An excerpt from AP July 2020 – by Kurz A/NZ managing director Stephen Pratt 

Generally, providing hot/cold metalised transfer coatings for a printer is an add-on service as if they’re printing a product, they can add on these specialised finishings to provide a unique solution, and increase the value of the job.

The real benefits are for the brand owners and designers who are looking to ensure that their product stands out from the crowded shelves that their product will be placed on once they’re out in retail land.

So, with clever use of embellishment and foil, they can elevate the brand and make it look appealing to the eye; eye-catching enough for people to pick out these products and purchase them.

Kurz is a global provider of hot/cold metalised transfer coatings which has been in operation in Australia for 50 years. We provide a huge range of metalised foils or transfer coatings. They are utilised for decorating packaging and labels within the beverages and fast moving consumer goods verticals, amongst other applications like decorating plastics, car license plates and KINEGRAM found on Australian bank notes.

Apart from the graphics and packaging segments, Kurz is a major supplier to automotive manufacturers, and is in plastics, especially in-mould design. Locally, we are a major player in thermal transfer ribbons. Kurz has a huge range of black and coloured thermal transfer ribbons which are used in packaging for product identification and barcoding.

Australia was Kurz’s first subsidiary outside of Europe, which goes to show that it’s adoption rate of these consumables has always been ahead of the curve. We’re the largest provider in our market and Australia is recognised as a leader in terms of the quality that we produce in packaging and labelling.

I’ve been managing director of Australia and New Zealand at Kurz for the last six years and our business has grown steadily in that time. We’re going through a growth spurt as we’ve opened up new markets and new opportunities in areas where we have developed new products to meet growing demand.

Kurz has also deliberately worked to develop partnerships with some of the key manufacturers in the market. And the benefit of that is that we’re not only looking to provide our product for application, but we’re working with the manufacturers who are innovating on their own. And that gives us the chance to work together with them in R&D to develop products specifically for their machinery.

 On the digital side, we’re a global partner of HP for the Indigo presses and we provide the Jetliner and the Luxliner, which can work with sheet-fed and roll-fed production machines from HP. The advantage there is that if HP’s customers are looking for an inline embellishing unit, they can specify the Kurz machine and know that it will work seamlessly with their workflow and machinery.

On the topic of sustainability, it isn’t a trend; it’s an ongoing focus for the consumables industry that’s ingrained into society. Manufacturers, consumers, and printers alike are taking this seriously, as they should. They understand that we only have one world and we need to protect it.

Kurz has, for over 25 years, utilised power generation from waste product in its manufacturing, which means that when we manufacture product, any waste is burnt in a furnace and the heat produced is then used to drive steam turbines to generate power to the plants.

We’re doing as much as we can to reutilise our waste and make sure that product doesn’t go into landfill. And we’ve also gone down the path of looking at how we can meet the standards for sustainability and recyclability, and provided Kurz products are stamped onto recyclable packaging, it’s safe to put them through the recycling process – they won’t affect sorting or any recycling of the substrate.

As a result of COVID-19, it’s hard to predict what trends we’re going to see in the coming months let alone years but I predict continued adoption in this area. We’re seeing more brands looking to add foil to their products to increase their sales. The cost of adding embellishment, whether it be foiling or embossing and debossing, or a combination of both is not a huge part of packaging costs these days.

One of the keys to Kurz’s success is innovation and agility. We also recently moved into manufacturing machinery so that we can provide complete turnkey solutions for our customers. This enables Kurz to be a one-stop-shop for them and that differentiates us.

So, printers too need to adopt differentiation and those that want to get into the market need to make sure that you’ve got a key point of difference and that you’re not just trading on price, because if you are, you won’t last in the market.

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