Labelexpo Europe keynote reflects upbeat industry

The eight halls represent a total of 34,500 sqm of stand space and 33,000 visitors are expected.
Citing the Pack Print workshop and new exhibitors including Soma and KBA, Milburn identified package print as a growing trend at the show: ‘Labelexpo is really about labels and packaging today.’

Mike Fairley, director strategic development at Labelexpo Global Series, looked at wider industry trends. Labels industry growth is 4-6 percent worldwide, said Fairley, with Europe growing at 5.7 percent, taking global volume of label stock up to 50 billion sqm with a value of $80bn. Western Europe is now challenging Eastern Europe in terms of label growth, said Fairley, and while China has slowed, India is becoming the world’s ‘label powerhouse.’

Pressure sensitive holds a 50 percent market share globally, with glue applied at 30 percent and shrink sleeves representing the sector with the fastest growth.

Turning to machinery, Fairley identified two trends: a  growing interest in mid-web presses for higher productivity, and the rapid growth of digital.

‘Half of all narrow web presses installed in Europe last year were digital, with inkjet now representing 35 percent of all new digital press installs.’  Fairley predicted that on current trends, digital will be the dominant press technology in the next 4-5 years.
Lisa Milburn earlier identified hybrid digital/conventional press launches as a key show trend, and Fairley predicted hybrid presses would reach around 5 percent of total digital installations.

Digitization is also affecting the packaging industries, said Fairley, with over 10 percent of all digital press installations last year for folding cartons and flexible packaging. Digitization of finishing is also proceeding apace, said Fairley, particularly with UV inkjet spot varnishing.
The dominant end user trend identified by Fairley was the continued growth of private label brands, which today account for over 30 percent of the label market in 15 key European countries.

Turning to the Label Academy masterclasses being held at this Labelexpo, Fairley said that although the digital class has sold out, there are some place available on the conventional technology masterclass taking place at 9am on the last day of the show.

Thomas Hagmaier, newly elected president of FINAT, spoke about the close links between the label association and Labelexpo, first forged in 1990. ‘Tarsus is seeing what the label printers need and the decision makers of the label industry are here at this show.’

Commenting on the debate on hybrid presses in response to a question from journalists, Hagmaier said:  ‘As a label printer I think there is a real need for hybrid to give you differentiation between digital and standard label production, and the machine builders are taking on this trend ahead of time. There are new possibilities to make labels with this combination and we cannot imagine what could happen - and that is the challenge of hybrid machine.’

Answering a question on the impact of direct-to-container print, Mike Fairley said this would likely remain confined to bottle decoration.