the year ahead. 

“Our strong focus on R&D is reflective of our dedication to building a labels and packaging landscape that will not just survive the types of economic headwinds we see today, but will flourish despite them,” concludes Urbinati. “Whilst we are making great strides in driving digital transformation with this goal in mind, we recognize that this challenge is greater than any one individual vendor. Effecting long-term, meaningful change will require true industry-wide collaboration.

“Together with HEIDELBERG, we look forward to working with various stakeholders across the industry to build on this progress in 2024 and beyond.”