Smurfit Kappa buys Ultra-high-speed EFI Nozomi

Dublin, Ireland-based Smurfit Kappa Group (LSE:SKG) – Europe's leading corrugated packaging company – is partnering with Electronics For Imaging, Inc. to establish an efficient, robust digital corrugated packaging production offering with the installation of an EFI Nozomi C18000 single-pass LED inkjet corrugated packaging press.

As a result of this partnership, Smurfit Kappa, one of the top innovators in packaging, and main driving force of digital print technology in Europe,will establish leaner and more-effective processes to deliver ready-to-sell high quality print packaging that will provide its customers maximum brand benefit in the retail store. "This digital printing partnership with EFI reflects Smurfit Kappa's serious commitment to providing the best packaging solutions available," said Ignacio Sevillano, CEO Smurfit Kappa Spain, Portugal and Morocco. "Our ability to achieve high-quality print production in larger volumes with the Nozomi press will mean our customers can establish better supply chain strategies and be more creative by producing multiple designs – all of which can help our customers sell more products and reduce their time to market, while employing a leaner, more sustainable packaging program."

The new press is scheduled to be installed this month at one of Smurfit Kappa's plants in Iberia – a facility that currently manufactures a wide range of boxes and trays, including ready-to-sell packaging requiring higher-quality, full-colour imaging. The Nozomi press, with its high-end greyscale imaging capabilities and fast running speeds up to 246 linear feet (75 linear meters) per minute, offers the critical capabilities Smurfit Kappa can use to give its customers short-run, medium-run and complex versioned jobs that are too costly to produce using analog post-print flexo or litho lam processes. This Nozomi C18000 would be the fourth digital printer operating at Smurfit Kappa Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

More info: http://www.efi.com