20.06.2023
St. Gallen, June 20, 2023 – The Gallus Group, a subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (HEIDELBERG), is the leading company in the development, production, and sale of conventional and digital narrow web web presses for label and packaging printing. Today, the Group is celebrating its 100th anniversary with the opening of a brand-new innovation center in St. Gallen, Switzerland – the Gallus Experience Center, which will serve as a central point of contact primarily for customers, industry experts, stakeholders, and the general public, and will drive forward the digital transformation in the market. Three new product launches also accompany the company anniversary: the HEIDELBERG Customer Portal, the new fully digital Gallus One label press with converting, and a digital upgrade of the successful Gallus ECS 340.
The new Gallus Experience Center will welcome customers and interested parties from some of the world's leading printing and converting companies, as well as partners and brand manufacturers, during the "Gallus Experience Days." The center is dedicated to the "digital transformation" of the label and narrow web industry and aims to support the future success of the industry by promoting collaboration to drive innovation and sustainability. Manufacturers, suppliers, converters, printers, and brand owners are invited to use the new facility to test and develop new technologies and learn more about the technological ecosystem. Gallus will also use the facility to showcase its own conventional, hybrid, and digital products, software, cloud-based solutions, next-generation machines, and technologies from suppliers.
"Together we are celebrating Gallus' 100th anniversary, and HEIDELBERG is delighted to be standing alongside the Gallus team this week – united as one group of companies. Together we are even stronger and are pursuing a clear growth plan for the future," comments Dr. Ludwin Monz, CEO of HEIDELBERG. "With labels and packaging now accounting for 50 percent of the HEIDELBERG Group's total sales, the new digital and automated solutions presented by Gallus today play an important role for the future of HEIDELBERG. This makes Gallus an important pillar in the company's growth strategy, and we are more committed than ever to its long-term future."
With annual growth in global print volume exceeding two percent, packaging printing is one of the fastest-growing segments in the printing industry. Together with label printing, this is an important core area for HEIDELBERG. As part of its dual-track strategy, HEIDELBERG is also focusing on further growth in digital printing. This technology is used, for example, in label production, which is one of the areas with the greatest growth potential in the printing industry. A third of all labels worldwide are already digitally printed. Digital printing is thus driving change in this promising market segment, with inkjet printing showing annual growth of around six percent. HEIDELBERG intends to further expand its market share in this area with the Gallus One.
Dario Urbinati, CEO of the Gallus Group, comments: "We strive to stay in touch with the market and anticipate potential trends that will affect our customers and brands, and to respond accordingly. Gallus and HEIDELBERG have therefore set themselves the goal of being at the forefront of the new digital transformation and driving forward "intelligent, connected printing" in order to achieve a revolutionary level of production automation and manufacturing efficiency. This is also a response to today's shortage of skilled workers and will enable customers to reduce costs and increase both profitability and sustainability. In addition, our new Gallus Experience Center has a team dedicated to researching new technologies/processes such as artificial intelligence and Industry 4.0 that can be integrated into the label and packaging sectors to inspire and excite future generations."
To further drive digital transformation in the label and packaging industry and help solve the problems associated with the current skills shortage and rising costs, Gallus is also introducing a revolutionary new HEIDELBERG Customer Portal (HCP) that automates virtually every customer touchpoint. As an absolute industry first, future versions of the solution will also offer predictive capabilities that use artificial intelligence (AI) to provide recommendations for increasing productivity, reducing maintenance, and boosting profitability. Customers are expected to save up to 35 percent in time and money on average with the new platform.
To further expand the advantage offered by Gallus in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO) in label production, the company is also using the event to present the new Gallus One with inline finishing. This solution combines everything inline in one machine and features a digital printer with integrated flexo station, a semi-rotary die cutter that can change jobs within a minute and process up to 70 meters per minute, and optical inspection systems that ensure maximum quality and minimize waste. The company is also announcing the option of upgrading an existing Gallus ECS 340 flexographic printing press with a digital printing unit (DPU), thereby converting it into a Gallus Labelfire 340 hybrid printing press – without any additional investment in a new platform. This means that customers are now able to combine the flexibility and versatility of digital printing with the reliability and precision of conventional printing and finishing technology.
The new Gallus products now being introduced are the result of intensive dialogue with customers and brand manufacturers. After Gallus identified that the next generation of retail consumers perceives the world in a completely different way, and in light of demographic challenges and other macro trends that present new and significant short- and long-term challenges for converters, the company has reformulated its vision and mission to support a new business direction.
Dario Urbinati sums it up: "We are delighted to welcome so many guests from all over the world this week to celebrate our 100th anniversary with them – and to have the opportunity to showcase our exciting new products and thank the many wonderful people in our company who support us with their hard work, as well as our loyal customer base. But this week is also about the next 100 years and what we plan to do next. That's why we're looking forward to looking beyond the graphic industry to other industries and learning from them how they are using new technologies to embrace the new digital age and be there for the next generation – so that we can modernize the label and packaging industry and be even more successful in the future."
20.06.2023
St. Gallen, June 20, 2023 – The Gallus Group, a subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (HEIDELBERG), is the leading company in the development, production, and sale of conventional and digital narrow web web presses for label and packaging printing. Today, the Group is celebrating its 100th anniversary with the opening of a brand-new innovation center in St. Gallen, Switzerland – the Gallus Experience Center, which will serve as a central point of contact primarily for customers, industry experts, stakeholders, and the general public, and will drive forward the digital transformation in the market. Three new product launches also accompany the company anniversary: the HEIDELBERG Customer Portal, the new fully digital Gallus One label press with converting, and a digital upgrade of the successful Gallus ECS 340.
The new Gallus Experience Center will welcome customers and interested parties from some of the world's leading printing and converting companies, as well as partners and brand manufacturers, during the "Gallus Experience Days." The center is dedicated to the "digital transformation" of the label and narrow web industry and aims to support the future success of the industry by promoting collaboration to drive innovation and sustainability. Manufacturers, suppliers, converters, printers, and brand owners are invited to use the new facility to test and develop new technologies and learn more about the technological ecosystem. Gallus will also use the facility to showcase its own conventional, hybrid, and digital products, software, cloud-based solutions, next-generation machines, and technologies from suppliers.
"Together we are celebrating Gallus' 100th anniversary, and HEIDELBERG is delighted to be standing alongside the Gallus team this week – united as one group of companies. Together we are even stronger and are pursuing a clear growth plan for the future," comments Dr. Ludwin Monz, CEO of HEIDELBERG. "With labels and packaging now accounting for 50 percent of the HEIDELBERG Group's total sales, the new digital and automated solutions presented by Gallus today play an important role for the future of HEIDELBERG. This makes Gallus an important pillar in the company's growth strategy, and we are more committed than ever to its long-term future."
With annual growth in global print volume exceeding two percent, packaging printing is one of the fastest-growing segments in the printing industry. Together with label printing, this is an important core area for HEIDELBERG. As part of its dual-track strategy, HEIDELBERG is also focusing on further growth in digital printing. This technology is used, for example, in label production, which is one of the areas with the greatest growth potential in the printing industry. A third of all labels worldwide are already digitally printed. Digital printing is thus driving change in this promising market segment, with inkjet printing showing annual growth of around six percent. HEIDELBERG intends to further expand its market share in this area with the Gallus One.
Dario Urbinati, CEO of the Gallus Group, comments: "We strive to stay in touch with the market and anticipate potential trends that will affect our customers and brands, and to respond accordingly. Gallus and HEIDELBERG have therefore set themselves the goal of being at the forefront of the new digital transformation and driving forward "intelligent, connected printing" in order to achieve a revolutionary level of production automation and manufacturing efficiency. This is also a response to today's shortage of skilled workers and will enable customers to reduce costs and increase both profitability and sustainability. In addition, our new Gallus Experience Center has a team dedicated to researching new technologies/processes such as artificial intelligence and Industry 4.0 that can be integrated into the label and packaging sectors to inspire and excite future generations."
To further drive digital transformation in the label and packaging industry and help solve the problems associated with the current skills shortage and rising costs, Gallus is also introducing a revolutionary new HEIDELBERG Customer Portal (HCP) that automates virtually every customer touchpoint. As an absolute industry first, future versions of the solution will also offer predictive capabilities that use artificial intelligence (AI) to provide recommendations for increasing productivity, reducing maintenance, and boosting profitability. Customers are expected to save up to 35 percent in time and money on average with the new platform.
To further expand the advantage offered by Gallus in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO) in label production, the company is also using the event to present the new Gallus One with inline finishing. This solution combines everything inline in one machine and features a digital printer with integrated flexo station, a semi-rotary die cutter that can change jobs within a minute and process up to 70 meters per minute, and optical inspection systems that ensure maximum quality and minimize waste. The company is also announcing the option of upgrading an existing Gallus ECS 340 flexographic printing press with a digital printing unit (DPU), thereby converting it into a Gallus Labelfire 340 hybrid printing press – without any additional investment in a new platform. This means that customers are now able to combine the flexibility and versatility of digital printing with the reliability and precision of conventional printing and finishing technology.
The new Gallus products now being introduced are the result of intensive dialogue with customers and brand manufacturers. After Gallus identified that the next generation of retail consumers perceives the world in a completely different way, and in light of demographic challenges and other macro trends that present new and significant short- and long-term challenges for converters, the company has reformulated its vision and mission to support a new business direction.
Dario Urbinati sums it up: "We are delighted to welcome so many guests from all over the world this week to celebrate our 100th anniversary with them – and to have the opportunity to showcase our exciting new products and thank the many wonderful people in our company who support us with their hard work, as well as our loyal customer base. But this week is also about the next 100 years and what we plan to do next. That's why we're looking forward to looking beyond the graphic industry to other industries and learning from them how they are using new technologies to embrace the new digital age and be there for the next generation – so that we can modernize the label and packaging industry and be even more successful in the future."