For the past three months or so, it has been almost impossible to cross or even get around Paris because of disruption caused by the Olympic Games. Many businesses, including label converters, have reacted by increasing their stocks of raw materials. Now that the Games are over, there will probably be a slowing-down of orders as inventories are reduced.

This has not deterred the French label association UNFEA from announcing, for mid-October, a “journée technique” at the five-star Salons Hoche in central Paris. The program will (inevitably) include a forum discussion on artificial intelligence, and other subjects will include Lean Manufacturing, recruitment, and quality control. For business events, as for sporting ones, the old maxim is “first the effort, then the reward,” and as readers will know, all French conferences include a convivial “Dîner de Gala.” This one is no exception, but atypically, the dinner will be held on the evening before the conference. Is this a good idea? Wait and see!

At all events, UNFEA continues to grow, and the latest count has 127 label converters as members, and 79 “partners” (mostly suppliers). The French association now actively supports several initiatives for the collection and recycling of release liners (around 80,000 tons annually). Of particular interest is the scheme run by Sopema, which makes insulation materials for buildings. For anything more than four palettes of used liner, Sopema will collect the stuff free of charge.

Members of Germany’s label association VskE will have to wait until November for their annual shindig, to be held in Brunswick. The European association FINAT plans a number of seminars (and will be present at Labelexpo Americas), but its next major event will be the annual Forum, to be held in May 2025 in Rotterdam. The latest FINAT statistics show solid second quarter growth for European label markets when compared with 2/2023, but this is faint praise given last year’s disastrous showing.

European exhibitors at the Chicago show

A glance at the exhibitor list of the US label show is enough to reveal the sad status of the French label sector. Around 15-20 German exhibitors at Labelexpo Americas will include such heavyweights as Heidelberg-Gallus, Henkel, and Kocher + Beck. The British contingent is too numerous to list, but as we all know, Americans and British are two peoples separated only by a common language. The French presence, alas, amounts to just three exhibitors: Armor, DCM, and Polyart. But then, France had the Olympic Games to worry about – and did unexpectedly well in its number of medals – better than any other European country. So that evens up the scales a bit.

Labelexpo Americas takes place after the Olympic Games, but the event clashes with Fachpack in Germany, the Print Show in Birmingham, UK, PRINTING United Expo in Las Vegas, and the London Packaging Week. What a pity that show organizers can’t get their act together!

How good is paper for the ecology?

The French business newspaper Les Echos recently published a forum aiming to show the virtues of paper and to dismiss several popular prejudices. The association “Two Sides” in a recently updated pamphlet reminds us that European forests, contrary to popular opinion, are increasing in size, and that 70% of the fibers used in paper manufactured in France come from recycled sources.

And also, according to this association, 60% of the energy used in France to make paper and board comes from green sources. Crossing the Rhine, we find Germany’s Federal Environment Ministry taking a hard line: “Papermaking has a strong negative effect on the environment. It uses a lot of wood, energy and water, and can leach dangerous chemicals into the water supply.” Zap! Kerpow! Only 100% recycled fibers get this Ministry’s approval, and even then, not all of them.

Drupa – the absolutely final word?

Despite the disparaging comments of some visitors, drupa was a big success story for many European exhibitors. The Omet booth, for example, hosted the entire range of Omet products. According to the company’s marketing director, Massimo Bellingardi, the range now features, “All the technological solutions you can combine and optimize to meet every printing need for labels, flexible packaging, lightweight carton, and special applications.”

The booth also featured a “virtual tour” of Omet’s new plant in Italy. Sustainability, an increasingly relevant topic for the printing industry, took center stage, with daily events dedicated to “green” innovations developed by Omet in collaboration with its technological partners, which include Durst, BST, GEW, Simec, Zeller+Gmelin, tesa and ACTEGA.

As for the future of the drupa show, it is too soon to judge the final verdict on the 2024 event. There has been a management shake-up in Dusseldorf: out went drupa’s operative MD Erhard Wienkamp, now retired, and up moves Sabine Geldermann, who will now report directly to Messe Dusseldorf CEO Wolfram Diener. Their latest press release concludes, rather ominously, that management: “Is currently still analyzing drupa 2024 before drawing any conclusions regarding future changes to the show.”

Spanish Acquisition

Rotatek was started as a family-owned Spanish business specialized in making narrow web presses. Lacking the financial muscle to compete with other European competitors, the family sold out, but the company never managed to make it into the top league. From 1996 onwards, Rotatek started an on-off liaison with the Vinsac Group, a competitor based in New Delhi. Now the marriage has been consummated and the Spanish manufacturer, which has substantial commercial businesses in South America, is being progressively integrated into Vinsac while still retaining its original name and identity.

Managed now by Gita Bajaj, while still retaining Mario Gamez as CEO and minority shareholder, Rotatek’s global sales structure has been revived, with strengthened distributor networks in Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, and the UK, and new distributors in Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan. North American distribution is under development.

To quote Bajaj, “Rotatek will continue to manufacture machines from its headquarters in Barcelona. The company has expanded its manufacturing capabilities by acquiring an additional 15,000 square feet of space for its facilities. To support this growth, Rotatek has hired new talent in engineering, sales, and service departments, and aims to appoint agents worldwide while doubling the number of machines installed annually.”

Since the acquisition, Rotatek has sold presses to Smurfit Kappa Security Systems in Ireland, Paramount Packaging in the UAE, and Hitech Print Systems in India. It has also commissioned machines in Nepal and China, totaling over $17 million in value.

What price Democracy?

When Gutenberg invented (or rather, improved) the printing press, the last thing he had in mind was the ballot box. In his part of Europe there were only seven electors worth writing about, so books were the big market to get into. Fast forward to 2024, and books are still with us, but elections, at least in France, are powerful consumers of paper. None of this digital hoo-ha when it comes to voting.

Every French city, town, or commune must display at least one large poster for each local candidate. Then, in the run-up to the election, every household gets a big envelope with brochures and voting slips for each and every candidate (and for the European elections, there were more than 30 of them).

Come election day itself, each polling station must get in a stock of voting papers for each candidate and a corresponding number of envelopes. For this the station must leave plenty of reserve, for woe betide the sinner whose station runs short. For the paper mills, distributors, and printers this is manna from heaven, particularly when the election is announced well in advance, as was the case for the European elections earlier this year.

The cost for paper alone was estimated at $60 million, just for France, and only for the European consultation. Then came the hammer blow, for the print and paper businesses (and for most of the French population, including your correspondent). The French president took one look at the European election results, promptly dissolved parliament, and called a snap election. Did he think of the paperwork?

A double round of elections with almost no time to plan for them. Paper and print prices soared, and this spilled over into the label and packaging sectors. Ah, but democracy has no price – or does it?