Bobst and industry partners Apex International, Atlas Converting, COIM, DEC Impianti, Kodak, Reifenhäuser and Rossini, convened in Cairo, Egypt, to meet representatives of the Egyptian flexible packaging and label converting industries, which attended the roadshow on 26 January 2016 at the Fairmont Heliopolis and Towers hotel.
Co-hosted by the Bobst agent in Egypt, Sidhom Co., the event gathered around 100 participants, who braved a day of inclement weather to be present, as did representatives of local financial institutions. The event provided the opportunity for delegates to hear from world-leading equipment and consumables manufacturers about the advantages and opportunities provided by the latest technologies and processes for the production of flexible packaging and labels, as well as enjoying the networking sessions that the day also offered.
The equipment presentations spotlighted the performance and technologies of printing and converting equipment throughout the production chain, for both flexible packaging and labels, from film extrusion to slitting-rewinding, by way of vacuum metallising, flexo and gravure printing, lamination, extrusion coating and coating. These were complemented by the latest updates on new generation high performance adhesives and on food contact legislation, flexo plate technology, printing sleeves and rollers, the future of flexo with fixed palettes, and solvent recovery systems for flexible packaging.
‘Despite the economic and political uncertainties, demand for flexible packaging is growing and the local industry continues to make progress,’ commented Roy Obeid, Zone Business Director, BOBST Business Unit Web-fed. ‘This seminar illustrated ways that enable our customers to unlock hidden profit potential within converting and printing operations, while still ensuring the highest levels of output quality. This was not only true for equipment, peripheral devices and systems, but also, and very importantly so, for services. The timeliness, efficiency and quality of services must support the installed equipment in order to make it always perform at its very best.’ The capabilities of Bobst services to keep machines at full efficiency were clearly illustrated by Nitin Ashar, Regional Service Manager, Bobst Africa and Middle East.
Sherif Sidhom, CEO of Sidhom Co., co-hosts of the roadshow, said, ‘For many years we have been the BOBST agent in Egypt for their range of web-fed equipment and we have a solidly established position in the printing and converting market for wide-web equipment. Further to their acquisition last year of the Italian company Nuova Gidue, which is now Bobst Firenze, BOBST has extended its solutions in the different segments of the label industry to now encompass narrow-web printing and converting equipment. The roadshow has provided us with a tremendous opportunity to touch base with narrow-web and label converters, along with existing BOBST customers, which is invaluable for the development of our business in this sector of the industry.’
