SUSTAINABILITY COMES TO THE FORE IN RETAIL – CLIENTS DEAL WITH MATERIALS AND POS DESIGN

Sustainability has been a key issue in recent months. Most Dago clients deal with materials, type of printing, and overall design. They want to know the certificates and present sustainability, for example for chains, as a great benefit for the actual placement of displays or individual exhibitions.

But what is the reality? For example, we have recently realized cardboard displays by offset printing. The advantage is that laminating prints on cardboard prolong the life cycle of the displays themselves, supporting their stability. However, the price of such a display is high and we can certainly not talk about the topic of ecology just because of the colors used.

Many companies in the Czech Republic have learned to print a more economical version of printing on UV prints, but their disadvantage is that the print smells bad, it is not ecological, it breaks during creasing and we can´t talk about the POS carrier being premium. But they are cheap! We can see these POSs in most hypermarkets.

As time goes on, the cardboard gets a new touch. FSC certified materials are being used. This certificate guarantees to customers that the wood comes from carefully managed forests. For forest owners, it is a prestigious award for nature-friendly forest management. At the same time, printing with an impact on the environment is also being solved. Dago uses the latest generation of Durst printing. Its advantage is printing with water-based inks, which do not smell. Such print is very hard and thus prolongs the life cycle of the display itself. In practice, this means that it is not necessary to produce many displays for the same stores, but the display can be supplemented, rebranded, or possibly further modified.

Instead of permanent solutions, honeycombs began to be used. It is a very hard cardboard, from which it is possible to realize shop-in-shops or stable displays. It has a long life cycle, it is cheaper than, for example, an all-wood display and provides customers with similar benefits as in the case of a permanent display.

We are experiencing a similar issue in the field of plastic materials and wood. Some of the plastic materials have a PVC-free certificate, which guarantees that they do not contain harmful substances. Recycled materials, which represent a new era in sustainability, are being often used. Printing on these materials is also changing, in favour of latex or water-based paints.

Although in the past submitters did not rely on the technologies, materials used, or the design itself, today we are entering a new era and the topics of sustainability and ecology are absolutely crucial in production. Personally, I am glad that displays that have been printed with UV technology, which I consider completely unsuitable for the FMCG segment, are disappearing from the market. I look forward to seeing many new, fully ecological realizations in the future, which Dago fundamentally supports.