Over 130 participants were part of a live press demonstration and informative presentations
On 6-7 September 2022, MPS Systems Asia – a manufacturer of highly automated flexo, offset, and hybrid printing presses in the label and packaging industry – opened the doors of its office and showroom in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to more than 130 participants, including customers, the MPS Asia-Pacific agent network, and industry partners.
The open house featured presentations from five guest speakers covering the latest industry trends and a live demonstration of the MPS EF-530 seventh-generation flexo press with eight color flexo units and one EXLp packaging station. The focus of the open house was on flexible packaging, as well as the benefits of connectivity and performance optimization.
MPS Systems Asia hosted a tabletop exhibition where customers had the opportunity to interact with 14 participating industry partners – DIC, Miraclon, Apex International, UPM Raflatac, Flexo Wash, Böttcher, Esko, CGS ORIS, BST, Press Systems (GEW), TESA, Martin Automatic, Fedrigoni, and Univacco.
“ It was an incredible opportunity to gather together a large number of printers and industry partners to bring valuable support to the Asia-Pacific printing industry,” said Tim Klappe, managing director of Asia-Pacific at MPS. “The guests had the opportunity to ask questions with industry partners and see first-hand how flexible packaging printing, particularly pouches and shrink sleeves, is the sweet spot with narrow web flexo press. The high turnout exceeded our expectations, and we are grateful to everyone who attended and supported our open house.”
“ Printers are experiencing shortages in skilled labor, shorter print runs, and smaller order sizes,” said Atze Bosma, CEO of MPS. “During the live EF-530 press demonstration, participants experienced the machine’s ease of operation, high automation and productivity, and high print quality. This is a connected machine—an area where MPS has heavily invested—that can help printers use valuable data to plan improvements and efficiencies in their overall production processes.”
Peter Goh Yong Long, Esko’s sales manager, Singapore & Malaysia, said it is valuable to learn how connectivity and its implementation can be made a breeze, to help business owners understand their processes and make more informed decisions.
David Robins, regional sales and marketing manager of DIC, said that their partnership and vision alignment with MPS resulted in strong collaboration and joint commitment to its development and market success in Southeast Asia. ‘
Hoang Ha of C Illies, Vietnam, said, “ I am completely convinced of the MPSConnect program. It is a very concrete step towards realizing sustainable development goals and will certainly help manufacturers and converters achieve responsible consumption and production targets. It is a simple, clear, and easy-to-apply PDCA process.”
Albert Tan, regional sales, Malaysia & Singapore, BST, said that as a key supplier to MPS, BST was pleased to be invited to participate in what turned out to be a hugely successful open house and seminar. “Traditionally, it has been very difficult to penetrate the wide web gravure and flexo film converting market with an alternative narrow web solution; the demonstrated EF-530 press clearly shows that this divide can be crossed. The press was equipped with BST web guiding, web viewing, and web monitoring systems, and as a regionally based subsidiary, BST South East Asia is committed to supporting MPS in the region both from a commercial and technical standpoint.”
Kenny Loo, managing director, Böttcher Malaysia, said Böttcher is proud to be a supply chain partner of MPS Systems, known for providing one of the highest flexo printing presses in productivity. “The two-day event organized by MPS Systems Asia successfully demonstrated and proved the MPS EF series to participating printers. It was an amazing event, bringing printers together from around the Asia-Pacific region. Great effort and commendable work from the entire MPS Systems Asia team!”
Joerg Kullwitz, regional commercial director, Asia-Pacific at Miraclon, said, “ We would like to thank MPS Systems Asia for inviting Miraclon to collaborate and present at their open house, one of the first in-person joint partner events we have had in the Asia-Pacific region since travel has normalized. It was a very successful event and provided us with an opportunity to exchange information with MPS as well as other industry leaders. By working together with innovative partners like MPS, we can further our vision of ‘Transforming Flexo Together’ and help packaging printers maximize performance and exceed the quality expectations of brand owners.”
The Covid-19 pandemic led to the country-wide lockdown on 25 March 2020. It will be two years tomorrow as I write this. What have we learned in this time? Maybe the meaning of resilience since small companies like us have had to rely on our resources and the forbearance of our employees as we have struggled to produce our trade platforms.
The print and packaging industries have been fortunate, although the commercial printing industry is still to recover. We have learned more about the digital transformation that affects commercial printing and packaging. Ultimately digital will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future.
Web analytics show that we now have readership in North America and Europe amongst the 90 countries where our five platforms reach. Our traffic which more than doubled in 2020, has at times gone up by another 50% in 2021. And advertising which had fallen to pieces in 2020 and 2021, has started its return since January 2022.
As the economy approaches real growth with unevenness and shortages a given, we are looking forward to the PrintPack India exhibition in Greater Noida. We are again appointed to produce the Show Daily on all five days of the show from 26 to 30 May 2022.
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