The Future of the Print and Packaging Industry – a Q&A Interview with Francois Martin

Frazer Chesterman, Director at FuturePrint, recently held a brief Q&A session with Francois Martin, to pick his brains on developments, trends and sustainability in the print and packaging industry. Francois Martin is a print and packaging veteran, who spent fifteen years of his career with HP and 5 years with BOBST. He now intends to share his industry knowledge and communications capabilities with manufacturers and converters who want to challenge the industry status quo and those who want to deploy more sustainable print and packaging solutions.

Francois Martin

Key drivers for the future of Print and Packaging.

Francois believes that the key drivers and growth within the print industry stems from technology answering to customer pain points and as such brand owners pushing manufacturers to be more innovative. Although consumers have more power than ever, Francois thinks that they continue to consume what brands have to offer, with only a small majority actively asking brands to evolve. The only thing to push brands to innovate quickly is the implementation of regulations, and Francois states, that a lot more should be done in this area if there is to be a chance to impact global warming and generate less waste.

Technological developments within Print and Packaging.

The technology development that Francois really admires is inkjet. Now that inkjet is evolving and entering the packaging industry, he believes it is poised for so much more and that this is just the beginning. Talking about manufacturers he admires and technological developments that really excite him, Francois Martin mentions Heidelberg, for their incredible offset presses. In digital printing he mentions, HP inkjet and HP Indigo, for transforming an entire industry and BOBST in the packaging industry, for having the most impressive machines. Software companies such as Adobe, ESKO, Hybrid Software and EFI are of course also on his list, for making machines more effective and intelligent. Having named some of the large brands, Francois feels it is very important to also mention the value that smaller companies bring to the table in terms of innovations in software and substrates for example, but mostly in challenging the status quo of the larger companies and contributing to the print and packaging world ecosystem, in which every component is necessary to progress and where competition is healthy.

Current challenges for Print Businesses and how to resolve them.

When discussing the current challenges facing the print and packaging businesses, and how to resolve them, Francois points out that these indeed need to be seen as two different markets. Due to the rise of the internet, commercial print has seen a secular decline since the year 2000, with the amount of print service providers declining resulting in bankruptcies and acquisitions, whereas the packaging converters seem to have mostly enjoyed a sustainable profitable business. Francois assumes there are several challenges – or trends, currently dominating all discussions:

GROWING NUMBER OF SHORT RUNS

In commercial printing he feels this is well managed with web-to print type solutions, whereas in packaging the growing number of jobs will increase pressure on workflows and the setup of machines which will drive the adoption of digital solutions for specific jobs.

MANPOWER SHORTAGES

He imagines the second main challenge to be the lack of press operators and workflow specialists, with manpower shortages within the industry impacting all converters, especially in western Europe and the USA.  In his mind, the print and packaging industry is perceived as old fashioned and not attractive and in dire need of educated resources.

PRICE INCREASES

The third challenge Francois mentions, is the price increase of substrates and energy. It is his belief, that the entire industry has not been managing resources efficiently and that the time has come to rethink many things from sourcing to waste management and quality control.

SUSAINABILITY

Francois considers that the final challenge facing the industry, and indeed humanity as a whole, is sustainability. He believes that all converters are being asked to provide more sustainable print and packaging, with commercial printing able to easily respond with digital print-on-demand and the packaging industry facing a more complex issue which will have to encompass many new solutions such as mono material pouches, less waste and new types of packaging protecting the goods effectively but with less material used overall.

The importance of Sustainability for Print and Packaging.

Delving deeper into the very important topic of Sustainability, Francois suspects that we are at the eve of new packaging requirements and a major industry transformation with less plastic and superior plastic, more paper-based applications, less waste in production, more intelligent, sustainable embellishment and more quality control being only a few of the drivers. He believes regulators will become more demanding with some types of packaging simply banned or possibly linked to higher taxes. To drive sustainability forward however, François feels that brand owners need to overcome their reluctance to change what already works by embracing new solutions faster and that they need to encourage converters to rethink what they produce and how they produce it by embracing solutions that already exist.

To appreciate the entire print eco-system visit DRUPA Print Congress, taking place on Wed 16th & Thurs 17th May 2023 in Düsseldorf.

To keep up to date with the latest trends, discussions and insights into the future of sustainable printing, visit the EcoPrint Summit.