中文Flexible packaging — the pouches, the bags, the wrappers — is one of the last big frontiers of analog-dominant print. It is also one of the most wasteful when run the old way: long setups, huge minimums, mountains of obsolete stock when a brand changes its mind. Fujifilm and ePac Flexible Packaging just announced a global strategic alliance that wants to drag that frontier into the digital age, and the centre of it is one machine: the Fujifilm J Press FP790.
Two powerhouses, one bet
ePac will install J Press FP790 machines across its facilities, starting with its new site in Phoenix, Arizona, then expanding across its global network in later phases. For ePac, founded on the belief that digital printing would redefine flexible packaging, this is less a pivot than a doubling down.
Parag Patel, president of Shared Services at ePac, put it plainly: integrating leading-edge assets significantly increases capacity and capability to handle larger run lengths efficiently. The point is that digital is no longer only for tiny runs. It is becoming viable for the bigger jobs too — which is exactly the moment a technology stops being a niche and starts being a threat to the status quo.
Why the FP790 is the story
The J Press FP790 is purpose-built for high-volume flexible packaging. The specs that matter: pristine 1,200 x 1,200 DPI resolution, coverage of over 90 percent of the Pantone colour gamut, and eco-friendly, food-safe water-based inks. For brands, that trio means photographic-quality graphics, reliable colour across a run, and an ink you can actually put near food without flinching.
It also supports recyclable material structures — the buzzword of the decade in packaging, but here tied to a machine that can actually produce on those substrates at volume. That closes a gap that has frustrated sustainable-packaging advocates: the materials exist, but the presses to print them beautifully at scale have lagged.
The strategic logic
Osamu Nakashima, corporate vice president of Fujifilm Business Innovation, called it bringing together “two powerhouses dedicated to the digital transformation of global packaging.” Fujifilm has been pouring emphasis into digital packaging, and the FP790 is its flagship for flexible formats. ePac’s forward-thinking, digital-first model makes it the ideal partner to prove the press’s power in the field.
The alliance is positioned to serve both emerging and established brands that want shorter lead times, localised production, and scalable packaging. That last word — scalable — is the whole thesis. Digital flexible packaging used to mean “great for small, painful for large.” If the FP790 delivers on its promise, that ceiling lifts.
What it means for the market
For converters still running analog flexible lines, this is the kind of partnership that should prompt a hard look in the mirror. The economics of short-run, on-demand, localised packaging only get stronger as the machines improve. Brands that need to stay nimble — and in today’s choppy market, that is most of them — will gravitate to suppliers who can turn a job around fast without forcing a massive minimum order.
ePac keeps its agility and short-run strength while gaining the throughput to chase bigger contracts. Fujifilm gets a flagship customer to showcase the FP790 at scale. Both get to tell a sustainability story without sacrificing quality.
The bottom line
Alliances like this are how categories tip. Digital flexible packaging has been “the future” for years. With a global deal centred on a production-grade press and a digital-native converter, that future just got a lot closer to the present.
Source: Labels & Labeling (October 19, 2026).
