The first Asian Conference of the Bobst and Partners’ 2014 World Roadshow went with a bang in August 2014 in Indonesia, officials say. Held at the Shangri-la hotel in Jakarta over two days dedicated to flexible packaging and folding carton packaging respectively, the event welcomed 273 guests from the local industry.

 

“The level of interest and participation of Indonesia’s printing and converting industry surpassed our expectations”, says Eric Pavone, business director of Bobst Business Unit Web-fed. “This speaks volumes about it becoming a premier industry event where technology updates meet networking”.

 

The now well-established roadshow formula provides a value added forum that brings together leading equipment and consumables manufacturers and top management of packaging companies. Both the flexible and carton programmes dedicated to the presentation of innovative technology were completed in Jakarta by the insightful presentations of the guest speaker from Nestlé Indonesia who spoke about packaging needs and trends from the brand owner perspective.   

 

The focus of day 1 was on the latest innovations in flexible packaging converting solutions from raw materials to finished products. These were presented by Bobst and Partners -  Atlas Converting, Coim, Daetwyler Graphics, Daetwyler SwissTec, Kodak, Macchi, Rossini and Schmid-Rhyner. The event was co-hosted by Rotokemas Indonesia and Mr Felix Hamidjaya, Chairman of the association that groups the country’s flexible packaging companies, delivered a welcome address.  

 

“The flexible packaging market is one of the most dynamic in Indonesia” explains Laurence Dy, zone business director of SEA for Bobst business unit web-fed. “The higher disposable income of Indonesian consumers’ fuels demands for better quality packaging and different packaging formats. This relates to both the food-industry, as well as other segments that are rapidly growing in popularity such as beauty & personal care, and pet food where flexible packaging solutions are on the increase.”

 

The enhancement of carton packaging through value added processes was covered on the second day of the Roadshow by Bobst and partners, IST, Schmid-Rhyner and Sunchemical, with industry and product insights from Nestlé Indonesia. 

 

Indonesia being the fifth largest tobacco market in the world, the morning sessions were dedicated to this premier segment of the packaging industry.  

 

“The local tobacco industry requirements are very exacting and target superior quality output and productivity. By bringing to the industry advanced solutions that meet the continuously evolving needs of this high-end market, Bobst has established itself as the benchmark in the region for the quality of equipment performance,” says Eric Pavone. 

 

The second part of the day started with Bobst superior technical solutions in CI flexo printing and continued with technology around the value added processes, this time involving sheet-fed methods.The graphic and tactile enhancement of packaging in the cigarette, cosmetic and heath care industries as well as well established and new technologies are always well received.  

 

Various aspects of offline converting solutions were explained keeping in mind technical complexities of multistep processes as well as viability of investments in the context of developing economies. A thought provoking presentation with a tag line of “ What drive competitiveness, lower investment or better efficiency“ by Subhasis Roy, zone business director of SEA for business unit sheet-fed, was well appreciated by the audience as it put the whole discussion in the right perspective. 

 

With the largest range of both sheet and web-fed equipment and services to cover the requirements of flexible packaging and folding carton packaging manufacturing, Bobst has built a large customer base in Indonesia and numbers hundreds of installations.  

 

“Based on the complimentary comments we have received from the participants, I trust that together with our industry partners we succeeded in presenting value added processes and technical solutions aimed at optimizing the quality and profitability of converters’ operations through both new equipment or upgrading of installed machines and systems for all the different end-users market segments” says Eric Pavone.