Greetings from the President, Ed Lieb
	I’m Ed Lieb, Sonoco Flexible Packaging and the new President of the PLGA Global. Like most of you, I have endured the declining years when a considerable portion of our business moved to competing printing processes. This decline appears to have bottomed out and we now have the opportunity to drive the renaissance of gravure in North America.
Gravure has always been recognized as the “quality standard” for packaging and labels. We cannot be content to sit on that laurel. The market expects further improvements in flexibility, front-end costs,and service. We have become aware that large customers are demanding a comprehensive system of repro and print standards to enhance uniformity across the global market. We recognize our responsibility to address these improvements and take a leadership role in the development of standards. Accordingly, future technical and operational conferences will focus on these issues. The 2007 Fall Technical Conference will include presentations on new cylinder and engraving technologies, innovative front-end cost management alternatives, and the development of gravure repro and printing standards. Be sure to mark your calendars for October 3 - 5 in Louisville. 2007 promises to be an exciting year. I look forward to working with you as we meet these challenges. Ed. Footnote: At the February Board Meeting, Ed committed the PLGA Global to develop COMPREHENSIVE PRINT STANDARDS FOR GRAVURE. So far, the FTA has already completed their FIRST system for Flexo which has been accepted by major buyers such as Proctor and Gamble. More on this topic at our October Technical Conference.