Where printing & packaging flourish
The fifth edition of the Hong Kong International Printing & Packaging Fair allows the industry to showcase its expertise and customer service to buyers from around the world.
A world of printing & packaging opportunities
The organisers of the Hong Kong International Printing and Packaging Fair have, over the past four years, built the fair up to become an ideal platform for the printing and packaging businesses. The fair brings together under one roof top suppliers from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Asia Pacific region. Their products and services include book printing, business printing, digital printing, gift packaging, food packaging, cosmetics packaging and medicine packaging. This tremendous range of international suppliers and manufacturers offer competitive prices and top-quality services for trade buyers from around the world, enabling them to wrap up beneficial trading partnerships.
Magnet for buyers
Buyers know that this is the heart of the action in Asia’s printing and packaging industries with Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta being the most active centres - and the most rewarding.
Hong Kong is one of the four printing centres in the world. This fact alone draws the attention of buyers from all over the world. In 2009, the fair attracted 11,324 buyers from 108 countries and regions, 60% of whom were from overseas.
Timing is superb as the fair coincides with a peak sourcing season in Hong Kong and Guangdong, bringing thousands more buyers to the region. The world’s largest gifts fair, HKTDC Hong Kong Gifts & Premium Fair, and a large-scale well-established trade fair in Guangzhou will take place at the same time.
 Reaching the mainland market
With the Chinese mainland being the top visiting region in 2009, the fair puts exhibitors in direct touch with the world’s most exciting market. Mainland consumers are demanding better quality, more creativity and stronger branding. The retail and manufacturing industries in the mainland, as well as print media, are all rushing to create more sophisticated, more enticing products and packaging to grab a piece of this market.
Top names committed to fair
The presence of prestigious international and Chinese mainland firms indicates the quality of the event and its drawing power for buyers. Among the 240 exhibitors in 2009 were 16 printers from ‘The Top 100’ in the Chinese mainland, such as Artron Enterprises, Shanghai Jielong, Shuguang Printing, Starlite and Toppan Leefung. Besides, the Thailand Pavilion, which made its debut in 2009, has committed to return in 2010 to feature market leaders from that country.
Quality buyers
Opening up new markets and new possibilities are the buying missions initiated by the organisers. For the 2009 fair, there were 59 missions, comprised of some 2,000 buyers. Many were from companies with strong buying power.
Over 550 new buyers from emerging markets were also invited to attend the fair under sponsorship arrangements.
Big names from all over the world visit the fair. In 2009 they included American Greetings, Dow Jones Publishing Company (Asia), Inc. and Hallmark from the US, Macmillan Publishers (China) Ltd from the Chinese mainland, Double A International from Thailand, TESCO from the UK, Lush Japan Co. Ltd and L’Oreal Asia Zone from Japan, to name just a few.
 In the zone
In this wide-ranging industry, every company needs to be easily accessible to potential buyers. The fair is organised into zones to highlight the specialisation of exhibitors. The popular Packaging Zone returns, encompassing Pharmaceutical Packaging, Food Packaging, Cosmetics Packaging and Gift Packaging. Other zones include Printing Services, Packaging Services, Printing Consumables and Packaging Materials, Equipment and Systems, Digital Printing Equipment and Services.
Of special note is the Integrated Pre-press Service Square. Companies providing creative services such as copywriting and graphic design find a superb home here, as do technical services such as colour separation and outputting.
Value-added events
Participants in the fair will be able to network with industry players from many different countries at social events during the fair period.
A series of seminars addresses the pressing issues facing the printing, packaging and associated industries, illuminates market trends and gives practical information on technology developments. In 2009, the Graphic Arts Association of Hong Kong presented ‘Changing in Adversity, Developing New Business’, while the Hong Kong Printers Association presented ‘Latest Trends in Green Printing’. Experts from Agfa, Kodak and HP Indigo were brought together by Starlite Holdings Ltd for a seminar on ‘Benchmarking in the Printing Industry from a Global Perspective-Digital Printing Technology & Development’.
Open forums during the fair give exhibitors the opportunity to promote their products and services by providing detailed information and receiving feedback.
In a brilliant demonstration of Hong Kong’s printing expertise, the winning entries in the Hong Kong Print Awards and the Hong Kong Digital Printing Awards are on display at the fairground.
Hong Kong-The Gateway to the Chinese mainland Market
The Chinese mainland is an important market in its own right, which has been growing by leaps and bounds in the past decade. Not only are incomes rising, but people are also becoming more aspirational and desiring better quality, well-designed products. As other markets stagnate or even shrink, suppliers can find new opportunities in the mainland. Rupert Steiner, writing in the UK’s Daily Mail, notes, “Firms best-equipped to weather the financial downturn are those in diverse markets that include China...” However, China’s size and diversity can be daunting for overseas companies, but Hong Kong offers the perfect stepping stone into this market. Participation in HKTDC exhibitions not only puts you into direct contact with buyers from the mainland, but it also enables contact with Hong Kong companies with expertise in the Chinese mainland market.
Hong Kong Again Ranked World’s Freest Economy
Hong Kong remains the world’s freest economy, for the 12th year in a row, according to the findings of the Fraser Institute of Canada’s “Economic Freedom of the World: 2008 Annual Report”. It pays tribute to Hong Kong’s unswerving commitment to free trade and open markets, and the elimination of barriers to trade and investment. For example, it enjoys low corporate and salaries taxes, no sales tax, and it is considered one of the easiest places in the world to set up a business – all of which make Hong Kong attractive to companies around the world that invest in or trade with the Special Administrative Region. It was also ranked the world’s freest economy for the 14th consecutive year by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.
Exhibitors’ quotes
“We have participated at this fair for the fourth time, taking the once-a-year opportunity to showcase advanced products. The fair is a hub which converge many industry players; we meet many of our existing buyers here and get acquainted to new ones as well.”
Mr. Henry Lee, Sales Supervisor,
Techway Technology (HK) Ltd, Hong Kong
“This is the third time we made our presence here. We have talked with some potential new customers this time and they are big retail companies which place great emphasis on quality. They are quite happy with us as they know we have the expertise and experience to manage the project.”
Mr. Samuel Li, Assistant Manager - Project Management, Artech Graphics Ltd, Hong Kong
“Starlite Printers has exhibited at this fair since its inception as it offers the Hong Kong printing industry an opportunity to exhibit their services and products to a wide market audience. We pride ourselves on always having the largest exhibiting presence - we occupied 12 booths in 2009, showcasing our digital products and specialty printing services. We also presented a half-day seminar at last year’s fair.”
Richard Lim, Executive Director & Senior Vice-president,
Starlite Printers, Hong Kong
“Participation in international trade fairs has long been our main marketing strategy for expansion into overseas markets. We have been exhibiting at this fair for three years now. Exhibiting here is very effective - we have received many enquiries from buyers and some of them have become clients.”
Mr Lee, Overseas Project Department,
Artron Enterprises (Group) Limited, Chinese mainland
“We’ve been participating at this fair since it was established. Our main target is get more overseas clients. We have developed our client network through this event. Hong Kong International Printing and Packaging Fair is one of the biggest events in this industry, and it is our main promotional platform at which we show international buyers our latest products every year.”
Mr Shum, Director,
Shanghai Jielong Industry Group Corporation Ltd, Chinese mainland
Buyers’ quotes
“This is the second time we are at this fair. Last year we have found two factories here which eventually collaborated with us; we are very satisfied with their price and quality. We are happy to find more book printers around at the fair this year. We travel around the world to similar trade fairs to look for new stuff and we believe this is the right place for us as we want to work directly with factories. While we are thinking of expanding our business to overseas countries in the future, we might even consider becoming an exhibitor of this event some day.”
Ms. Gislene Cavalheiro, Director,
CEDIC-Centro Difusor de Cultura Ltda., Brazil
“This is my first time at this fair to see what is going on outside Europe in the packaging field. This fair offers me unmatched opportunity to source from Asia. I am looking for potential suppliers of various products including blister which somehow I could not find the right supplier in Europe. I look forward to coming here again next year to keep up with the beat of the industry.”
Mr. Filip Jirout, General Manager,
SCA Packaging Ceska Republika, s.r.o., Czech Republic
“I am impressed by the profusion of exhibits on display here and I have already identified a recycle-paper supplier from the Chinese mainland which I am interested in. Sure, I will come to this event again.”
Ms. Tavinee Samatiyadekul, Deputy Managing Director, Sirivatana Interprint Public Co., Ltd.,Thailand
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