PERSONALISATION SOLUTIONS


chocolates with its logo; a cosmetics brand needs 500 biscuits for a launch in ten days; a retailer needs a short Christmas edition. Traditionally, confectionery production has been built around repeatability, yet today the market rewards relevance and variability


so the question that


confectionery manufacturers should be asking is ‘how can we create more versions of our product without turning every version into a new production project?’ Not every form of product personalisation


carries the same operational cost. Changing a recipe can affect ingredients, allergens and production line cleaning requirements; a new mould may require costly new tooling; while a new packaging version can introduce minimum orders, lead times and stock. Changing the digital image on a printer,


however, will have much less of an impact on production. So, the most cost-effective personalisation solution is to keep the repeatable part of the product stable and introduce the customer-specific element later, when demand is known. The business case is simple – make the expensive part of the process repeatable and the variable part easy to change.


The value is not in the ink A customer buying branded chocolates for a conference is not buying edible ink. They are buying a product that belongs to their event. A wedding customer is buying names, a date and a meaning. A brand is buying a touchpoint in a campaign. So, when calculating the cost of reliability and repeatably personalising a product it is important to consider the additional value that has been added to the product and not simply the print cost. If 350 personalised pieces require a special tool, lengthy hand decoration or 2,000 units of dedicated packaging, the producer may refuse the order, overprice it or miss the deadline due to production complexity. Digital printing can completely change that equation because changing the design is a simple process that can make short runs, urgent jobs, corporate gifting, local campaigns and limited editions commercially realistic. A personalised biscuit, praline, macaron or chocolate tablet does not need a new recipe every time the reason for buying it changes. The same base product can become a corporate gift, event product, seasonal edition or personalised present through the final decorative layer. The producer is creating more reasons to


buy products it already manufactures well. Seasonal versions also have a limited


commercial life. The later the final identity is committed, the fewer decisions need to be made before real demand is visible. Digital does not eliminate forecasting risk,


36 • KENNEDY’S CONFECTION • OCTOBER 2026


but it can reduce the amount of finished variation that must be forecast in advance.


Remove steps, not craft The digital workflow for confectionery printing is usually remarkably simple. Receive or create the artwork; position it digitally on the product; place the products in the print area or in a production jig; and print. For the next customer order it is just the artwork that needs to be changed, rather than the decorating process being completely rebuilt. Therefore, the gain is not only print speed, it is the removal of repetitive operations. However, this does not mean that


craftsmanship has been replaced. Digital printing and hand finishing can work extremely well together. The machine can repeat a logo, photograph, pattern or text consistently, while a skilled confectioner can add piping, chocolate details, gold or texture where handwork creates premium value for a product. A machine is excellent at repetition.


A person is excellent at judgement and creativity. Good automation should let each do the work it is best at. The economics of printing on


confectionery will only work if the process is reliable. Chocolate, biscuits, macarons and dragées are not uniform sheets of paper. Their surface structure, fat, moisture, colour, curvature, product and


condensation will all


temperature influence


printing. A small logo, fine text and a full- colour photograph are also very different production tasks. Creating a sample for the customer is


just the start of the process. The real test is whether the result can be repeated at the


speed, quality and cost the business needs to make it profitable.


Not just for short runs For a small producer, digital printing may mean flexibility across dozens or even hundreds of pieces. For a growing company, it may mean repeat corporate work, higher volumes and more automation. For


an industrial confectionery


manufacturer, the question changes – how can variable decoration be integrated without interrupting continuous production? This is where inline and single-pass


digital printing systems become relevant. At industrial scale, digital printing can add a layer of flexibility to a production line that was built for repeatability. A million identical products is one


production problem. A million products divided across customers, markets, campaigns or designs is another. So, scale does not remove the value


of digital printing, it just changes the architecture required to deliver it.


DIGITAL FOOD PRINTING


HAS THE ABILITY TO TURN PRODUCT VARIETY FROM A PRODUCTION BURDEN INTO A COMMERCIAL


ADVANTAGE. IT CAN MAKE


PRODUCT PERSONALISATION PROFITABLE BY ADDING


VALUE WITHOUT ADDING COMPLEXITY


Start with an order If I were evaluating digital food printing as a business owner, I would choose three real orders – one typical, one difficult and one attractive order that my current process makes hard to win. For each, I would look at the selling price,


quantity, labour, lead time, rejects and current decoration costs. Then I would test the product and measure the route from approved artwork to packed, saleable pieces. The final question is not ‘can we print


this?’ It is ‘can we make money by producing this repeatedly?’ The best digital application is not the one that produces the most impressive sample. It is the one that makes a real order easier to accept, easier to produce and profitable to repeat. Customers want relevance, while


production needs repeatability. Digital food printing can connect the two – turning personalisation from an additional production problem into a source of business.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60