By Peter Heimerzheim
Size alone does not guarantee success. And three parts do not automatically become a harmonic whole when put together. With the acquisition of Color Converting and Sicpa Packaging, Siegwerk has become an international, family-owned company. Staff numbers have increased more than threefold. People from close to 40 countries belong to the new company – the “New Siegwerk”.
Management has little time to put the new Siegwerk on a healthy footing. Speed is a major factor of success in mergers and acquisitions. The motto is to take the best from three companies and forge it into something new.
The topic of innovations with customer benefits is at the forefront of these efforts. Along with a clear customer focus, technological competence regarding inks and printing processes is the link that binds Siegwerk staff and has characterised the new, globally-oriented corporate culture from day one.
Consistently excellent and globally uniform product quality for customers, personal and trusting cooperation, timely on-site support – those are the advanteges of the company’s re-orientation which benefits our business partners.
New, innovative products are not an end unto themselves for Siegwerk. It is decisive for our ink to meet the demands and specific needs of individual customers - a fact clarified in a global customer survey.
In this respect, Siegwerk is highly innovative in four main fields of action:
Product performance
In the Flexible Packaging area, a large number of awards are clear evidence of the company’s innovative power. Three out of six packaging products that received a gold medal from the “Flexible Packaging Association“ in 2007 were printed with Siegwerk ink, along with five out of eleven silver medallists.
Further current examples of product innovation can be found in the areas of offset packaging (ink series Tempo Flash with improved gloss due to a new UV varnish), packaging for liquid foods („Sicura LM“ with extremely low migration thanks to improved UV materials) and tobacco packaging (new, water-based gravure inks).
Siegwerk is also a global innovation leader in publication gravure. For instance its concentrate inks won the Golden Cylinder Award of the “Gravure Association of America” (GAA) in the category “Suppliers’ Innovations”. One main criterion was increased efficiency for customers in terms of process and logistic costs, facilitated by the new Siegwerk ink series.
Efficiency benefits for customers
Due to its close cooperation with customers and with continuously improved ink series and individual solutions, Siegwerk consistently paves the way for faster printing. In some cases, printers today can print twice as fast as five years ago – without any loss of quality.
In the field of PV inks, the company has developed an ink system for reverse printing on untreated PET, which is geared to sterilisation and lamination of stand-up pouches. The Siegwerk inks can withstand temperatures of up to 139 degrees centigrade. PET can be bought very cost-efficiently, continuous-tone reproduction is excellent, and printing speed and efficiency extremely high.
Efficiency benefits for end consumers
Siegwerk also generates value for end consumers, for instance savings on packaging via perfect fitting ink solutions – or by providing ways for publishers to set themselves apart via better printing quality in the publication area. In this respect, it is partly thanks to Siegwerk inks that the National Geographic’s North American and European editions are among the best magazines in the world in terms of optical quality and printing technology.
Product safety
Printing inks are chemical products. For this reason, Siegwerk places special emphasis on innovations regarding product safety and environmental protection. Air and waste water purification are important parts of the production process. Modern ink series and close cooperation with those responsible for printing processes on the customer side help ensure low-odour packaging and print products.
The world is a global village. For Siegwerk, that means offering globally active customers uniformly high product quality, but without forgoing regional and country-typical adaptations. For example, the company offers special PU-inks that meet specific requirements optimally on a worldwide scale. Siegwerk’s water-based inks for laminated packaging are in high demand in North America. New UV systems provide lower migration in food packaging. Customers like Tetra Pak get identical ink solutions all over the world.
It is important to look beyond one’s own horizons. For instance, Siegwerk is cooperating with the chemistry faculty of Shanghai University in China to research current issues in packaging ink chemistry. There are respective deals with various other research institutes. Lively exchange of expertise with raw material suppliers ensures that both sides always remain on top of developments in pigments, binders, solvents and additives for the specific tasks of the ink business.
The Siegwerk organisation is oriented to fulfil customers’ needs. Centrally located “Centers of Excellence” on all continents produce base inks, which the regional companies then process into finished products according to customers’ preferences. This secures constant product quality.
Logistics also play a major role. Short delivery times, maximum flexiblity and optimal containers satisfy customers. With the help of Siegwerk’s IT solutions, they save time and money in this field. The “Vendor Managed Inventory System” automatically triggers orders and deliveries when a printer’s ink tank is getting low. In Europe, consistent organisation in business areas guarantees optimal customer support across national frontiers. Areas like Tobacco and Liquid Food Packaging (LFP) are managed centrally for the whole world. In NAFTA, South America and Asia Pacific, business relations are managed and coordinated regionally.
Quality, trustworthiness and proximity define the concrete customer value that Siegwerk offers its business partners. The company’s staff are another criterion that sets Siegwerk apart. Despite differences in origins, country and sex, their common main asset is a customer-oriented entrepreneurial attitude. The corporation has been family-owned for six generations. Respectively, owners and managers are focussed on the long term. Reliability and security for staff, long-term business partnerships and development cooperations with – and for – customers express the basic principles of the international family-owned company.
The basic values of the company’s new vision are clear. The new Siegwerk seeks to become the most successful ink producer in the world as a professionally led, family-owned company. Products tailored to customers’ individual needs, competent support in the improvement of their processes and cooperation to generate cost efficiencies are the keys to maximum customer satisfaction. As an attractive employer, Siegwerk trains the best junior staff in the industry. Consistently increasing efficiency ensures that Siegwerk remains a healthy, profitable and independent company in private ownership in the long-term future.
This vision is enhanced by a written mission – the Siegwerk mission statement. Along with specialised expertise, passion for the ink business, uniform quality of products and service worldwide, as well as anticipation of future market developments, the mission especially emphasises the values of a professionally led, family-owned company. “Customers and staff always come first. This conviction guides us in every strategic decision – today and in future.”
The five central corporate values provide clear guidance for staff in daily work:
The guiding vision of “New Siegwerk” was not written for its own sake, but as a living “constitution” for the company. In meetings, staff regularly record their personal assessment of their departments’ status quo in regard to the vision in writing. Respective projects ensure that performance is improved step by step, filling the vision with life and implementing it.
Externally, the central components of the vision are implemented as concrete customer value. Siegwerk’s global positioning – “Quality, reliability, support” – reflects the company’s ambition to face these demands anew every day.
The author, Peter Heimerzheim, has been leading Siegwerk‘s Corporate Communications department since 2002.
