By Gilles Catherin
With 2,800 employees and revenues of 400 million Euros, Sicpa Packaging was one of the world’s biggest producers of printing inks for the packaging industry at the time of its acquisition by Siegwerk. The business area operated branches and production plants in 36 countries all around the globe.
Until 2005, Sicpa Packaging was part of the “Société industrielle et commerciale de produits pour l’alimentation” (Industrial and commercial company for nutrition products, later called the “Société Industrielle Chimique de Produits Agronomiques”), a firm founded in Lausanne in 1927 and soon becoming known under the abbreviation “Sicpa”.
As a technical partner of the printers, Sicpa implemented progressive ideas and concepts. In France for example, Sicpa made batch systems available to printers and other customers for the first time, allowing automatic mixture of inks from concentrates and helping customers manage inks better – and thus save time and money. Another success was the distribution of Pantone’s famous ink meter on the French market. A similar step forward was the fast shipment system in Annemasse (near Geneva), which was extended to the factories in Angoulême and Mitry-Mory after their modernisation.
Swiftly, the packaging ink area established an efficient research department with many employees. Highly qualified chemists and engineers ran the laboratories, with the latest devices at their disposal: high resolution gas chromatographs, liquid chromatographs, infra-red spectrometers and electronic microscopes.
Staff in the application and control laboratories had a printing shop for experiments, including machines for offset, three-colour gravure and UV drying, enabling them to test products under semi-industrial conditions. The ink laboratory, which was equipped with an ACS 1800 spectrometer, dealt with customer queries on colour tones. Joint development projects with the suppliers of colours, plastics and machinery facilitated availability of the latest products and engineering, thus accelerating development of new printing inks for packaging. In the training centre in Annemasse, Sicpa informed printers and suppliers about printing inks, printing processes and ink management.
Sicpa pursued the strategy of winning customers in the so-called high-end market segment via products of the highest quality. With its products for packaging and decorative applications. Sicpa was able to offer printing companies comprehensive solutions for fast, quality printing.
A big challenge for the packaging inks sector was strong competition from Japan, with its special culture of quality and innovation. Printing inks from there proved to be “right first time products” with customers, so that Japanese firms served 60 percent of the high-end market in Asia, despite their weak focus on service. To support customers as efficiently as possible, Sicpa formed a worldwide network of laboratories and competence centers. The quality of Sicpa inks was based on strict process controls and followed the zero defect guideline. At an average of up to three percent, investment in research and development was three times the industry average. Globally, Sicpa ran 26 centres for R&D. Employees locally knew relevant prices, raw materials, customs duties and laws. They were thus able to adapt printing inks to local conditions and to introduce innovations. This “globalisation” was especially appreciated by big customers like Tetra Pak, because Sicpa guaranteed technology transfer without significant friction.
The packaging market in Europe is characterised by regulations, especially regarding the safety and health aspects of food packaging. For this reasons, Sicpa developed new solutions, so that more and more patents were registered and new products made ready for marketing in increasingly short cycles.
The most important innovation in recent years was polyurethane (PU) technology. The ground-breaking concept of using PU as a binding agent was completely developed in the Annemasse laboratories. For this procedure, the customer receives a colour package and high-quality binders. That way, the same ink can be used in combination with various solvents for different applications. Thus, warehousing becomes more manageable, with no loss of flexibility regarding the wishes of firms further processing the product. Sicpa secured five important patents for flexible package printing based on this technology.
The same innovation drive was also apparent in other segments such as conventional offset printing, for instance for luxurious cosmetic packaging. Formerly, a water-based layer had to be applied before UV high-gloss varnish could be used, because conventional mineral-oil based offset inks were not compatible with UV varnishes. A new offset ink based on innovative resin systems eliminates this water-based process and thus helps lower costs significantly.
The author, Dr. Gilles Catherin has been head of Strategic Product Innovation at Siegwerk since 2005. Prior to that, he was global head of all technology areas at Sicpa Packaging.
Sadly, a more detailed account of Sicpa’s history was not possible for legal reasons.
