Labelexpo India reaches new heights at new venue with biggest edition to date

Billed as the largest dedicated label and package printing event for the South Asia region, Labelexpo India amassed the latest technology to printers with over 200 exhibitors occupying the show floor. The show was used as a catalyst for many new product launches with announcements from Atul Papers, Avery Dennison, Bobst, DuPont, Flint Group, GEW, HB Fuller, Konica Minolta, manroland, Monotech Systems, Nilpeter, Omet, PGI Technologies, SPGPrints, UPM Raflatac, Webtech Engineering and Zonten.

Endorsed and supported by the Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI), All India Federation of Master Printers, Delhi Printers Association and Authentication Solution Providers’ Association, Labelexpo India 2016 also hosted the latest LMAI Avery Dennison Label Awards. Awards were presented in six categories, flexo, letterpress, offset, combination printing, digital and by gold sponsor Avery Dennison. The event was also supported by silver sponsors: Iwasaki Tekko, Label Planet, Nilpeter, Omet, Orthotec, UPM Raflatac, Vinsak and Xeikon.

Jade Grace, Labelexpo India event director, said: ‘Labelexpo India 2016 has been an enormous success with a 50 percent rebook for 2018. The venue move has been well received and got the seal of approval from both exhibitors and visitors. The watchwords from this year’s show were definitely new technology launches and press sales. Business being done on the show floor was amplified by the numerous innovations unveiled during Labelexpo that could be transformative for the Indian market.

‘We also had excellent feedback on the caliber and variety of buyers visiting the show, with many significant sales contracts inked by exhibitors including Alliance Printech, Grafotronic, HP, Marks Enterprises, Multitec Aids, Nilpeter, Omet, Vinsak and Xeikon amongst others.’

Alan Barretto, managing director of Nilpeter India, described Labelexpo India as being of ‘strategic importance to his business.

‘Our products are manufactured in Chennai and as part of Nilpeter's global development team, we present numerous innovative technical features across the Nilpeter product lines. We are proud to say that our products now are exported to regional markets. At the show we introduced the new FB-350S where the new platform ensures shortest possible setup waste in the market, including our multi-layer cross-over enabling five-page labels as well as the gravure units for both opaque and metallic coating.’

Peter Frei, Pantec GS Systems CEO, opined that the burgeoning middle class in India is creating a big business opportunity for label printers.

‘It generated a steady flow of qualified printers who showed great interest and desire to adopt efficient in-line concepts. At the booth, the demo production of an outstanding tequila label was convincing. Visitors to Labelexpo India 2016 became enthusiastic when they saw the 25,000 strokes creating an attractive multi-effect label in a single pass at press speed. We are delighted with the visitors’ feedback that the performance of Rhino meets both, the volume and the quality requirements of the growing middle class.’

Hope Hu, Asia-Pacific region regional manager at Martin Automatic, said: ‘Martin Automatic was very happy and received a fruitful harvest at Labelexpo India 2016. The visitors are mostly target customers seriously interested in smart solutions to improve press efficiency and reduce material cost and wastage. We received 70 leads at the show and there are several requested formal offers for their flexo presses and converting lines. The most significant lead is Deekap Duggal from Kap Cones who ordered his second Martin Automatic auto splicer and rewinder at the show while his first set of Martin MBS auto butt splicer and auto transfer LRD rewinder just arrived in the company’s factory. Duggal also committed to having his new Omet press equipped with the Martin Auto splicer and rewinder, which will be the third set of Martin units in its production facility.’

Praveen Gupta, country manager, South Asia, UPM Raflatac, added: ‘Labelexpo India is the perfect opportunity for label industry stakeholders to meet each other face-to-face and to catch up with the new advances in the industry. We had a very busy and successful four days on the UPM Raflatac stand, meeting our clients, allied trade partners, and making new, interesting contacts. A big thank you to everyone who came to visit us, we hope you enjoyed seeing our latest product developments for food, pharmaceuticals and other labeling applications as well as our new products. This year, we also had some exciting experiences for visitors, such as a fashion show that turned our label materials into gorgeous fashion pieces. The show was the talk of the exhibition and our stand was chosen as the “stall of the day” on the third day. It was a pleasure to see so many of our customers participate in our gala night, an evening filled with entertainment and networking. We are optimistic about the growth of the Indian label market and look forward to further success at the next Labelexpo.’