Opinions

What would we see if we went back to 1978 and looked at the label industry in the US and Europe?

Let me start with the US. There were a lot of older Mark Andy 1-, 2-, or 3-color presses running as label companies were being established. Modern equipment was dominated by Mark Andy and...

Nilpeter introduced its first in-line flexo press in the late 1970s. At this time, the ink system was either water- or solvent-based. 

The press manufacturer’s in-line UV letterpress was introduced in the beginning of the 1980s, and both technologies had advantages over the other. Flexo...

With age, it is said, comes wisdom. And while that might not always hold true for individuals, a look at the evolution of pressure-sensitive labels over the last 40 years reveals an industry that has grown smarter by any measure.

Consider what our industry has done with materials. We’ve...

Touring his factory in Ambernath, close to Mumbai, one realizes how Mehta has led the industry by example and translated his vision to reality.

Mehta, along with his son and corporate director, Rohit Mehta, invited the Indian label converters for the first time in 25 years to show the...

By the end of 1987 I became co-owner and managing director through Butterfly Holding which took over Edale and is still involved in the company today.

Travelling and exhibiting around the world in these early years meant getting orders for flexo presses from the booths, sometimes with...

McGee has 45 years under his belt, making him one of the more well-versed technological experts in the North American label market today. In 2000, he was named salesman of the decade, and at the time told L&L: ‘The greatest challenge facing flexo printers as we look toward the future is the...

To have worked in the Brazilian label industry for five decades is to have seen every example of these fluctuations. When Jeffrey Arippol joined Novelprint, then owned by his father and uncle, in 1967, taking a one-third stake in the business, Brazil was in the early years of a military...

In 1982, he was appointed president and general manager of the Chinese Packaging and Printing Corporation, a part of the Ministry of Light Industry, and was granted the title of senior engineer. 

Thereafter, he held senior positions on numerous printing industry-related boards, including...

However, it wasn’t the same forty years ago. Harveer Sahni, chairman at Weldon Celloplast, who has been in the label industry since 1978 when his company installed its first siliconizing coater, recalls: ‘A US-based company, Johnson & Johnson, first started manufacturing pressuresensitive...

‘Internationalization of the label industry is going to bring about moves by big print and supplier groups to dominate world markets.’ 
Mike Fairley, L&L issue 6, 1988

Global M&A activity across the supply chain has been prevalent for a number of years, with...