Canadian label industry looks inward

In the spring of 2025, as the Canadian government considered implementing a 25 percent reciprocal tariff on imports from the US, Canadian converter Northern Label Group considered pivoting away from the US market to focus on Europe.

‘In April, our government was going to implement 25 percent reciprocal tariffs, and they backed down on that at the 11th hour, thankfully,’ says Sean Murray, president of Northern Label Group, based in Ontario. ‘That would have had a massive impact on us. In fact, we were ready to pivot to Finland and Europe for almost everything, if we had to.

‘There are a lot of people in other industries, and a lot in manufacturing, friends I have, that have already pivoted away from the US, putting their arms up. There’s quite an “elbows up” sort of Canadian mentality going on right now.’

Amid concerns over tariffs and a more complicated relationship with the US, Canada is now focusing on its own development.

Southern Ontario hub

Southern Ontario has long been a hub for label manufacturing in Canada.

CCL, one of the largest label converters in the world, was founded in Toronto, Ontario’s capital city, in 1951. As the company grew from a local converter to a global entity, it shaped Canadian label manufacturing alongside it.

‘From a technology standpoint, CCL’s growth into the world’s largest label converter has helped set higher standards for innovation and automation in the industry,’ says Marika Knorr, head of sustainability and communication at CCL.

According to Knorr, CCL’s investments in innovative technologies, such as RFID and digital technology, have motivated smaller Canadian converters to invest in order to remain competitive.

‘Regarding talent, CCL’s prominence globally and its continued Canadian headquarters in Toronto have made it a significant employer and talent magnet in the Canadian label and packaging sector,’ Knorr adds.

Regulatory landscape

Overall, the same issues that impact the American label market also impact converters in Canada. One of the biggest differences in the industry between the two countries is the regulatory framework.

For example, in Canada, all labels must be bilingual, with both English and French text. Canadian labels, therefore, require twice as much text. This often necessitates smaller text on Canadian labels and makes extended content labels much more common in Canada.

Canada generally has more stringent environmental and food-safety regulations than the US.

‘We’re also more influenced and maybe even a little bit more ahead of the curve versus our US counterparts around low-migration inks, food contact safety, even going to sustainability,’ says Charlie MacLean, president of ASL Print FX, which operates out of the Toronto area. ‘We’re at different stages of our evolution with those types of things. We’re maybe a step behind the Europeans, but maybe a little bit further ahead than the Americans are.’

US relationship

The tension in Canada over its relationship with the US has eased since early 2025, when there was greater uncertainty about US tariff policies.

‘Especially in the beginning of [2025], Q1, Q2, there was so much difficult rhetoric coming from the leadership in the US that I think we got pretty insular as Canadians,’ MacLean says.

‘I think our strength is that we’re actually so diverse and we’re so empathetic to so many different people and countries. Canadians love to travel, love to get out there and experience different cultures. We really got pretty insular for a number of months there. The emotions were high when it came to the US.’

In March, MacLean’s own perspective shifted when he attended the TLMI Converter Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

‘What we needed was to just be around Americans and go, “OK, this is not the big evil”. These are our friends,’ he says.

The events of this past year have inspired a renewed interest in the domestic market in Canada. A ‘Buy Canada’ movement has inspired Canadian consumers to buy local products and travel more domestically.

‘As a sales organization, we’re still looking for opportunities in the US,’ MacLean says. ‘With that market being so large, you can’t ignore it, but I’d say we’ve had a little bit of a reset where we said, “OK, let’s try and focus our commercial activity on acquiring as much Canadian business as possible”. There’s such allure over the years to getting down to the US. If you can connect with a couple of big customers down there, it can really make an impact on your top line, but I think we’ve seen people try to partner up with folks that are on this side of the border even more recently.’