Magazin | News
29.01.2025

What´s ahead for the printing industry in 2025? Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

The most pressing challenges of the printing industry are flexibility, sustainability and the shortage of skilled workers. These are global trends that have been with us for some time now.

The ALPHAFLEX Show at drupa 2024.

The Technologies presented at major exhibitions like Drupa 2024 reflect these challenges - driven by external influences rather than the printing process itself. As manufacturer of printing machines, it is our responsibility to address these issues and provide our customers with solutions to remain competitive. One example is the decreasing length of print jobs, driven by marketing and social factors, which leads to greater diversity and increasing demand for special editions and smaller packaging sizes.

At the same time, printing presses must need to become more efficient and make better use of resources. This brings both environmental and economic benefits – an indispensable criterion in a time when environmental awareness and profitability must go hand in hand.

Another global issue challenging the industry is the shortage of skilled workers. This problem affects not only the printing industry but is a significant obstacle for our customers – something we hear about in many conversations.

As it becomes increasingly difficult to find experienced personnel who can handle the complexity of the process, our presses must adapt. They need to be smarter, more automated and easier to handle for less experienced users. By supporting operators in their work at the machine, we help our customers to remain productive and be future-ready.

The new ALPHAFLEX CI flexo printing press, specifically designed to meet the challenges of greater flexibility

At Windmöller & Hölscher, these have led to significant developments that we launched for Drupa 2024. This includes our brand new ALPHAFLEX CI flexo printing press, specifically designed to meet the challenges of greater flexibility, improved sustainability and the shortage of skilled workers. Another example is EASY-SETUP, a new member of our EASY family, designed to support operators and guide even less experienced operators safely through crucial steps of the process. In our R&D department, we are also working on the development of a digital printing concept which will meet the growing demands for even more variety and even shorter print runs.

Printing itself has not changed fundamentally, but the conditions under which printing is done today are evolving. Our task as machine builders is to listen to the market and our customers in order to react and adapt our printing presses to meet current and future demands.

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