Quality and service as ever

On the sidelines of the event centred on offset printing and food packaging safety (read more), we met up with the CEO of Sun Chemical Italia, Fabio Deflorian, for an update on the market and on packaging ink technology. And we discovered that, even in the packaging world, there is still much need for clarity and coherence. Stefano Lavorini

It may seem repetitive, but year after year in our encounters, the Sun Chemical CEO Fabio Deflorian reels of figures and indications, as ever striving to give a practical and comprehensible rendition of his company’s policy, that doesn’t seem to change, despite the difficulties on the market.
Indeed, it is comforting to hear Deflorian repeat that what continues to count is the quality of the products and the technical assistance service to the converters, even if the battle to struggle satisfactory portions of the market is getting ever tougher.
A policy that at any rate gives good results: the balance for 2011 in fact closed with a turnover of around 250 million euros, showing growth compared to the previous business year, even if with lower volumes and margins due to the increase in raw material prices and the market crisis.
Indeed, according to Deflorian, in this very moment of difficulty, closeness to the customers is a choice that should be reinforced.
«We all know how difficult it is today to run a company amidst price increases, difficult access to credit, evolving standards, but also more in general because of the political and market situation. I am convinced that these problems will be overcome with the force and the energy that characterizes the sector. But partnership between companies must also increase and on this road Sun Chemical is evermore committed both with the converters and the end users, this also with disclosure pacts».

A non homogeneous market In outline, the sectors of use for inks are publishing (40%) and packaging (60%). The traditional offset segment, or that is commercial printing, is afflicted by a heavy drop in volumes, as EuPIA data for the first quarter of 2012, that is down 2 digits, indicates. Heatset printing showed a generalised drop even if less than that of offset, and newspaper printing is consolidating its downturn, standing at 5-6% of the previous years.
Packaging printing has not grown much, but the result is balanced by a sizeable shift from rigid to flexible packaging and by the increase of exports.
Deflorian points out: «The first quarter went well for Sun Chemical Italia and only in May does data show a downtrend. In the first months of the year the corrugated cardboard sector showed a drop, the trough being deepest in the month of April, while figures for folding cases are seen to be fairly stable. In the flexible segment, in terms the level of print technology, flexo continues to grow in Italy, while markets abroad tend to favour gravure. It is worthy of note that in some countries like Germany and Spain converters are passing onto monosolvents, following the example of what was done in Italy».

Words and facts During the conference, the focus was on food safety and thus, when it comes down to it, one is justified in asking oneself whether the “ink product” offers the consumer the best guarantee.
Here Deflorian does not mince words: «European products in general fully satisfy the established quality standards: the difference lies in the applicative performance.
The share of imported product is negligible in the flexible packaging sector, while in the offset print sector products from Asian countries are also traded. In terms of market strategy, Sun Chemical continues at any rate to place the onus on quality: we have set our entire R&D, formulative and productive system to satisfy the same and we will continue along this way». And he goes on to state: «we have worked and are working to streamline the structure and the costs of our commercial organisation, without in anyway affecting assistance and service to our customers. Just recently we completed a study on customer satisfaction and we have seen that among our strongpoints our capacity to assist our customers of all sectors on the technical applicative level shines forth.
This is a commitment and a cost that we continue to sustain, because it is “the” tool with which we manage to stand out from our competitors, guaranteeing our customers the certainty of using our products in the best possible way.
Because, as well as having the best ink, you also need a tried and tested method of application, managed and controlled by skilled staff with full knowledge on the subject».

Each to his own It appears clear that in this market there are virtuous companies that offer dialogue, cooperation and transparency as indispensible tools to understand the critical points and prevent problems from arising.
A significant trend seems to be that of the evermore widespread use of low migration offset inks for printing food packaging. «And in this the customers - Deflorian confirms - show a growing awareness of the value of safety. And in order to provide responses to meet the most varied needs, Sun Chemical has also devised a new range of controlled migration inks for low criticality applications, that is to say, the right product at the right price. But we are also devising proposals for flexible packaging, like the non monosolvent Solimax series for internal and external printing of all materials, that offers a good quality price ratio, with a sole limitation due to the fact that it is not usable for packaging that needs to be sterilised.
This product has got past the approval phase and some converters are now using it at industrial level with interesting results (alcohol base for flexo and also gravure printing without solvent recovery systems).
Vinyl based inks continue to have a market in some counties, despite the presence of chorine. These inks for example are still used in Italy, while in Germany they have been replaced with polyurethane based series. That is to say - Deflorian concludes - our commitment is to always do more and better».