Is laser marking the key to reimagining packaging decoration for modern brands?
For an industry whose foundation rests on applying ink to substrates, a provocative question emerges: What if, in select packaging applications, the printing process itself could be eliminated entirely?
This is precisely the concept behind Mondi's latest packaging innovation, which employs laser marking to directly apply artwork onto flexible packaging during the conversion stage. The approach circumvents traditional decorative printing and its associated plate-making processes, while simultaneously empowering brands with the agility to implement design changes and personalize packaging at unprecedented speed.
The concept, which recently received the German Packaging Award 2026 in the Sustainability category, combines a corrugated outer box with recyclable, laser-marked flexible packaging for ecommerce and bag-in-box applications.
On its own, that’s an interesting packaging development. But for label and package printers, the technology raises some bigger questions.
Printing Without Printing
Conventional printing remains unmatched when brands need sophisticated graphics, color consistency and strong shelf presence. But ecommerce has changed some of the rules.
A package arriving on someone’s doorstep doesn’t necessarily have the same decorative requirements as one competing for attention on a crowded retail shelf. That creates an opportunity to rethink how—and perhaps even whether—certain graphics need to be conventionally printed.
Mondi’s approach uses laser marking to apply artwork during converting, eliminating printing plates and allowing designs to be changed more quickly. That could be particularly valuable for brands managing growing numbers of SKUs, regional variations, promotions and shorter product cycles.
It also introduces opportunities for personalization without requiring brands to maintain inventories of multiple preprinted packaging versions.
Sustainability Meets Supply Chain Flexibility
There’s a sustainability component, too.
Mondi says the concept can be used with several flexible packaging formats, including its re/cycle StripPouch and re/cycle FlexiBag, while simplifying structures and reducing decorative elements to support design for recycling. Depending on the application, bio-based feedstocks or post-consumer recycled content can also be incorporated.
But perhaps equally important is the potential reduction in complexity.
Fewer printed packaging variants could mean less obsolete inventory when artwork changes. Faster design changes could reduce lead times. And producing graphics later in the manufacturing process could give brands greater flexibility to respond to changing demand.
In other words, sustainability isn’t necessarily coming from one dramatic material change. It can also come from producing only what is needed, when it is needed.
A Threat or Another Opportunity?
For converters, technologies like this don’t necessarily signal the disappearance of conventional package printing. Far from it. Premium graphics, branding and complex decoration aren’t going anywhere.
Instead, laser marking could become another tool within an increasingly diverse packaging production toolbox.
Digital printing has already changed the economics of short runs and personalization. Smart labels are changing what packaging can communicate. Laser technology is increasingly being used for cutting, coding and other converting processes.
Perhaps decoration is simply another area where its role will grow.
Mondi is currently working with customers and partners to explore broader commercialization of the concept for pet food, home and personal care products, and ecommerce packaging.
Whether laser-marked flexible packaging ultimately becomes a significant production method remains to be seen. But the concept poses an interesting question for converters and brands alike:
When packaging needs to become more agile, personalized and sustainable, does every graphic really need to come from a printing press?
Source: Label & Narrow Web
