The BOBST Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of equipment for substrate processing, including printing and converting equipment and services for the label, flexible packaging, folding carton and corrugated board industries. As a privately held company, in 2024 it reached a turnover of CHF 1.89 billion (Swiss francs). With approximately 6,500 employees and 21 production facilities in 12 countries, they are a force in the packaging industry and known and respected by converters and their brand customers alike. As CEO, Jean-Pascal Bobst has led the company through innovations, acquisitions and significant growth. The headquarters is located on bucolic farmland in Mex, Switzerland, just outside of Lausanne.

In the past, Jean-Pascal has shared with me that he believes that value creation is based on people, innovation and technology, and financials. Furthermore, that the direction of the company’s product development is based on four pillars; connectivity, digitization, automation, and sustainability. He has led the company by all of those precepts, resulting, according to Jean-Pascal, that in the end that product packaging will “become smarter.” This doesn’t just mean connectivity, which has already been implemented and delivered in their machines for years, but it also means making a change to more sustainable packaging and processes.

They have also developed innovations like ECG (Extended Color Gamut) seven-color printing with new generation flexo plating and Ink-On-Demand (IOD) and Digi Color ink dispensing system which injects the correct amount of dark or light ink with an inline closed-loop color system to automatically achieve the targeted Delta E. These systems support “file to print” in less than one hour on a flexo press, and automated plate and color changes that take a “maximum” of four minutes. Each of these technologies delivers on reduced waste, while other initiatives support material sustainability and food safety. They also continue to develop and implement new digital printing solutions as well as hybrid presses to support the shifting market requirements.