07.19.23
Alfred-Keller-Strasse 55
53721 Siegburg, Germany
Phone: +49 2241-3040
Fax: +49 2241-304777
www.siegwerk.com
E-mail: info@siegwerk.com
2022 Sales: $1.46 billion (€1,339 million)
Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups and tubes using flexographic, rotogravure, offset and digital printing.
Key Personnel: Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann, CEO; Dr. Oliver Wittmann, CFO; Ralf Hildenbrand, president Americas; Dr. Jan Breitkopf, president EMEA; Ashish Pradhan, president Asia.
Number of Employees: >4,800 in more than 35 countries (2022).
Comments: With its emphasis on packaging inks and coatings, Siegwerk is one of the major leaders in the packaging segment, which continues to enjoy growth. As such, Siegwerk had a very strong year in 2022, as sales rose sharply to nearly €1.34 billion ($1.46 billion).
This is particularly impressive considering the volatility in the global economy. Siegwerk CEO Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann noted that the volatile economic environment, with an ongoing impact of the COVID pandemic, continuously rising raw material and utility costs and the war in Ukraine, which caused serious supply chain disruptions around the world, made 2022 another challenging year full of uncertainties that hit the entire industry quite hard.
“Exploding cost increases for logistics and energy, especially in Europe and the US, and inflation rates at their highest for a long time kept the pressure on a very high level until the end of the year,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “Although the demand for packaging and corresponding inks and coatings stabilized throughout the year, we have seen a few softer months towards the end of 2022. This year, India, LATAM and Turkey are the strongest printing markets so far.”
But despite all the challenges and uncertainties, Siegwerk was able to also celebrate a number of successes around the world, starting in India.
“To keep up with the growing market demands in India and to better serve our customers locally, we for example have commissioned a new solvent-based blending center at our facility in Bhiwadi and have established a new warehouse and color matching center in Tauru, Haryana in 2022,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Due to this new infrastructure, combined with our 100% toluene-free manufacturing plant, we now have a fully food safe operation in India, which in a way revolutionizes the local packaging market.”
The addition of La Sorgente, an Italian manufacturer of high-quality water-based flexographic inks for paper & board applications as well as solvent-based inks for flexible packaging, has also proved to be another key move for Siegwerk.
“By acquiring La Sorgente, we expanded our footprint in Europe and further strengthened our local infrastructure and service for packaging printers in the fast-growing Italian market,” Dr. Wiedmann added.
Siegwerk puts tremendous emphasis on sustainability and earned numerous awards worldwide for its products.
“We have been honored with various global awards in terms of sustainability, from products that got considered as best sustainable innovation, through awards for operational sustainability management to customers developing award-winning packaging with the help of our solutions,” Dr. Wiedmann said.
In addition, Dr. Wiedmann pointed to Siegwerk’s continuous progress on its journey as circular economy driver within the printing and packaging industry throughout the last 12 months.
“We for example received the EcoVadis Silver Medal rating, underlining our leading position with regards to sustainable business practices and solutions across the inks and coatings industry,” he said. “Besides, we were the first ink manufacturer to join the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in December 2022 committing to carbon neutrality in line with the latest climate science.
“In line with our sustainability agenda, we were also continuously extending our portfolio of sustainable and eco-friendly inks, coatings and services to concretely support renewability and recyclability of packaging,” Dr. Wiedmann reported. “In India, we have launched the mineral oil-free ink range VEGA as a response to a growing demand for transparency and safer ingredients in packaging products.
“With SICURA Litho Pack ECO, we have also launched a new sustainable UV offset ink series for non-food paper and board applications that is formulated with more than 40% bio-renewable content, providing an environmentally friendly alternative to standard UV inks,” he added. “Just recently, we were also the first in the market to introduce a barrier coating solution with 100% natural content certified for the application on paper plates. By enabling their recycling through the existing paper recovery cycle, UniNATURE Water-Oil Barrier Coating is a sustainable alternative to replace restricted coatings on single-use paper plates.”
Dr. Wiedmann noted that packaging sustainability is a cross-industry challenge and task, and Siegwerk always partners with other experts along the supply chain to develop advanced packaging solutions with improved performance and recyclability.
“Together with Henkel, we for example created an innovative oxygen barrier coating last year that enables mono-material packaging solutions with better recyclability and better barrier properties,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “In another collaboration with German startup Wildplastic and the Hamburg University of Technology, we could conduct the first successful deinking trials of low density polyethylene (LDPE) packaging, showcasing the potential of post-consumer LDPE recycling. These are just a few examples of our collaboration efforts from the last 12 months.”
There is good news on the raw materials front, as the supply chain is improving. “The supply chain has stabilized again and raw material availability has significantly improved,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “However, energy and freight costs still remain at a high level compared to pre-pandemic levels.”
Overall, Dr. Wiedmann is optimistic about the future, as Siegwerk’s focus on sustainability fits perfectly with its customers.
“Going forward, the growing focus of printers and brand owners on sustainable packaging solutions and the use of renewable materials in ink formulations will drive the development activities in all ink technologies in line with the general market demand for sustainable solutions,” Dr. Wiedmann observed.
Dr. Wiedmann noted that circular economy requirements will be the driving key trend across the packaging value chain.
“We will further intensify our own circular economy approach throughout 2023 to make our mark as a differentiator in the marketplace by assuming a leadership position on this important issue for our future and the future of generations to come,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Siegwerk is on track to deliver on its strategic goal of becoming a circular economy solutions company by 2025. Furthermore, with an increase in industry standards, especially with regards to consumer and employee safety, we expect the demand for low migration solutions to further increase worldwide. Digital printing will also gain market share as it enables manufacturers to react even faster to specific customer demands.
“However, we will continue to face the challenges of strong cost pressures from energy costs and logistics costs throughout 2023,” Dr. Wiedmann concluded. “Nevertheless, we headed into the year with ambitious goals to continue growing our strong position within the packaging and printing markets. We are focusing on differentiation via innovation and digitalization to build new business opportunities while further investing in our infrastructure, technology and personnel to promote long-term growth for our future. All in all, we aim for growth throughout 2023 and beyond, and make every effort to manage the overall economic challenges as best as possible.”
53721 Siegburg, Germany
Phone: +49 2241-3040
Fax: +49 2241-304777
www.siegwerk.com
E-mail: info@siegwerk.com
2022 Sales: $1.46 billion (€1,339 million)
Major Products: Provider of solvent-based, water-based, energy curable and oil-based inks and coatings and related point-of-use services for the packaging and label industries. Product applications include flexible packaging, labels, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, cups and tubes using flexographic, rotogravure, offset and digital printing.
Key Personnel: Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann, CEO; Dr. Oliver Wittmann, CFO; Ralf Hildenbrand, president Americas; Dr. Jan Breitkopf, president EMEA; Ashish Pradhan, president Asia.
Number of Employees: >4,800 in more than 35 countries (2022).
Comments: With its emphasis on packaging inks and coatings, Siegwerk is one of the major leaders in the packaging segment, which continues to enjoy growth. As such, Siegwerk had a very strong year in 2022, as sales rose sharply to nearly €1.34 billion ($1.46 billion).
This is particularly impressive considering the volatility in the global economy. Siegwerk CEO Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann noted that the volatile economic environment, with an ongoing impact of the COVID pandemic, continuously rising raw material and utility costs and the war in Ukraine, which caused serious supply chain disruptions around the world, made 2022 another challenging year full of uncertainties that hit the entire industry quite hard.
“Exploding cost increases for logistics and energy, especially in Europe and the US, and inflation rates at their highest for a long time kept the pressure on a very high level until the end of the year,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “Although the demand for packaging and corresponding inks and coatings stabilized throughout the year, we have seen a few softer months towards the end of 2022. This year, India, LATAM and Turkey are the strongest printing markets so far.”
But despite all the challenges and uncertainties, Siegwerk was able to also celebrate a number of successes around the world, starting in India.
“To keep up with the growing market demands in India and to better serve our customers locally, we for example have commissioned a new solvent-based blending center at our facility in Bhiwadi and have established a new warehouse and color matching center in Tauru, Haryana in 2022,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Due to this new infrastructure, combined with our 100% toluene-free manufacturing plant, we now have a fully food safe operation in India, which in a way revolutionizes the local packaging market.”
The addition of La Sorgente, an Italian manufacturer of high-quality water-based flexographic inks for paper & board applications as well as solvent-based inks for flexible packaging, has also proved to be another key move for Siegwerk.
“By acquiring La Sorgente, we expanded our footprint in Europe and further strengthened our local infrastructure and service for packaging printers in the fast-growing Italian market,” Dr. Wiedmann added.
Siegwerk puts tremendous emphasis on sustainability and earned numerous awards worldwide for its products.
“We have been honored with various global awards in terms of sustainability, from products that got considered as best sustainable innovation, through awards for operational sustainability management to customers developing award-winning packaging with the help of our solutions,” Dr. Wiedmann said.
In addition, Dr. Wiedmann pointed to Siegwerk’s continuous progress on its journey as circular economy driver within the printing and packaging industry throughout the last 12 months.
“We for example received the EcoVadis Silver Medal rating, underlining our leading position with regards to sustainable business practices and solutions across the inks and coatings industry,” he said. “Besides, we were the first ink manufacturer to join the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in December 2022 committing to carbon neutrality in line with the latest climate science.
“In line with our sustainability agenda, we were also continuously extending our portfolio of sustainable and eco-friendly inks, coatings and services to concretely support renewability and recyclability of packaging,” Dr. Wiedmann reported. “In India, we have launched the mineral oil-free ink range VEGA as a response to a growing demand for transparency and safer ingredients in packaging products.
“With SICURA Litho Pack ECO, we have also launched a new sustainable UV offset ink series for non-food paper and board applications that is formulated with more than 40% bio-renewable content, providing an environmentally friendly alternative to standard UV inks,” he added. “Just recently, we were also the first in the market to introduce a barrier coating solution with 100% natural content certified for the application on paper plates. By enabling their recycling through the existing paper recovery cycle, UniNATURE Water-Oil Barrier Coating is a sustainable alternative to replace restricted coatings on single-use paper plates.”
Dr. Wiedmann noted that packaging sustainability is a cross-industry challenge and task, and Siegwerk always partners with other experts along the supply chain to develop advanced packaging solutions with improved performance and recyclability.
“Together with Henkel, we for example created an innovative oxygen barrier coating last year that enables mono-material packaging solutions with better recyclability and better barrier properties,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “In another collaboration with German startup Wildplastic and the Hamburg University of Technology, we could conduct the first successful deinking trials of low density polyethylene (LDPE) packaging, showcasing the potential of post-consumer LDPE recycling. These are just a few examples of our collaboration efforts from the last 12 months.”
There is good news on the raw materials front, as the supply chain is improving. “The supply chain has stabilized again and raw material availability has significantly improved,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “However, energy and freight costs still remain at a high level compared to pre-pandemic levels.”
Overall, Dr. Wiedmann is optimistic about the future, as Siegwerk’s focus on sustainability fits perfectly with its customers.
“Going forward, the growing focus of printers and brand owners on sustainable packaging solutions and the use of renewable materials in ink formulations will drive the development activities in all ink technologies in line with the general market demand for sustainable solutions,” Dr. Wiedmann observed.
Dr. Wiedmann noted that circular economy requirements will be the driving key trend across the packaging value chain.
“We will further intensify our own circular economy approach throughout 2023 to make our mark as a differentiator in the marketplace by assuming a leadership position on this important issue for our future and the future of generations to come,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Siegwerk is on track to deliver on its strategic goal of becoming a circular economy solutions company by 2025. Furthermore, with an increase in industry standards, especially with regards to consumer and employee safety, we expect the demand for low migration solutions to further increase worldwide. Digital printing will also gain market share as it enables manufacturers to react even faster to specific customer demands.
“However, we will continue to face the challenges of strong cost pressures from energy costs and logistics costs throughout 2023,” Dr. Wiedmann concluded. “Nevertheless, we headed into the year with ambitious goals to continue growing our strong position within the packaging and printing markets. We are focusing on differentiation via innovation and digitalization to build new business opportunities while further investing in our infrastructure, technology and personnel to promote long-term growth for our future. All in all, we aim for growth throughout 2023 and beyond, and make every effort to manage the overall economic challenges as best as possible.”