Kodak will highlight its packaging solutions at the PLMA Private Label Trade Show in Chicago, November 13-15. For more than 30 years, PLMA's annual trade show has been the industry event of the year where supermarkets, drug chains, mass merchandisers, wholesalers, importers and exporters, discounters, and convenience stores have come to find products and suppliers.

This year, PLMA will present more than 2,000 exhibit booths, featuring food, snacks and beverages, household and kitchen products, and health and beauty products. Exhibitors range from large, well-known store brand makers to small and medium-size companies. Kodak will exhibit its full portfolio of packaging solutions at booth 8929, including demonstrations of KODAK DESIGN2LAUNCH Brand Manager, as well as the KODAK TRACELESS AD System for Antidiversion, which is designed to address brand security issues.

According to a recent PLMA study, store brands have increased in presence by 2 percent in supermarkets and 5 percent in drugstores, while annual sales of private label products have increased by 40 percent in supermarkets and 96 percent in drug chains. "We have seen store and private label brands increase over the years and sales continue to grow at a rapid pace," said Dr. John Anderson, Packaging Segment Director of Marketing, Americas, Kodak. "Kodak offers a comprehensive portfolio of solutions in the packaging market, and is working with private label brands, retailers and their providers to enhance brand value and drive shelf impact to help increase consumer lift."

Regardless of a company's role in the packaging value chain, Kodak provides solutions that add value and open new opportunities for growth. Kodak's packaging solutions help brand owners protect brand value, increase shelf impact, and accelerate speed to market; while for package designers, Kodak's solutions help conquer complexity and offer greater creative flexibility. For packaging trade shops, Kodak's solutions help them stand out from the crowd and differentiate their offerings. And finally, Kodak's packaging solutions help printers/converters enhance the value of print, better satisfy their customers, and deliver the brand intent to consumers.

During the event, Kodak will show a new addition to the already successful KODAK TRACELESS System-the TRACELESS AD System for Antidiversion, a security solution for manufacturers that uses an invisible ink and a proprietary detection system to defend against gray market activities. The KODAK TRACELESS AD System helps brand owners track products and prevent the creation of illegitimate distribution channels and unauthorized resellers.

Another new development being shown at PLMA 2011 is KODAK DESIGN2LAUNCH Brand Manager, a centralized digital workflow and brand-asset management solution. This technology enables enterprise packaging and marketing teams to securely approve, organize and distribute packaging and marketing artwork, layouts and other digital assets to departments, regions and suppliers. The web-based solution provides end users with process management tools that can boost operational efficiency, increase speed-to-market, and improve brand consistency over multi-channel marketing and packaging assets.

KODAK RECIPE COLOR Profiler is a new software solution that allows package printers and brand owners to more accurately predict colors on press while at the same time reducing costs and improving efficiency. With the new RECIPE COLOR Profiler, flexographic printers can develop complex spot color recipes in less time and with fewer donor sheets for the KODAK APPROVAL NX Digital Color Imaging System.

In addition to these new products, Kodak also addresses the needs of package production environments with its established portfolio of offset, flexographic and workflow technologies, which will be represented through samples at PLMA 2011:

KODAK FLEXCEL NX System – Award-winning digital plate system delivers real advantages to flexographic printing, achieving levels of print quality normally expected from gravure, offset, or digital printing and driving significant production efficiencies in the press room.

KODAK TRILLIAN SP Thermal Plates – Deliver productivity with reduced chemistry consumption, long unbaked run length capability including UV and strong chemical resistance required for offset packaging production.

KODAK Unified Workflow Solutions – Featuring KODAK PRINERGY POWERPACK Workflow and its Packaging Layout Automation Software, which automates the time-intensive task of object layout, eliminating manual steps and helping to reduce operator errors.

KODAK INSITE Prepress Portal System – The solution provides secure web access for remote job submission, progress tracking, and approval-automating some of the most critical, time-consuming workflow steps.

To aid customers in choosing the best solutions and identifying opportunities for business growth, Kodak has a team of consultants to offer expertise and insight across a variety of applications. KODAK MARKETMOVER Business Advantage Solutions gives brand owners and production organizations access to an array of knowledge including management consultants, solution architects, developers, and engineers. These teams analyze all aspects of the business and apply industry best practices to tailor an approach for each customer's unique situation and needs, eliminating inefficiencies with custom solutions while promoting business-wide interconnectivity and streamlined production workflow. Additionally, these process improvements lead to enhanced sustainability for packaging professionals.

Kodak is a global advisor and provider of integrated services to help companies transform and optimize their businesses. Through a network of service professionals in 120+ countries, Kodak provides technical, professional, consulting and managed services to enable customers to focus on growing their businesses, maximize productivity, and more effectively manage risks. All KODAK Products and Software are backed by KODAK Service and Support. To learn more, visit www.graphics.kodak.com.