Package Decoration Printing Underpins Jiangxi's Printing Industry

No commodity can do without packaging, and packaging and decorative printing has emerged in response. The development of packaging and decorative printing is reflected not only in the number of such printing enterprises but, more importantly, in the level of packaging and decorative design and printing processing, and a complete packaging and decorative printing system is presented before the world. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 37,400 enterprises engaged in packaging and decorative printing nationwide, accounting for about 38.43% of all printing enterprises, reigning supreme.

Packaging and Decorative Printing: From Weak to Strong

With the continuous development and progress of society, China's packaging and decorative printing has gone through a development process from weak to strong. In particular, over the nearly 30 years since reform and opening up, it is no exaggeration at all to describe packaging and decorative printing as having developed at an extraordinary pace.

Packaging and decorative printing started relatively late in Jiangxi; only after reform and opening up did it develop rapidly, with packaging and decorative printing production lines being established one after another in the province. Nanchang No. 2 Printing Factory has vigorously developed packaging and decorative printing, investing tens of millions of yuan to introduce complete sets of packaging and decorative printing equipment, including Heidelberg, Manroland and Czech multi-color offset presses, Japanese six-color gravure presses, British electronic color separators, German TIANMA plate exposure machines, advanced computer desktop design systems, plus post-press processing equipment such as die-cutters and laminating and varnishing machines. It has expanded its plant by more than 10,000 square meters, and its packaging and decorative printed products reach the whole country and even Southeast Asia. Its printing quality also ranks at the level of the whole province of Jiangxi, and every year a number of its packaging and decorative printed products win national gold and silver awards; it is a backbone enterprise of packaging and decorative printing in Jiangxi.

Jiangxi Fenghua Color Printing Co., Ltd. was formerly a Guangfeng County printing factory on the verge of bankruptcy. With support from higher authorities, it emancipated its thinking, took the path of reform and restructuring, and combined internal efforts with external cooperation to establish today's packaging and decorative printing enterprise from a high starting point. It has successively introduced Manroland two-color presses, Beiren two-color presses, Japanese Mitsubishi five-color and four-color presses, automatic hot-stamping machines and automatic die-cutters, creating conditions for the development of packaging and decorative printing. Its printed products include packaging and decorative printed items such as cigarette trademarks, export fireworks trademarks, alcohol and pharmaceutical trademarks and food trademarks. Packaging and decorative printing has not only won the enterprise a market but also brought it a steady stream of revenue, with sales revenue already exceeding 100 million yuan.

Today Jiangxi already has a team of packaging and decorative design personnel with very high professional standards. It has production lines for carton packaging and decorative printing, tinplate can packaging and decorative printing, dairy product (including liquid milk and solid milk powder) packaging and decorative printing, salt packaging and decorative printing, and food and pharmaceutical packaging and decorative printing, among others; these various packaging and decorative printing production lines have the printing and processing capability for all kinds of packaging and decorative products. There are more than 610 packaging and decorative printing enterprises of a certain scale, making this sector a pillar of Jiangxi's printing industry.

Packaging and Decorative Printing Shows Diversified Development

The revitalization of packaging and decorative printing is a requirement of the development of the times and an inevitable result of people's spiritual and cultural pursuits. Creating decorative effects for commodities is a common goal of manufacturers, merchants and printing enterprises alike. Therefore, market demand for commodity packaging decoration determines that the diversified development path of packaging and decorative printing is an inevitable trend. At the same time, the rapid rise of tinplate can packaging decoration and plastic packaging and decorative printing has opened up new fields for packaging and decorative printing, and packaged goods have expanded from solids to liquids such as milk, wine and soy sauce, which not only saves packaging resources and reduces packaging costs but also delivers remarkable decorative effects, bringing convenience and real benefits to users.

At present, the framework for the diversified development of packaging and decorative printing has already taken shape, showing the following characteristics:

Various economic sectors are joining the ranks of packaging and decorative printing. The state's policy of encouraging and supporting the establishment of packaging and decorative printing enterprises has inspired the investment enthusiasm of people of vision; among the newly added packaging and decorative printing enterprises, a large proportion are private enterprises, and their participation has strengthened the overall strength of packaging and decorative printing. Some production enterprises have also invested in building factories to match their own product packaging, such as cigarette and liquor packaging and milk and salt packaging; much of the flexible packaging and decorative printing is printed by packaging printing plants set up by the production enterprises themselves. A cigarette factory in Jiangxi invested tens of millions of yuan to establish a large-scale cigarette packaging printing enterprise, equipped entirely with modern printing and packaging equipment.

Packaging and decorative materials advance with the times. Continuous innovation and a wide variety of designs and types provide ample raw materials for packaging and decorative printing. As a result, decorative printing enterprises have each developed their own style with distinctive features, and printing processes are constantly being renewed, meeting the needs of packaging and decorative printing for all kinds of commodities.

New projects are launched with strong focus. Enterprises conduct thorough market research and have market prospects; in some cases the project comes first and the factory is built afterward, avoiding blind investment and redundant construction.

High input, high output. The diversified development of packaging and decorative printing has made its prospects of use increasingly clear to people; whether investing in a new factory or carrying out technical renovation of an old enterprise, once the target is chosen they are willing to spend on investment, showing a trend of three highs and one fast: a high starting point, high technological content and high production efficiency, with quick returns after going into production.

Innovative investment philosophy. Investment in packaging and decorative printing is handled in a fairly rational manner, without rushing in blindly; enterprises emphasize their individuality and their professional characteristics are more prominent, and market prospects are promising — this is also an important factor in the formation of diversified development.

Excessive Packaging Will Not Drive Development

While packaging and decorative printing developed rapidly, excessive packaging attracted people's attention. It cannot be denied that elaborately adorned packaging boxes (bags) are indeed beautiful and loved by all, but if everyday goods were all packaged this excessively, could ordinary people still afford them?

Take mooncake packaging as an example. With just a little attention one finds that mooncake packaging has become more and more elaborate in recent years. The author once saw a mooncake packaging box as large as a four-page newspaper holding six mooncakes; from the printed decoration on the outside to the box-making craftsmanship, it could be called first-rate, and the inner packaging was also very refined, with a holder securing the six mooncakes and yellow silk lining the surface, while each mooncake was in turn wrapped in an exquisite small box and arranged side by side inside the case — truly imposing. By market value, six mooncakes are worth at most no more than 30 yuan, yet with such deliberate packaging the market price was set at 128 yuan; in other words, the packaging and decoration cost nearly 100 yuan, four times the value of the mooncakes themselves. Excessive packaging runs counter to value and causes unnecessary waste of resources; although it brings some business to packaging and decorative printing enterprises, the volume is after all not large and will not drive the development of packaging and decorative printing enterprises.

Of course, luxury packaging is not unnecessary; used in the right place it can be extraordinary, so it exists now, will continue to exist, and will always exist. Certain special items, or so-called special commodities, need this kind of packaging, since only such packaging can better show their preciousness and their value; such packaging is worthwhile. For example, priceless precious jewelry, famous paintings and antique cultural relics can never be over-packaged, and the packaging can never exceed their original value; only when luxury packaging is used in the right place can its value be demonstrated.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362323.html