TLMI points converters to growth opportunities

Danielle Jerschefske reports from the TLMI’s highly successful Technical Conference and Annual Meeting events, while in Mexico the national association holds its first congress

More than 350 attendees gathered together in September for TLMI’s Technical Conference, an association event held biannually in Chicago. Over two days, more than 60 presenters and panelists led technical discussions and gave presentations addressing the narrow web converting industry’s current trends, challenges and opportunities. This year’s co-chairs were Nick Van Alstine of Macaran Printed Products, Brian Gale of I.D. Images and Michelle Garza of RBCOR who was elected to the TLMI board at its annual meeting one month later.

The conference featured technical presentations and discussions involving expert panels comprised of industry converters, suppliers and end users. Conference presentation topics included Lean manufacturing, 100 percent video web inspection, TLMI's LIFE certification program, brand protection, and aligning sales and operations through strategic planning. Throughout the two-day conference presenting converters also offered a direct glimpse into their own operations, sharing anecdotes about production strategies in addition to new technologies and services their companies have profited from.

Nick Van Alstine, president of Macaran Printed Products, said: ‘One of the goals of the TLMI Technical Committee in approaching how this particular conference would be structured was to ask TLMI members what types of presentations and discussions they would be interested in. One thing that became clear as we reached out to our fellow members was that while companies were still interested in technical expertise, they also wanted a business track that addressed other components of growing and managing a business in today's marketplace. This led us to prioritizing topics such as sales, marketing, strategic planning and brand protection to further reinforce TLMI's role as the primary learning association in our industry.’

Chairman of the TLMI board of directors, Art Yerecic, president of Yerecic Label, commented: ‘The 2011 Tech Conference had something for everyone. Converters and suppliers of all sizes benefited from well-conceived sessions that showed us new ways to deliver innovative solutions to our customers. We learned how to become better stewards of the environment and more skillful mentors to our peers and associates. There certainly were many top and bottom line improvement opportunities available to attendees.’

The TLMI Annual Meeting held in Phoenix Arizona October 17-19 hosted over 350 label industry supplier and converter members. North America’s leading networking event was themed as Adaptation: Perspective on Change and Creating New Value. Chaired by Karen Moreland of global die manufacturer RotoMetrics, attendees listened to an award winning Harvard economics professor discuss business in a challenging economy and heard a Global 1000 Company advisor discuss innovation and the importance of leading progressive change in business.

The meeting offered a wholly new panel session titled Future Product Technology and Design: Opportunities for Converting Solutions, which included a packaging marketer, a designer and an end user. The key takeaways from the panelists was for converters to: bring innovation to its customers; understand the power of interactive packaging and social media for a brand; add-value to its products while maintaining cost increases if possible; support its customers to differentiate their brands.

The 2011 TLMI Annual Awards were announced on the final evening of the gathering. The winners are listed below. Please see pages 61-68 to review the Label Award winners.

•          Converter of the Year – Ken Kidd, WS Packaging

•          Supplier of the Year – Pat Hague, Water Ink Technologies

Environmental Leadership Awards:

•          Innovative Technology – Avery Dennison

•          Process Improvement – Label World

Also a highlight at the awards night, Art Yerecic and Roger Pellow of Tarsus Group announced that TLMI has entered into a long term partnership with Tarsus Group, which will see the North American label association continue to co-sponsor the Labelexpo Americas exhibition from 2014 to 2022.

Yerecic said: ‘The co-sponsoring of Labelexpo Americas benefits both TLMI and the Tarsus Group as we work together to serve the changing requirements of both TLMI’s member companies, and the greater North American narrow web industry. As a label converter, I can say that my company finds tremendous value in attending Labelexpo Americas. We send a number of executives and operational managers to every show and have never missed one. I want to acknowledge the efforts of Frank Gerace, past TLMI chairman, and Frank Sablone, TLMI president, in renegotiating our agreement with Tarsus and keeping this synergistic partnership moving forward.’

Roger Pellow, director of Tarsus’ Labels and Packaging Group, commented: ‘The signing of the new agreement with TLMI is very important for the industry as both organizations have the same goals and aspirations to see the industry grow and be profitable. We have a very close relationship with the TLMI board of directors and now that we have signed a long term deal we’ll continue to work together to ensure the success of the labels and packaging industry.’

First Ametiq Congress

La Asociación Mexicana de Etiqueteros, or AMETIQ (The Mexican Association of Label Companies), organized its first industry conference in July in Mexico City. The event was widely popular amongst national players hosting over 100 industry participants and twelve tabletop exhibitors. Suppliers, succession specialists and trade journalists informed attendees of growing industry technologies that can help streamline business, trends to better understand the global marketplace and tactics to improve margins.

The president of the group is Jesus Ramirez Ruiz who is the general director of Eticom based in Mexico City. He says, ‘The First Congress of the Mexican Association of Converters, AMETIQ, took place in Mexico City with the participation of great suppliers providing insights on topics particularly of interest to label converters.

‘In Mexico it is very difficult to work in associations since the market is very jealous and competitive, but having already 16 converter members and 15 supplier members in the group shows that every day we are working for the mutual interests and behalf of national converters.

‘We thank the attending suppliers and converters for their valuable participation, and now our goal is to call more converters for the year 2012 in which we will carry out our next Congress.’

Ametiq was created in April 2010 by six national label converters: Coflemex, Eticom, Etiflash de México, La Etiqueta Fina, Lobo Impresores and Etiquetas Anro. Today the young association has grown to have sixteen converter members and has gained large support from suppliers like LabelTraxx, UPM Raflatac, and Ferrostaal, the region’s distributor of Mark Andy and HP Indigo machines. 

Fabian Silva, general manager for Etiquetas Anro and founding partner of Ametiq explains that the association website is key for members to communicate on a united front. It tells too that the group has formed a partnership with the city’s Universidad Tecnologica Fidel Valazquez to be able to provide press operators with credit courses.

He says, ‘In addition to growing membership, we want to gain acknowledgement on an international scale to that the Mexican market can rise above global barriers to success and compete effectively on a global scale.’

FTA Fall Meeting is packed

In October at its Annual Fall Conference Color In Focus, the FTA hosted nearly 300 flexographic professionals, around 100 more attendees than other years, in St. Louis, Missouri. The event was co-chaired by 2009 Hall of Fame inductee Mark Mazur of DuPont Packaging Graphics and Dan Collins of Berry Plastics. There were 34 supplier exhibitors who were very pleased with the number of printers in attendance.

New president

La Asociación Mexicana de Etiqueteros, or Ametiq (the Mexican Association of Label Companies), has appointed Fabian Silva of Mexico City-based converter Etiquetas Anro as its new president.

Silva replaces Jesus Ramirez Ruiz, general director of Eticom, a label converter based in Mexico City. Ametiq was created in April 2010 by six national label converters: Coflemex, Eticom, Etiflash de México, La Etiqueta Fina, Lobo Impresores and Etiquetas Anro.

Pictured: Ametiq Congress converter organizers

This article was published in L&L issue 5, 2011