Stora Enso : showed what a tree can do at drupa 2016

​'Our theme at drupa was 'What a tree can do'. All our products are made of a renewable material - wood. We wanted to take the visitors on a journey from paper and board-making to the marketplace and finally to how Paper for Recycling is given a new life,' says Katariina Tanner, VP Marketing, Division Paper. 'Print and packaging have amazing power in the retail environment, and the design can help innovate and improve the customers' experience. We demonstrated this through eye tracking. We also had Oculus Rift 3D video and Google Cardboard glasses to show paper and board-making as well as recycling from a new angle.' ​

'Hall 1 was the best place to be for us, being close to our partners, showing our stakeholders what Stora Enso can offer. Heidelberg's new Primefire digital printing press based on inkjet technology was one good example of many new launches. The general sentiment at drupa was that printers everywhere are increasingly optimistic about their prospects throughout 2016. This is influencing their plans for investment in production equipment. Digital technologies are growing fastest, but sheet-fed offset lithography is also seeing significant growth, particularly in publishing and packaging,' says Martin Gercke, VP, Technical Customer Service, Division Paper. ​

'All these developments are highly interesting as we develop the performance of our products on the latest printing and finishing processes and possible new paths for our innovation,' he continues.

Stora Enso papers and boards ran on several printing presses at drupa. During the daily 'Stora Enso hour', the company's paper and packaging experts also gave short presentations related to the topics demonstrated at the stand.

Print is alive and well​

All in all, drupa 2016 presented the future of print and crossmedia solutions throught the highlight themes of print, functional printing, packaging production, multichannel, 3D printing and green printing.​

Barb Pellow, Group Director at InfoTrends, witnessed the same optimism at the 11-day event:

'My key takeaway from drupa 2016 is that print is alive and well,' she wrote on the website of WhatTheyThink, media organization for the printing and publishing industry.

'The vendors that participated in this year's event were focused on demonstrating applications that expanded margins and helped service providers identify new markets and opportunities. The emphasis was on blending technological innovations with creative, or even disruptive, ideas to keep print alive and enhance profitability. The suppliers in attendance used a variety of unique themes at their booths to illustrate their commitment to market growth. While Canon educated participants on how to #UNLEASHPRINT, HP explored ways to 'Reinvent Your Possibilities.' Xerox highlighted emerging applications that 'Let the Work Flow' and Highcon was talking about 'Unleashing the Power of Paper.' For service providers of all sizes, the key takeaway from drupa was that there are a number of new opportunities in the printing industry. Driven by an array of technologies, these opportunities are all designed to help add value to print and increase margins.'​

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