Brand-specific personalisation portal for digital-print cartons

Shown linked to Xeikon digital print equipment, including a 3500 press, software from Belgian-based Chili Publish enabled designs to be customised within a number of carton variants.

Chief marketing officer at Chili, Bram Verniest, explained: “People can interact with the platform to design within given brand guidelines and variables such as the number of colours available. They’re doing it in real time, and are able to see what it will look like in 3D.”​

Chili said it also works in partnership with Esko, where its software is integrated into toolkits for packaging design, potentially for use in a business-to-consumer context.

Make it work ​

But while Chili was able to provide the technology, it was up to the brand owners and their marketing teams to come up with applications and the logistics to make it work, Verniest said.

So far, major European food industry use of digital print has focused on labels rather than cartons, including campaigns by Heinz, Nutella and, most recently, Coca-Cola.

Xeikon marketing communications manager, Frank Jacobs, said: “We started doing digital label printing as far back as 1996, and it took a long time for industry to recognise its potential. It’s likely that the folding carton market will take a while, too.”​

Phenomenon ​

In the past, there have been limited examples of customers adapting label presses for folding cartons, said Xeikon. But systems specifically targeting carton applications are a relatively recent phenomenon.

“Without necessarily personalising cartons, customers may want to produce short runs for their own specific customers, for local events or for market trials,” ​said Jacobs. “But the main reason why customers have switched over is the huge amount of inventory they held when printing by traditional methods.”​