On Jan. 1, 2021, Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann joined Siegwerk, and took over as CEO of Siegwerk on March 31, 2021 with the retirement of longtime CEO Herbert Forker. With more than $1.3 billion in sales in 2020, Siegwerk is the fourth-largest global ink manufacturer, and is focused on the packaging ink market. Dr. Wiedmann takes the time to share his insights into Siegwerk and the ink industry.


Ink World: What led you to join Siegwerk and the ink industry?
Dr. Wiedmann: As a family-owned company with a long history and ambitious plans to create a sustainable future, Siegwerk represents the set of values that resonate very well with my own values and that  I  consider vital  to successfully face challenges and ensure sustainable future success.

The company has reached a remarkable track record over the last years while always remaining true to itself. This healthy balance between future and tradition convinced me to become part of it, motivating me to continue this course for growth and discover new opportunities – for Siegwerk and for its customers.

In my opinion, Siegwerk is especially well positioned to respond to the Circular Economy and digitalization trends currently affecting every industry. We have the potential to make a significant contribution to innovative new packaging applications. I am very much looking forward to these important and exciting challenges in further driving the company to a new level of success.

During my career, I already worked in different consulting and management roles for various companies from the high tech and IT sector to the automotive industry – so why not switch industries once again? After university, I gained comprehensive experience in managing global businesses and ensuring efficient and sustainable business growth by building innovation roadmaps, leading merger and acquisition activities and implementing change processes. I wished  to share my expertise and prepare for a sustainable future by finding answers to megatrends and successfully facing major transformational forces in the packaging industry.

I first gained insights into the packaging industry during my work for a polymer processing company producing plastic packaging amongst others. As a physicist by education, I also already had a general understanding of ink technology, making it a bit easier to dive into Siegwerk’s business and get to understand the peculiarities of the ink industry. Since then, I am continuously striving to become even more ‘inky.’


Ink World: How have your perceptions of the ink industry changed since joining Siegwerk?
Dr. Wiedmann: To be honest, I wasn't really aware of the complexity of technical and safety requirements for packaging inks before I came to Siegwerk. I have learnt a lot within my first eight months here, and I am still learning.

As inks, coatings and substrates are closely interrelated components of packaging, there are a lot of different requirements and restrictions to consider when developing ink solutions suiting the packaging end-use. For instance, producing food packaging and printing on food contact materials  also involves exposure to specific consumer safety concerns.

These are triggered from various sides, such as from regulatory authorities all over the globe, which aim to protect consumers from potential risks originating from the food packaging, from brand owners, who strive to protect their brands from any kind of negative impact, including those resulting from packaging material alerts – and last but not least from NGOs representing consumer concerns and of course, from critical consumers themselves.

There is a long list of factors to be considered in ink development that I wasn’t aware of as layman and consumer before. Now I know about Siegwerk’s profound expertise in PSR (product safety and regulatory) and its invaluable value for customers – once more underlining its leading position in the industry and drive innovation.


Ink World: What has surprised you most about Siegwerk?
Dr. Wiedmann: From the very first moment I got to know Siegwerk, I was impressed with how motivated, innovation-friendly and forward-thinking the company and its employees are. Colleagues are not only open, trustworthy and humble, but they are also skilled with a real “can do” attitude.

In my eyes, Siegwerk’s real strengths are its culture and its people. The company’s philosophy “Ink, Heart & Soul” is tangible every day. People are actually living up to our company values of quality, responsibility, openness, foresight and commitment. They are determined to have an impact and empowered daily to make the right decisions, always putting our customer’s success in the center of their efforts.

We all know that only if our customers are successful,  we can be successful as well. Aside from the very strong corporate spirit, I was positively surprised about the established strong focus on local execution and entrepreneurship, while keeping an eye on the global perspective and overall success of the company group.

Ink World: Siegwerk is a major industry leader in sustainability and emphasis on the Circular Economy. What do you see as Siegwerk’s role in developing environmentally friendly packaging inks and coatings?
Dr. Wiedmann: The Circular Economy is a major transformational force affecting every industry and Siegwerk is already well-positioned to respond to this by providing solutions that will help customers eliminate waste and the needless exploitation of the world’s valuable resources.

Here, inks and coatings play an important enabling role for the realization of circular packaging solutions. Their technical functionalities support the design of packaging in such a way that materials can be better kept in the loop to maximize their use.

Today, Siegwerk is already actively developing solutions that enable the three levers of circularity: reduce, reuse and recycle. But we will only succeed in mastering the challenges of achieving a circular packaging industry in collaboration with our customers, suppliers, employees and other industry partners. It is our shared responsibility to further enhance the performance and circularity of packaging while minimizing negative environmental side effects. And that’s why we are strongly committed to play our part and be a driver in the  change to a new industry standard.


Ink World: Siegwerk also has a proud tradition of working closely with the communities it serves. What is the importance of this, and will this remain a point of emphasis for you?
Dr. Wiedmann: Absolutely, Siegwerk has always cared and will continue to care going forward! Responsibility is part of our corporate DNA, or even a family tradition if you like. In this context, sustainability means progress to us.

As one of the world’s leading ink manufacturers, we are strongly committed to achieving a sensible balance between ecological, social and economic needs without compromising the resources of future generations. In everything we do, we keep an eye on our employees, their families, as well as the communities and environment around us.

In addition to striving for occupational and product health and safety, our social responsibility in turn focuses on three pillars: charity in the community, development programs for young adults and supporting programs related to our core business. Our activities focus especially on disadvantaged children and young adults, as they are our future.

The spectrum of activities ranges from training and support for refugees to sponsoring our so-called Lighthouse Projects at SOS Children's Villages worldwide. We never just hand over a check but involve our employees in the long term to guarantee a deep commitment.

Furthermore, we are involved in a number of organizations, some of which pursue completely different aims. But one aim unites them all: We always want to become better and collaborate with others – in the interests of our customers and in the interests of consumers. Here, various memberships in industry associations such as Ceflex, Sedex or Holy Grail 2.0 underline our strong commitment to actively drive the realization of a global circular packaging industry.

We are also a strategic partner of Project STOP to actively support the creation of sustainable waste management systems in Indonesia – where we also have a Center of Excellence – and to eliminate leakage of plastics into the environment. These are just a few examples of Siegwerk’s community support activities to ensure a sustainable future for the generations to come.


Ink World: Do you see opportunities for growth for Siegwerk, both organically and possibly through strategic acquisitions, in the coming years?
Dr. Wiedmann: All in all, digitalization, sustainability and growth are the three pillars with which we are driving the company's latest strategic direction towards becoming a company for circular and digital packaging solutions. Therefore, customer proximity, quality and innovation are our top priorities.

We not only focus on the performance of our products and solutions, but also want to be a strong and reliable partner with our increasingly digital and thus flexible services. To this end, we have a great deal of technical know-how, which we are continuing to expand to open up new business models and thus grow sustainably and successfully. This also includes constantly reviewing the market for potential strategic acquisition targets to expand our global footprint and improve our portfolio, further strengthening our position as a full-range provider for packaging applications.

Regarding sustainability, it should be noted that it is not just a lip service for Siegwerk. That start with Siegwerk’s own sustainability strategy that we recently reinforced to minimize our own environmental footprint. Moreover, we strongly believe that the Circular Economy will be one of the most important success factors for our society in the future and thus also for our business as well as for our customers. That's why packaging solutions for a circular economy are at the center of our innovation efforts.

Sustainability, and a Circular Economy in particular, is an important transformation force for us. That’s why we are strongly committed to increase the recyclability of printed packaging with our inks and coatings addressing the needs of circular packaging solutions - today and in the future. Our goal is to become a Circular Economy solutions company supporting customers with customized solutions to rethink packaging and create more sustainable and circular packaging solutions in terms of the three key levers of a Circular Economy: reduce, reuse, and recycle.