Keypoint Article - Digital Printing's Slow Ascent in Packaging: A Revolution in the Making?
For all the talk of digital transformation, the packaging industry remains a stubbornly analogue domain. While digital printing has revolutionized commercial print, its share in packaging remains a meagre 1%. By contrast, digital printing has captured roughly 12% of the label market, an early-adopter segment. The question then remains: why has packaging been so slow to embrace digital print? And will this change?
Jeff Wetterston, head of labels and packaging at Keypoint Intelligence, offers a nuanced perspective. He has spent decades analysing the packaging industry, from the early days of digital printing’s incursion into corrugated materials to today’s slow but steady expansion. His conclusion? The industry has the technology, but it lacks the right incentives, workflows, and, crucially, a fundamental shift in mindset.
The Persistence of Analog in a Digital Age
In theory, digital printing should be an ideal fit for packaging. The technology eliminates the need for expensive printing plates, allows for customization and short-run efficiency, and speeds up production cycles. Yet digital remains confined to a fraction of the market. Wetterston suggests that the key barriers are not technological but economic and operational.
“Converters are a highly pragmatic and systematic audience,” he explains. “They want clear evidence of success before they invest. When they hear that digital accounts for just 1% of packaging, their reaction is often: ‘Why should I care?’”
This inertia is reinforced by the size and scale of the packaging market. Packaging output, measured in square meters, dwarfs that of commercial print by a factor of ten. Corrugated packaging alone is 14 to 15 times the size of the label market. The entrenched systems that govern these industries are resistant to disruption, not because they are optimal, but because they are deeply embedded.
The Cost Conundrum and the Myth of Crossover Points
One of the most persistent misconceptions in the digital print debate is the idea of a cost crossover point—the theoretical volume at which digital becomes more economical than analog. Wetterston is dismissive of this concept.
“Cost crossovers do not do justice to the impact of digital,” he argues. “They focus narrowly on ink, material, and labor costs while ignoring the broader efficiencies digital can deliver.”
The real advantage of digital print lies not in reducing per-unit costs but in its ability to optimize plant-wide productivity. Traditional print setups require costly and time-consuming plate changes, which hinder responsiveness. Digital eliminates this bottleneck. Instead of managing individual jobs, converters can optimize entire workflows, ensuring that what enters their plant is processed more efficiently from start to finish.
Take the case of a European converter Wetterston recently visited. Initially skeptical, they adopted digital printing cautiously, starting with a single web press. Within five years, they upgraded to a larger system. The results were transformative: single-use packaging, which had constituted just 10% of their volume, surged to 65% as customers realized they could order what they needed, when they needed it, without penalty. At the same time, the company’s corrugator utilization improved by 50% and its overall production costs fell by 12%—not due to cheaper ink, but due to operational efficiencies.
Beyond Short Runs: Rethinking Digital’s Role
Another common misconception is that digital printing is only suitable for short-run jobs. In reality, its utility extends across the entire product lifecycle. Major brands—particularly in the fast-moving consumer goods sector—are beginning to use digital for high-volume production where it enhances supply chain flexibility.
Consider the diaper market. Giants like Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark manage vast SKU variations, dictated by diaper size, branding requirements, and retailer demands. Previously, each variation required new flexographic plates, slowing down production and increasing costs. With digital, these brands can produce high-volume runs of pre-printed rolls, seamlessly shifting between design variations without stopping production. The result? Faster turnarounds, lower inventory risk, and reduced waste.
The Industry at an Inflection Point
Despite these successes, digital printing in packaging still faces significant hurdles. Chief among them is the need for a paradigm shift in how converters measure success. The industry remains fixated on print cost rather than total productivity. Until this mindset changes, adoption will continue at a glacial pace.
Yet, change is coming. Three major forces are accelerating digital’s rise:
Industry Consolidation: Mergers and acquisitions among converters are leading to larger, more sophisticated operations that can invest in digital technology. Increasingly, digital capability is appearing on acquisition wish lists—not as a deal-breaker, but as a valuable differentiator.
Sustainability Pressures: Regulatory requirements and consumer demand for eco-friendly packaging are driving brands to seek more flexible, waste-reducing solutions. Digital printing’s ability to produce only what is needed, without excess inventory, aligns with these goals.
AI and Big Data: Brands are increasingly leveraging AI to analyze consumer preferences in real-time. This “social listening” enables hyper-targeted packaging strategies. However, such agility is impossible with traditional printing; digital offers the only viable solution.
The Road to 20%
Wetterston is optimistic that digital print’s share of the packaging market will climb significantly in the next decade. Moving from 1% to 20% won’t happen overnight, but the trajectory is becoming clearer.
“The brands that are embracing digital are doing so because they see the value—not in print quality, but in supply chain flexibility,” he notes. “Converters who fail to recognize this shift risk being left behind.”
The key to unlocking this growth lies in communication. Converters need clearer, data-driven evidence of digital’s impact on total plant productivity. Instead of fixating on ink costs and press speeds, the industry must highlight real-world case studies that demonstrate digital’s transformative effect on lead times, inventory management, and overall profitability.
The packaging industry has long been conservative, but history suggests that once the tipping point is reached, adoption accelerates rapidly. Just as digital printing revolutionized commercial print, it is poised to do the same in packaging. The only question is when the industry will finally embrace the future that is already within reach.
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