The push is anchored around a cartoon “brand ambassador” called Mr Corrugated and involves a short video made by the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO). The video can be seen on YouTube and a new campaign website. It focuses on the “five easies” of shelf ready packaging for retailers – ease of identification, opening, getting on the shelf, accessing and flattening to recycle. The 2.35-minute cartoon spells out corrugated’s economic, protective and renewable qualities. A spokeswoman said the campaign launched in Europe about two months ago and was on-going. It included a website, www.mrcorrugated-film.eu and posters while adverts would go into trade press publications. CPI director of packaging affairs Andy Barnetson, said: “FEFCO’s campaign featuring Mr Corrugated is clever and appealing. The video communicates the message that environmental concerns and economical packaging are not incompatible.” He said the British roll out of the campaign would have a budget on tens of thousands of pounds and adverts would go into magazine titles to be determined. The campaign will run at least until the end of the year and maybe well into 2014. CPI said its had strengthened its ties with FEFCO to promote the interests of the corrugated packaging industry throughout European. It is pooling resources with FEFCO and seeking to exchange best practice as part of the Europe-wide campaign. “By collaborating on key issues we believe we can also influence policy makers in Brussels by getting them to recognise the importance of the corrugated industry to the economy and the environment.” Corrugated materials protect around 75% of goods in transit and the sector has led the way on issues such as lightweight packaging and space efficiency in stores and trucks, resulting in fewer lorries on the road, CPI...

Since 2004 private equity firm Bencis has been the controlling shareholder of DSN, which provides repro, design and branding services for FMCG packaging. But at the beginning of April, the group’s chief executive Wim Demeestere along with chief financial officer Wout Van Egmond, commercial director Otto Groen and plant directors Erik de Cloe and Erwin Meinsma, leveraged private financial backing in order to take 100% control of the business and sister repro and pre-press firm Neroc’VGM (N’VGM). The two businesses will be operate under the banner of DSN but retain their individual brands. The €320m (£270m)-turnover, 250-staff group is headquartered in Antwerp and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic with clients in more than 36 countries including Mars and Unilever in the UK. Earlier this year the group signaled its intent to push further into the UK with the appointment of UK-based sales director Donovan Parr. Parr said that although the company’s core offer was similar to the competition, DSN’s artwork and reprographics production was steps ahead. He added: “We are a new choice to explore and in reality we have significantly advanced technology tools that is putting clear distance between us and our peers. “The timing is interesting too given the growing pressures food businesses have with Food Information to Consumers (FIC) compliance, which is where our technology really steps up to the mark and helps those with resource or capacity dilemmas.”...

Since 2004 private equity firm Bencis has been the controlling shareholder of DSN, which provides repro, design and branding services for FMCG packaging. But at the beginning of April, the group’s chief executive Wim Demeestere along with chief financial officer Wout Van Egmond, commercial director Otto Groen and plant directors Erik de Cloe and Erwin Meinsma, leveraged private financial backing in order to take 100% control of the business and sister repro and pre-press firm Neroc’VGM (N’VGM). The two businesses will be operate under the banner of DSN but retain their individual brands. The €320m (£270m)-turnover, 250-staff group is headquartered in Antwerp and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic with clients in more than 36 countries including Mars and Unilever in the UK. Earlier this year the group signaled its intent to push further into the UK with the appointment of UK-based sales director Donovan Parr. Parr said that although the company’s core offer was similar to the competition, DSN’s artwork and reprographics production was steps ahead. He added: “We are a new choice to explore and in reality we have significantly advanced technology tools that is putting clear distance between us and our peers. “The timing is interesting too given the growing pressures food businesses have with Food Information to Consumers (FIC) compliance, which is where our technology really steps up to the mark and helps those with resource or capacity dilemmas.”...

The KM-1 was first shown this time last year in concept form at Drupa. It uses Konica Minolta’s own UV inkjet technology, and a press chassis from Komori. It can now print on thicker stock of up to 0.6mm thickness when simplex printing. The previous maximum was 0.45mm, which remains the limit when in perfecting mode. The 1,650sph press can also print onto difficult substrates, such as textured grades. Konica Minolta business technologies manager Kazuyoshi Tanaka said the firm had been working on further enhancing the quality of the print output since Drupa. “Large commercial printers are our first target,” he said. “They can expand their business using this technology. From books to packaging and beyond, the potential is immense and really diverse. “We want to go-to-market as soon as possible,” he added. PrintWeek understands Konica Minolta held a number of high-level meetings with potential customers for the press at the show. The next public outings for the KM-1 will be at the Print 13 show in Chicago in September. Konica Minolta is also set to be the largest exhibitor at Ipex 2014....

The KM-1 was first shown this time last year in concept form at Drupa. It uses Konica Minolta’s own UV inkjet technology, and a press chassis from Komori. It can now print on thicker stock of up to 0.6mm thickness when simplex printing. The previous maximum was 0.45mm, which remains the limit when in perfecting mode. The 1,650sph press can also print onto difficult substrates, such as textured grades. Konica Minolta business technologies manager Kazuyoshi Tanaka said the firm had been working on further enhancing the quality of the print output since Drupa. “Large commercial printers are our first target,” he said. “They can expand their business using this technology. From books to packaging and beyond, the potential is immense and really diverse. “We want to go-to-market as soon as possible,” he added. PrintWeek understands Konica Minolta held a number of high-level meetings with potential customers for the press at the show. The next public outings for the KM-1 will be at the Print 13 show in Chicago in September. Konica Minolta is also set to be the largest exhibitor at Ipex 2014....