25 September 2013

Industry celebrates at Labelexpo

At the end of the second day of Labelexpo the floors are still buzzing and the feeling is one of excitement and a growing confidence. This is one of the most under-rated aspects of this show – stimulating the industry with fresh ideas for new technology investments which can add value to a converters’ businesses, while giving suppliers new perspectives on how to influence future industry trends and developments.

The Label Awards ceremony last night was a great opportunity to recognize the contributions of individuals and companies to the continued growth of the global labels industry. The R Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement award went to a very popular winner, Tomas Rink, who inherited Ritrama as a company with 15 employees and built it into a global laminating powerhouse which is still producing major innovations such as the Core Linerless system – a must see at this show.

Dutch digital converting specialist Peter Overbeek of Eshuis won the Flint-sponsored European Converter of the Year award for his part in the highly complex Coca-Cola ‘share a Coke’ mass customization project. Coca-Cola Innovations manager Gregory Bentley who drove the project was at the event and afterwards praised Overbeek for his ‘unmatched’ contribution.

Another key trend at this show has been sustainability, and Avery Dennison justly won the Xeikon-sponsored Sustainability award for its Bottle-2-Bottle label system which allows PET container flakes to be cleanly separated from the adhesive in a recycling system – allowing pure R-PET to be recovered.

At a press conference this morning, company CEO Dean Scarborough told journalists how his horizons had been changed by a visit hosted by the Sustainable Forest Alliance to the villages taking part in its certified forest management schemes. Scarborough said Avery Dennison will increasingly make FSC-certified papers a standard commodity in its paper materials range with no price premium over its current papers.