The process of consolidation is also affecting the European gravure printing market. In 2002, the Schlott-Sebaldus Group joined printers Broschek to form the third largest gravure-printing group in Europe. At the moment there are talks going on about a possible liaison between Springer, Gruner+Jahr and Arvato (Bertelsmann). One thing has not, changed: gravure is the printing process that delivers consistently high printing quality for long print runs. It is thus, the leading process for printing magazines and catalogues, from popular titles such as Germany's Spiegel to the Ikea catalogues with a worldwide print-run of 130 million copies, exceeding even the bible. In packaging as well, large brand owners prefer gravure, especially for printing flexible packaging, as a market study of the market research firm GfK revealed. Gravure is especially strong in decoration printing, where decoration paper is almost exclusively printed in gravure. In spite of strong competition from other processes, such as offset and flexo, gravure not only managed to hold on to its traditional markets, but even reconquered some market share.
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