Durst provided an update of the current trends in labels and a business update of its RSC presses at its recent Digital Day 2020 virtual event, which took place on November 11 and was live streamed from its customer experience centre in Brixen, Italy.

The event focused on current market developments, the latest trends in digital label production and Durst’s extended Tau range.

At the event, Durst segment manager Helmuth Munter identified COVID-19’s impact on the labels and packaging industry.

“We found ourselves in a new reality following COVID-19, resulting in a need to adopt to frequent changes depending on the infection dynamics and development in the number of cases,” he said.

“Business life has changed – virtual meetings and video conferences have replaced business travel and personal supplier or face-to-face meetings. In any case, labels and packaging is an essential industry, and consequently, it was not as heavily affected as other printing industry sectors.

“Most of our customers in labels continued to run business as usual – some even on a higher rate on their Tau presses, than before. However, a Finat survey on European converters found a noticeable decline on Q1 growth rates as compared to last year because of COVID-19.”

Munter said the global labels market amounts to about US$33 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of between four to five per cent and a forecasted value of approximately US$45 billion in 2025.

He identified the top performing sectors within the labels and packaging market.

“The largest industry sectors are food and beverage, followed by personal care, pharmaceuticals and a couple of other categories. The majority of these labels are printed on self-adhesive material, followed by glue-applied and sleeve material,” he said.

“They are printed using flexo and offset machines, followed by digital, gravure and others. Digital technology has developed tremendously over the years, as has an increasing market interest which has encouraged multiple market players to start innovation in single-pass UV inkjet printing technology.”

According to Munter, this trend resulted in Durst setting a new technology benchmark with the launch of its Tau RSC label press in mid-2017.

“With this, inkjet evolved to become a mainstream printing technology within a very short period of time, also resulting in a significant improvement in print quality and print speeds. Modular press designs allow scalable print width to maximise productivity,” Munter said.

“Digital label printing is no longer simply a short-run replacement for flexo – there is a visible shift to medium and long-run jobs and to print them digitally. The increasing range of applications leads to a much better press utilisation and there is a noticeable and growing demand for conventional-digital hybrid presses.”

With the global digital labels and packaging print market reaching a value of over US$10 billion and the value of digital printed labels and packs growing by 21 per cent annually, Munter said opportunities lie in this area.

“Overall, it’s a positive picture and outlook, and Durst’s RSC platform is definitely the success story to underline these positive trends,” he said.

Durst CEO and co-owner Christoph Gamper took the opportunity to provide a business update around its RSC presses.

“In less than three years, we installed more than 100 RSC presses globally. This makes me proud and this makes the labels business in Durst a pillar of our strategy for growth and further development in systems, hardware and software,” he said.

“I want to thank everyone who was a part of this and I guarantee that we will continue to develop the best solutions in the market.”

Durst also announced its Durst RSC Label Masters Awards during the event, with Aussie labelling company, Wagner Labels, winning the award in the RSC Combination Print category for its Truce Wine of Australia product.

Wagner Labels purchased a Durst Tau 330 RSC E and its converting equipment in a “substantial investment” worth well over $1 million in August 2019 and the investment made Wagner Labels a new customer for Durst and the first Tau RSC E installation in Australasia.