Packaging is on the list for many print providers and industry suppliers. Therefore, it is very valuable to listen when Bobst invites you to an international press event at their headquarters in Mex, near Lausanne. The event continued on the themes set in a (virtual) press event in 2020, based on connectivity, digitalization, automation, and sustainability.

Bobst is well known as a leading supplier of packaging and label presses and converting equipment, thus serving a market that has been regarded as stable, even with some growth in contrast to commercial print. Nevertheless, customer requirements keep changing and the digitization of processes is playing a much larger role now. Manufacturing die-cutters since 1940, Bobst acknowledged that by now 80% of all tasks on die-cutters have been automated. Further automation of single devices is getting increasingly complicated and pricey. Instead, the potential of optimizing the whole production chain is coming into focus, which means that supplies, workflow, software, and digitization of communication become key topics. CEO Jean-Pascal Bobst made it clear that the transformation will be the most radical change the company has experienced so far.

Executing on this vision, Bobst presented software solutions, new maintenance concepts, and services to improve converting processes. Step-by-step equipment will be made “smart” and the workflow will be the glue that brings the pieces together. Currently a large showroom at the headquarters site in Mex (Switzerland) is being prepared to show the latest equipment in a full workflow.