FuturePrint Podcast
FuturePrint is dedicated to and passionate about the power of print technology to enable new opportunities and create new value. This pod features deep-dive discussions with the people behind the tech as well as market analysis, trends, marketing and storytelling!
FuturePrint Podcast
#310 - Printing on the Round: Alexander Hinterkopf on How Digital Inkjet is Redefining Cylindrical Packaging
In this episode of the FuturePrint Podcast, we speak with Alexander Hinterkopf, Managing Director of Hinterkopf, one of the world’s leading suppliers of printing and forming technologies for cylindrical packaging.
Founded in 1962 and based near Stuttgart, Hinterkopf has built its reputation at the intersection of printing and container manufacturing - supplying systems for aluminium tubes, plastic squeeze tubes, and monoblock aerosol containers used across pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, and consumer goods.
In the conversation, Hinterkopf explains how a period of disruption following the 2008 financial crisis became the catalyst for the company’s move into digital inkjet. What began as an attempt to replace analogue offset printing evolved into something more powerful: digital post-decoration - printing finished containers on demand, at the very end of the manufacturing process.
We explore why printing on the round is technically challenging, how Hinterkopf solved registration and precision issues, and why variable data and late-stage customisation are inherent strengths of digital inkjet in cylindrical packaging.
The discussion also looks at who is driving adoption. Rather than large incumbents, early growth has come from entrepreneurial service providers and startups, particularly in the US, offering brands speed, flexibility, and short-run capability that traditional workflows cannot match.
Sustainability is another key theme - not as marketing rhetoric, but as manufacturing efficiency. Reduced waste, elimination of labels, and support for monomaterial packaging all position digital post-decoration as a practical response to regulatory and environmental pressures.
Finally, Hinterkopf shares his view on where the market is heading, and why digital inkjet is becoming a permanent, complementary force in industrial packaging.
Alexander Hinterkopf will be speaking at FuturePrint Industrial Print, 21-22 January in Munich.
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FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
Well, hi there, and welcome to this very special FuturePrint podcast because I have Alexander Hinterkopf, managing director of the Hinterkopf company, uh, with me, and it's an absolute pleasure to speak to him. It's been a bit of time. Alexander, good to see you, good to speak to you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, good morning, Fraser.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I'm also happy to speak to you today. Thank you very much. It's I'm looking forward to this. Hinterkopf are one of those kind of market leading companies. We always uh we see you around, we know what you're doing, but actually it's it's really good to have a chance to have a speak, uh proper conversation with you in the run-up to our event in Munich in a few weeks. Uh, Alexander, just for anyone who doesn't know Hinterkopf, and I can't believe there are anyone, but let's just say tell us a little bit about the company and introduce yourself in your role as MD.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Uh well, Hinterkopf is on the move. We are always changing. Um, we are today have a certain position, um, but it has started long time ago, 1962. Uh, my father started uh Hinterkoff GmbH with a small automation device. Uh, but relatively quickly, so around 1970, uh he did the first um offset printer. So ever since uh Hinterkopf is known for two slogans, colors and shapes. So obviously, colors is the printing part we are doing, and uh the shapes are the uh nacking machines and uh presses, impact extrusion presses. Uh but today we will speak about uh digital printing. So I came into the company or joined the company around 1982 or 83. Uh that's decades ago.
SPEAKER_01:It does save it, doesn't it? Such a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I enjoy every day when I can come to the company. Um, it's exciting. Uh, we can change the world. But anyhow, um I joined the company and uh it went up and down. Uh when I came freshly from university, my my idea was I have to make systems. Okay, let's make entire production lines. Yeah, I did that. Uh, but in these lines, investment goods, it's going up and down. And uh 2008, with the financial crisis, was such a down cycle, a really bad down cycle. And we have had a lot of free time. Uh, the engineers were available, we haven't had uh much work to do, and we said, okay, let's look into the next generation of printing, uh, if we are famous about printing. And uh, we started from scratch with digital printing. We didn't know uh what we how we should approach it, so we contacted many people in the world and we collected information and did prototypes and tests. Um, so that's a long time ago. And uh, well, I'm here, I'm the general manager of the company, I'm I'm looking for the sales and I'm looking for the technical development, and I'm the enabler, enabler of uh developments.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Just to give us a bit of an idea, uh, how many people work for the company? Where are you based?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, Hinderkopf is a family-owned company. Uh, we are based in the south of Germany, close to Stuttgart, uh, a little bit east of Stuttgart. Um, we were over many years a company with approximately 120 to 150 people. Uh, but this since this digital printing business took off, we are today 250 people.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00:Uh well, that's quite an amount. Um, we are 250 people, and we are lucky uh even in these difficult times, we have a turnover, annual turnover of 100 million euro. Um, we are doing profit. Uh, that's also an uh essential part for development. Yep, and uh yeah, we are we are the happy guys here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, good to hear. Um, so obviously, you've we talked about it just briefly. Cylindrical uh containers is is really the market you're interested in. So digital print on cylindrical containers. Tell us a bit about that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, uh as I told you originally, um we started with uh machinery for collapsible tubes for the uh two space business years ago, and then today uh aluminium collapsible tubes are used for um pharma, mainly pharma, some food, uh mastel, mayonnaise, and so on. Uh so this was the beginning, and then it developed further into uh polyethylene, plastic tubes for cosmetics items, uh mainly creams for the face and beauty industry. Um, and at the same time, when we started with the uh plastic tubes, we did also the aerosol cans, uh impacted, uh impact extruded aerosol cans, monoblock containers. And the advantage of these containers is they are all in the world with an amount of 10 billion, 10 billion pieces. Uh, that was the beginning. And as I said, 2008, when we entered into digital printing, um, we wanted a replacement for the offset printer. We wanted to take the offset printer out from the manufacturing line and put a digital printer in place of that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So I'm interested in this this particular market because um, you know, it's it's it's unique in a way because obviously with digital, you have the flexibility to to print shorter run production um and to do different messages or to create different images on a cylindrical product. And this this has been a bit of a holy grail for for a number of companies in the inkjet market. It seems like you're the ones who kind of cracked it, worked it out. So, so kind of tell us a bit about the your the Hinterkoff solution, if that if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, originally our thoughts, I just mentioned it, was uh we wanted to take the offset printer out to have a faster changeover to make small runs. Um, and we 2008 we made the machine, 2013 we came to the market. Uh 2015, uh we put the first machine, but it was not at all a replacement of the offset machine. It was a totally different application, and we understood only years later what we are doing. Uh, what we are doing, what we did in these days, 2015, and what we are doing today, is not the replacement of the offset printer, but it is a post-decoration. It is uh a way to print ready-made containers to print them on demand. And the the printing on demand is the very best if the container is already done.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean that that that kind of makes sense, doesn't it? So the other approach, I guess, is uh you can sheet, you can print it on a sheet that then curves, you know, that then is curved. So this this approach is really clever technology printing on something that is cylindrical. So the heads are uh do they revolve round? Do they do the how's that work, Alexander?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, well, um digital printing was has started long before Hinterkopf has started to look into it. Uh, this was always on sheet printing or web printing, uh, where you have on one side the two-dimensional uh thing came in, and on the other side it left out uh printed, and this that did uh did with a single pass. So printing on the round um is not the easiest uh in the world, uh, but uh certain cylinders, particularly if they are monoblock, if they are extruded and monoblock, it's not a welded sheet. Uh so somebody has to say, okay, we want to print a monoblock container, or we wanted to print an extruded tube uh in this shape. And if you do it, you have to accept it, and then you have to print on the round.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:To print on the round is also not too difficult. The difficulty is in the registering. You apply on one station one color, and with this digital printer, we are uh printing quite a high resolution, and to catch the register on the next color and the next color. Yeah, so that was one of the challenges, hurdles we have had to overcome.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. That is that that completely makes sense. Um, so you you resolve that challenge, you then what you have is technology that enables variable data production in effect. It enables people to uh to do different things on that on that printing. Is that right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, this is this is the next step. Um the first step is um this printing of finished containers. So we can print all kinds of the uh containers, and you just described there are thing plate, three-piece containers. Uh they are available in flat, they could be printed in flat, but then you have to go with your printed sheet through the process in the welding and assembly. Um, this post decoration is entirely different. You come with a finished, all finished container. If an inside lining is required, the container has a required the inside liner. If uh if a plastic extruded, it comes this piece as finished, uh arriving from a palette, it's it's uh unpacked, loaded to the digital printer, get printed, packed, and shipped. So the advantage here is you have one value adding step, and you come after the printer, you go straight to the customer, and the time to market is much, much shorter. And this is now under control. So we can we can print so many containers, that's good, all different kinds of containers. Now, on top of it, you say, okay, what extra value, what extra value, what interaction between uh a supplier or uh uh trademark and their consumers, their their customers, you can do, and that's variable data. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Was I was thinking a bit about as you were talking, I was thinking, so so in terms of your customer base, the type of people that are really excited by this technology, I guess there's a number of possibilities because it could be a packaging converter who wants to add in uh a short-run variable data potential within their production process. But it could also be someone like a big brand who see this technology and think, hey, we need this, or we need to get our supplier to have this technology. So Joe, give us an idea of the types of customers that you get interested in this.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, Fraser. Generally we welcome every customer. Yeah, of course. Okay, uh, but the best is we have a customer doing uh decisions. And fortunately, the smaller people, the startup people, they see the opportunities, they buy these kinds of machines, and they offer the service. Like it now. After 15 years in business, also the big uh makers of packaging, uh, they understand okay, it could be a further service, uh faster delivery, a better uh customized product. Uh, but it they are very they are all fast followers and not uh very risk uh yeah, they don't agree.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they they don't they prefer not to take risks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. They wanted to have a uh um a business model on the table. Uh the best is they would have to have uh multi-contracts for their capacity they are buying. Um but this um digital printing has opened all my my customers are successful, all these startups. I have uh I was lucky to find uh in USA 10 startup companies, and I have 14 locations there with 35 machines, and nobody has had a contract in the pocket to fill the machine.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That's that's quite interesting because that that really shows that you not only is your technology good, but obviously the sales channel, the process of convincing people to buy into this is good as well. Because as you said yourself, uh most people are risk averse to this kind of thing because it is quite revolutionary. And yet what you're saying is, yeah, but we've managed to find lots of innovators who have bought this technology because they can see it as a potential business opportunity, and once they buy it, it is, and it is revolutionary. And they they're the in a way, what they're doing is they're selling to the people who are being a bit more risk-averse, they're selling to the packaging converters who you know who do it the traditional way, or they sell directly to the brands, or so you it makes a lot of sense what you say. Very exciting that that's and and quite innovative.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, um, I described the situation now 10 years or five years ago. Yeah uh naturally uh now I have 10 established companies in in USA, and uh we are always looking uh around the world for new products which we could print. And for this reason, we have had uh we have analyzed the market and we said, okay, we have to have a cheaper entrance model. We need a new machine, uh lower investment cost where the risk is a little bit lower. We need a much more flexible machine because maybe with one product alone you cannot fill the um the machine. So maybe uh this service company providing this print service will handle several containers for different industries to lower their risk. Uh so we came out with a new machine, DX. DX. It's not the fastest, but it's super, super flexible. It can do small containers, large containers, short containers, long containers, different materials, and now on top, variable data. Um, the variable data uh will give more value to the to the end user and the interconnection between the uh the brand owner and their customers, variable data, and in digital it's for free because uh the machine is printing one piece after the other, is reloading always the um the print job so it can reload hundreds thousand millions of different print jobs.
SPEAKER_01:So um just just before we talk a little bit about kind of uh EU regulation and impact of kind of things that are external, I just I'm interested to know a bit more about the kind of partnerships you have. Um do you develop your own technology completely? Do you work with ink companies? Do you work with head manufacturers? Do you have people helping you with your own with the software, or have you developed it yourself? How's that work?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, Hindelkopf is a big integrator, and we have at least 20 key key suppliers, and you all mentioned them the the head suppliers, the ink supplier, the uh a part of the software supplier, so many, many suppliers. But um we go really deeply into the down to every single piece. Yeah, so I've had just a customer a few days ago, and they were all surprised what we do here ourselves. Uh, naturally, we will never do a printhead. Yeah, we are all depending on what is on the market of the printhead, but we have to understand it. We have to understand as the supplier has knowledge, we have to have equal knowledge. Yeah, what is possible with this component or not?
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Um, so as I mentioned, it just just wanted to get a bit of an understanding of how there's a lot of regulation coming around, like sort of packaging, uh printing on uh on different products using inks and sustainability, all lots of things going on, the REACH uh uh regulations, EU regulations. So so tell me, what's the sort of changing landscape look like and and how might it impact on what you do?
SPEAKER_00:Well, um here I have to say I cannot really follow all these legislations which are out. Yeah, I uh I even cannot follow all this tax resolution uh uh legislation, everything. Um I am simplifying the world a little bit for me. I'm I'm I'm trying to understand what they want to achieve with all this legislation. Yeah, with this legislation, we want to enable, or not we but the people in Brussels or they want to enable a better recycling. Yeah, and the better recycling is we have to go to monomaterial. Yeah, yeah, monomaterial. Uh I I hope I have understood if this is their trend, what they want to do. I hope they don't want to kill us. Um okay. We we need we need the packaging. Packaging is very important for the sales, for the distribution, for the warehousing, everything. It is necessary, but let's do it as lightweight as possible, as less material input as possible, let's do it with less energy and other resources, water as possible, and let's do it in monomaterial. And my direct printing is a little bit attacking the labels.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean what I said, um, this late determination of products, everything you can achieve with labels as well. Yeah. But labels has a substrate, labels that by itself is another plastic component. And uh, if I can print directly on the container, I have less material and I have only the necessary material for the container. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:There's also an argument, isn't there, that there's in terms of your process of production, that there's less waste. There's less you you don't need to do as many to get it right.
SPEAKER_00:There is naturally I'm uh very convinced of what I'm doing. Uh maybe I'm overexcited. Uh but what I can definitely say uh one is the new minimum. And if I can print one container and the first container is good, I have no startup scrap. Unless it's that's important. And if I have not the pressure to make many containers, but I make only as many as I need now, or my customer or their customer, what they want to fill in the next three days, in the next 24 hours. So we make this much. So we are not doing an overproduction, we have no startup scrap, and during production we have very little scrap. So in this analog world of classic printing, you can say you have about five to seven percent scrap, unavoidable. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So and and you basically eradicated that. Um and that's got to be a good sustainability argument, hasn't it? It's got to be about less production, less waste, less energy, all those things.
SPEAKER_00:Good for your pocket. Yeah, uh commercially good. It's it's saving money. Uh it's saving this scrap is uh is a waste of money as well. No, I think that's right.
SPEAKER_01:Um, just to finish off, I'm interested in the kind of flexibility side of things, the customization side of things. Tell us a bit about that, what what this enables people to do. You know, if you if you're kind of thinking it from the design point of view, does this give greater design flexibility?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, with the digital printer, you have the full freedom. So what you are able to have on your on your screen, on your PDF, we can reproduce uh very quickly. So what you can generate uh with AI or with any way uh which print image you can generate, uh we can print. So in printing, we are uh super flexible. In as I mentioned already, in in diameters and sizes, we are super flexible, in materials we are super flexible. Uh, we we can print many different materials. So actually, what I'm trying, or what I try to develop this year, and what we presented was a machine for hollow containers, round containers, they have to be round. Uh, we cannot print on oval or square, uh round containers of all kinds, all kinds. So um that is what we offer, and that is where we are looking for to look for customers. Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_01:Um, Alexander, that's been very interesting having a chat with you. Thank you very much for giving us your time. Um, we're looking forward to catching up in Munich at uh our event, the Future Print Industrial Print event, uh January 21st, 22nd. I look forward to seeing you there. Um, thank you for just spending some time explaining a bit more about Hinterkopf. And if people are interested in finding out more, then as I say, the guys will be there in Munich in a few weeks' time. Thank you very much, and uh have a good weekend. Thank you very much for your time. Lisa, thank you very much, and it was a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you, Alexander.
