| ACF FLEXIBLES: SERIOUS MARKET CONTENDER |  | ACF Flexibles, celebrating its first year of operation, is on a major spending spree in a bid to meet market demands, reports GILL LOUBSER.
IT’S a year since Afripack acquired a considerable chunk of Astrapak’s flexible packaging business and renamed the new division Afripack Consumer Flexibles (ACF for short), so it’s undoubtedly time for a catch-up session with ACF’s CEO, James Hynd, to discover what has happened since the acquisition and how the new structure is bedding down.
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| CELEBRATING TWO CENTURIES OF CANNING |  | The invention of the canning process is undoubtedly one of the most important developments in food packaging history. The PACKAGiNG & PRINT MEDIA editors take a look at how it all started.TWO centuries of canning began innocuously enough in the late 1700s when Frenchman Nicolas Appert (lured by Napoleon Bonaparte’s promise of 12 000 francs to the first person who could preserve food for his army) applied heat to food sealed in bottles, inventing a method for safely conserving food without refrigeration.At that time, food spoiled easily and Nicolas experimented with various packaging techniques, discovering that food would last longer when sealed in an airtight container and soaked in hot water for a few hours. He closed bottles and jars with cork, wire and sealing wax to keep air out. Legend has it that, having discovering the key to protecting food, he received his monetary reward after Napoleon’s troops enjoyed the freshness of his bottled partridges, vegetables and gravy!Read More >> |
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| SWISS PRECISION |  | GILL LOUBSER visits Daetwyler’s Swiss headquarters for an update from the world’s number one purveyor of doctor blades to flexographic and gravure printers. AS we leave the cities and towns and drive deeper into the pristine Swiss countryside, it seems an unlikely location for the home of the world’s foremost manufacturer of doctor blades. But among the neat farmlands we arrive, somewhat unexpectedly, at the recently-completed, ultra-modern premises of the Daetwyler group, not far from a quiet hamlet called Bleienbach. Read More >> |
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| AFRICA'S SUPER FOOD GETS JUICED! |  | TOTALLY Wild is a young, Cape Town-based company that specialises in the development, manufacture and marketing of a high-end range of food and beverage products, the key ingredient of which is aloe Ferox. Partners in the business, Barbara Kleinschmidt and Nic Janik, have recently launched an exciting range of aloe and fruit juice blends, beautifully packaged in Elopak’s Mini Diamond Pure-Pak 330ml carton. ‘The juice arena is very competitive and to be successful, a product needs to be different and eye-catching,’ states Barbara. ‘Our juices tick all the boxes – and offer more. There are so many sweetened, fortified and preserved aloe drinks in the marketplace that we wanted to do something different, we had to change the perception that aloe drinks are unappealing.’Read More >> |
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| WHAT'S NEW IN FOILING? |  | Among exhibitors at Ipex, on the PrintCity Alliance stand, was Leonard Kurz, providing essential updates on both hot stamping foil and cold foiling technology, reports GILL LOUBSER.FOR decades, hot-stamping foil has been used to provide classy packaging, incorporating glossy, metallic lettering and designs. Today, cold-foil transfer is gaining ground – not as a competitive process but as a highly versatile supplement. Read More >> |
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| EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT FOR FUTURE LABELS |  | Early next year, Future Labels celebrates its first decade in business. In anticipation of this landmark event, the company has purchased a brand-new Mark Andy press, reports GILL LOUBSER.FUTURE Labels turns ten in January 2011, but the company has awarded itself an early birthday present – a brand-new, out-of-the-box Mark Andy 2200XL eight-colour label printing press.This takes the company into a whole new arena in the label printing business and marks an exciting turning point for this young but dynamic enterprise.‘We chose this press because of its special features such as UV flexo capabilities on all eight print stations, and it’s ability to produce top-quality print and consistent repeatability order after order,’ confirms Elton Neethling, Future Labels’ MD.‘It also has a module for inline cold foiling which allows top-quality, cost-effective foiling with minimal wastage,’ he adds happily.Read More >> |
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| SLEEVES IN OFFSET PRINTING OFFER NEW FREEDOM |  | Businesses using the concept of variable sleeve offset printing are quietly flourishing, and print shops using rotec offset sleeves are opening up attractive areas of application.CURRENTLY, 100 web offset printing presses are used throughout the world with sleeve technology to enable production of variable formats. Many such users have invested in this concept on a second line, some on a third.So far, little has been published about practical experiences with the system, even though sleeve technology has interesting advantages for a number of applications. This article looks specifically at the advantages of variable sleeve offset printing.Read More >> |
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| TIGER'S ITALIAN CONNECTION |  | Independent supplier of self-adhesive labelstock, board and tags, Tiger Packaging, has joined forces with Italian company, Ritrama. The ‘marriage’ is set to cement the company’s reputation in the local marketplace and to open up exciting opportunities for future expansion. KAREN STRETCH chats to general manager, MERVYN GENENDE.
Pictured (left): The driving force behind Tiger Packaging’s success is its committed, expert team – (back row) Mack van Rooyen, factory manager; Samantha Gulle, senior sales consultant; Vinoid Nayagar, warehouse manager; and (front row) Christina Allers supply chain manager; Mervyn Genende, GM; and June Moraites, office manager.
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