As part of a virtual start to the year, Sven Burkhard, who has been responsible for the Print & Packaging division in the Elanders Group since December 2019, took stock in front of his employees and presented the goals for 2021. “Elanders will continue to invest and extend its lead in the market. We have seen from the example of Germany how offset printing can be usefully supplemented by inkjet – and we will also implement this concept in the USA and UK. This mix of offset and inkjet helps us to offer consistent quality worldwide. What makes us successful in Germany is now being scaled up by Elanders to other countries.”Burkhard explained to more than 250 employees in the virtual meeting of the German sites.

Elanders has set its sights high for 2021 and the years to come. For example, a global investment package was recently approved by Elanders’ Supervisory Board. The focus is on inkjet technology, which will be expanded in the USA and UK this year. In order to continue to serve the British market optimally, inkjet technology will be established in the UK – analogous to the German digital printing location. Investments are also being made in Germany – in the course of the year, the inkjet reel systems will be renewed and another machine will be added in order to be able to respond even more flexibly to the demands of Elanders’ customers.

Sven Burkhard continues: “Our goal is to expand our global print procurement system and realize extended online access for our customers. This can only be achieved through extensive synchronization of the machine park in digital inkjet printing, as well as a global production planning system. We observe that the trend on the customer side is clearly moving in the direction of shrinking mass volumes – but towards higher print-on-demand volumes. In 2020, we showed that we have the right answers for our customers in exactly this area.” Industrial customers in particular value the services offered by the Elanders Print & Packaging Group; thanks to close cooperation with the Group’s own logistics divisions, the company presents itself as a powerful and above all reliable partner in the B2B business.

The launch event, held virtually due to the pandemic, is a turning point in the Elanders Print & Packaging Group. “Over the past few months, we have intensively analyzed how we can position ourselves for the future. In addition to expanding our inkjet strategy, online communication, both internally and externally, plays a key role here. This relates to platforms for online sales, as well as the connection of all customers to our systems and thus the further automation of processes. The experiences of the last months have helped us to optimize the existing concept and we know: The Elanders team is ready for the future! In Germany and worldwide”sums up Sven Burkhard.