Gallus | 49Gallus celebrates centenary with ‘industry hub’ initiativeGallus wants its St Gallen Experience Center to become a hub for wider industry collaboration on automation, AI and digital transformation across the label supply chain, Andy Thomas-Emans reportsallus has celebrated its 100th anniversary by opening the Gallus Experience Center at the company’s historic home in St Gallen, Switzerland.GGallus CEO Dario Urbinati says the Experience Center is designed to ‘foster collaboration to drive innovation and sustainability.’ ‘Whether you are a manufacturer, supplier, converter, printer or brand, you are invited to use the new facility to explore ideas, test and develop new technologies, and teach and experience a technological ecosystem.’ Gallus is also using the facility to showcase its range of digital, hybrid and fexo presses along with Cloud-based software solutions. Opening the facility, Heidelberg CEO Dr Ludwin Monz, Ferdinand Reusch, Dr Ludwin Monz and comments, ‘As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Gallus, Dario Urbinati open Gallus Experience CenterHeidelberg is delighted to stand alongside the Gallus team this week – united, as one group.’“The Gallus Experience Center exists Monz pointed out that labels and packaging now represent 50 percent of Heidelberg group sales.to help the industry move toward ‘The new digital and automated solutions we see introduced by Gallus today play an important role in the future of Heidelberg,’ a complete digital transformation”Monz continues. ‘As a result, Gallus is an important pillar within the company’s growth strategy, and we’re more committed than ever to its long-term future.’Heidelberg sees annual growth of over 2 percent in global package print volumes, making this the strongest growth area in the printing industry. ‘Digital printing technology used in label production offers some of the greatest growth opportunities in the printing industry,’ says Monz. ‘One-third of all labels worldwide are already printed digitally today. Digital printing is thus driving change in this promising market segment, with inkjet growth of around 6 percent a year. Heidelberg intends to expand its position here with the Gallus One.’Meta trendsIn his address, Urbinati focused on the wider trends driving the Gallus Experience Centergrowth of digital print and automation in the label market.He identifed the label industry’s ‘pain points’ as labor shortages, increasing input costs, non-negotiable sustainability targets and Gallus announces upgrades to Gallus One increasing consolidation among converters and suppliers. and ECS340 Skilled labor shortages, says Urbinati, are here to stay. ‘Within a decade we will have retired the largest generation ever, the baby Two signifcant equipment-related announcements were made boomers, and will lose its knowhow, skills, experience and capital.’ at the Gallus centenary event.At the same time, birth rates are declining globally and big tech The frst was the Gallus One with Converting, a new and the service industries are absorbing the Gen X and Y workers confguration for the Gallus One digital press which adds an coming onto the market. Young workers are also rejecting the inline fexo station and a semi-rotary die-cutter capable of commuting and shift work patterns which have formed the bedrock changing between jobs in one minute. The press operates at 70 of traditional factory organization.m/min and includes a vision inspection system. Immigration is no longer an answer for developed countries as The second announcement was an upgrade kit for the Gallus the same demographic trends are affecting the countries of origin, ECS340 (‘granite’) fexo press, which effectively turns it into a says Urbinati. Gallus Labelfre 340 hybrid press. The Labelfre was originally Taking these trends together, there will be less labor available built around the ECS platform, and the upgrade involves for the industrial sector and the situation will only get worse going adding the digital printing unit (DPU) from the Labelfre to the forward.ECS press. The upgrade can be carried out in the feld.‘So with human intervention now a bottleneck in the production Jul - Sep 2023