The Converting Curmudgeon

The spring 2012 meeting, trade show and conference session kicks into gear this week with the Flexible Packaging Assn. annual meeting in Scottsdale, AZ. Watch for my followup report next Monday. In the meantime, follow my tweets live from the program this Thursday and Friday. Here’s what&rsquo...

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Among the nearly 100 presentations at last week’s 2012 FLEX Flexible Electronics & Displays Conference & Exhibition in Phoenix, AZ, sponsored by FlexTech Alliance, were three market forecasts that cut deeply into this breakthrough field, slicing and dicing the details of where money wi...

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Here’s an overview of 2011 packaging mergers & acquisitions activity globally and in North America via BMO  Capital Markets’ The Converter. Global Historical Deal Volume – Global packaging M&A volume continued to strengthen in 2011 after rebounding in 2010 from histor...

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Despite the protracted crisis in Europe and emerging concerns from China, two independent surveys commissioned by Grant Thornton revealed that executives have growing confidence in the US economy. First, the International Business Report is a survey of 2,800 global businesses. Among its findings: T...

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Disclaimer: I attended the 2012 AIMCAL Metallized and Vacuum Coated Product of the Year competition judging last Thursday strictly as an observer. The packages highlighted here may or may not ultimately be winners. They are simply a few that stood out for me among all the entrants. PETWIST BT 123...

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Recognizing the limitations of the US waste management system, where only about one third of all municipal solid waste is recovered by recycling or composting, GreenBlue® released a report yesterday that assesses a variety of material-recovery systems around the world to better inform US policie...

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In the course of reviewing the 65 posts I wrote this year, I came across a pretty astonishing statistic: More than 26,000 readers came to either this site or WordPress to read The Converting Quarterly Website in 2011. The fact that readers are spending an average of 2½ mins. on each post page...

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Now’s the time to employ late-year tax planning strategies. “It’s not too late to change what goes on your tax return when tax season rolls around,” says Justin Ransome, a partner in Grant Thornton’s Washington National Tax Office. “Just a little bit of planning n...

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While the snow begins to fly across parts of North America, the Converting Quarterly staff is putting the finishing touches on our 2012 Quarter 1 issue, which features a Market and Technical Focus on Thin-Film Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Batteries. We appreciate your enthusiastic response to our fir...

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After nearly a decade of “blue sky” thinking and demonstrations of only laboratory prototypes, last week’s Printed Electronics USA & Photovoltaics USA 2011 conference and tradeshow in Santa Clara, CA, brought out plenty of real-world examples of working technology, some of whic...

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