Readers will need no reminding that the next European label show will open on the 16th of September in Barcelona. And that this is the first ever time that Labelexpo has not been held in Brussels. And what’s more, for the first time, the show is officially open not just to labels but to flexible packaging and
folding cartons. As we know, the packaging market is around 10 times the size of the label market. Smart move on the part of the Labelexpo organizers, eh? Well, maybe yes, maybe no. There is an old Polish proverb that says that you don’t improve the soup by adding water. Over its 40-odd years of existence, the label show has prospered by being tightly focused: visitors to the show were label converters, period. Anyone can see the logic in throwing open Labelexpo to a wider public: for some years, narrow and mid-web presses have been moving partly into the continuous packaging business. There’s just one small snag. The packaging exhibition sector in Europe is already pretty crowded, with no less than 137 events, mostly regional. And it ain’t happening much in Spain, but mostly in Germany. 

The Fachpack show in Nuremberg is well-established, and the next one is from September 23-25, just a week after Labelexpo. Fachpack is no lightweight, either, filling 11 halls. Then looking ahead to 2026, Interpack in Dusseldorf will be in May of next year. The last one in 2023 counted 2,800 exhibitors and over 140,000 visitors. A Goliath when measured against Labelexpo (but then we all know what happened to Goliath). 

There’s one other obstacle that the label show will hopefully overcome in its new venue: travel. The exhibition center in Brussels has several drawbacks, but it is slap bang in the heart of Europe’s major population centers, with first-rate air road and rail connections. London, Paris, Amsterdam, and much of northern Germany are less than 2.5 hours from Brussels by express train. To get to Barcelona, some 90% of the visitors to Labelexpo will have to fly – and some of the more environmentally-minded ones may balk at this. 

Let’s hope that the impressive list of exhibitors will outweigh all this. This impressive list now runs to 650 exhibitors and includes nearly all the world’s leading press manufacturers. Be advised, however, that the list includes no less than 215 exhibitors from China or Hong Kong, that’s one in three! Spain, the host country, is fielding a creditable 45 exhibitors, and Germany, 90.

FINAT offers muted optimism

The latest FINAT Converter Survey, conducted among 71 member companies, gives a confusing picture. Overall demand has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, but most converters reported modest growth in sales for the first quarter of 2025. Only 28% of respondents saw a decline in consumer demand. Yet behind these figures lies a more nuanced picture: muted growth in traditional end-use segments like food and beverage (both heavy label users) and stronger performance in e-commerce, household chemicals, and healthcare, sectors where demand has proven more resilient. 

According to FINAT, technology and sustainability are still the twin pillars driving market growth. Converters are increasingly embracing digital and hybrid printing technologies to boost flexibility and reduce waste. Surprisingly, given widespread political and economic uncertainty, capital investment in Europe’s label sector remains strong, with many companies preparing to upgrade equipment or invest in new production lines. 

Sustainability has moved center stage: you cannot launch a new product in Europe without extolling how it will reduce global warming. The FINAT survey shows that, from matrix recycling to growing interest in linerless labels and mono-material solutions, the industry is steadily moving toward the circular economy.

Linerless: Could this be (yet another) turning point?

Anybody can see the advantages of linerless: no more hard-to-dispose of silicone backing material, less waste, more labels per reel, and fewer changeovers during production. And more sustainable to boot. So why haven’t linerless labels swept through the market like Genghis Khan and the Golden Horde? Any fool, even your correspondent, can tell you why. It’s partly because linerless labels are typically cut from a continuous roll, meaning they don’t support complex diecut shapes or sizes; also, they don’t adhere to certain surfaces as well as PS ones, and they require special applicators. All this has not stopped the UK division of Coveris from investing a further £1 million at its Linerless Labeling Centre of Excellence in Spalding, England, bringing the total investment at the site to £2.5 million since late 2022. This plant, which according to Coveris is the UK’s only dedicated manufacturer of linerless labels, produces more than one billion labels annually for the UK and European FMCG sectors. The latest investment includes a new 10-color MPS flexo press, which came on stream in June of this year. Coveris said its linerless labels are designed to be used with Ravenwood Packaging equipment and are targeted at brands who want to reduce packaging weight while maintaining visual impact. Coveris, with its head office in Vienna, Austria, is an unusual beast making all sorts of things and operating mostly in Eastern Europe and UK. It has a subsidiary in Poland, which makes pet foods, but its main business is in labels and packaging.

Minova Labels looks to Denmark for surface treatment

Italy’s Minova Labels started life with two Gidue presses (remember Gidue?). It recently upgraded by installing two Synchroline presses from Italy’s Lombardi. Minova’s products include pressure sensitive labels, shrink sleeves, tubes and IML, mostly for the cosmetics and industrial sectors, and currently 95% of production at Minova is on filmic substrates, so the need for reliable and consistent surface treatment is paramount. 

Minova had long and good experiences with Vetaphone corona technology, so the Danish manufacturer was first choice for the two new presses. Vetaphone is no newcomer for Lombardi: this family-owned and managed business has built an excellent reputation in the 37 years since it was founded in 1988. Now employing more than 50 in its manufacturing facility in Brescia, the company supplies narrow and mid-web modular inline flexo presses to the label and flexible packaging markets, with the accent on quality and productivity.

ACTEGA points the way to eco-metallization

The label industry has long used hot melt and cold foil for metallic decorations. These processes are anything but environmentally friendly and result in thousands of tons of annual waste. Brands are therefore faced with the challenge of finding a balance between aesthetics and sustainability – a goal that the industry has started to attain, thanks in part to ACTEGA. The company is a subsidiary of the conglomerate ALTANA, and one of ACTEGA’s products is a new way of metallizing. 

According to ACTEGA, the days when metallization was synonymous with environmental damage, waste materials, and unnecessary plastic consumption are now over: with Ecoleaf, it claims, a new method for the metallization process is available. It delivers metal flakes only where they are needed, eliminating the need for PET carrier films and film reels. Since it reduces waste and plastic consumption, it also has a better carbon footprint than conventional processes. As the “war on waste” gets hotter, this technology looks to have a bright future.

Ecological Alsatians

Last month’s Europe News reported on the French public’s reluctance to return glass bottles, even with the incentive of recovering a few centimes’ deposit. Now Coca-Cola, through its French partner CCEP, has opened a vast new bottling plant, costing some $130 million, turning out 60,000 bottles per hour. The Eco-organism CITEO has the arduous job of finding out why the French don’t like returnable bottles. “A glass bottle can be refilled and reused an average of 25 times,” says CCEP boss François Gay-Bellile. 

Plastic bottles or aluminum cans are also under the beady eye of the European Union, which is requiring 80% recycling for all categories. Why is this proving so difficult? According to CITEO, “The French public can’t be bothered, and local authorities won’t cough up the money for installing the infrastructure. We’re banging our head on a wall.” 

Except, curiously in the French province of Alsace, where returnables of all kinds get recycled, no hassle. It must be the Alsatians’ dogged determination.