Narrow Web Europe

  • A challenge to IML

    A challenge to IML FESPA Digital is a trade show for digital printing, focusing on screen printing, industrial packaging and signage applications, and taking place in Amsterdam in May 2009. Digital label press manufacturer Xeikon will use the show…
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  • Shows and conferences

    Shows and conferences Label professionals from all sides of the industry recently congregated in Barcelona, Spain, for a “Digital Label Summit,” and in Milan for the Converflex/Grafitialia show where many label machinery manufacturers we…
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  • Europe’s narrow web

    A glance at the Labelexpo Europe show guides of 1997 and 2007 is instructive: Labelexpo 1997 was a resolutely European show, with 83 percent of exhibitors from Europe, 12 percent from North America and just 5 percent from the rest of the world (mostl…
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  • Gaining currency

    Gaining currency Britain’s newspapers have been fretting about the “weakness” of the pound. Of course everyone wants to have a “strong” currency, which is seen as a symbol of economic virility. At least – not quit…
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  • The French label market

    The French label market Major automobile manufacturers may shout to the world that they are on the brink of bankruptcy, but bosses of smaller, family run businesses (like the majority of label converters) would rather be thrown naked into a vat of v…
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  • Bullish in Belgium

    Bullish in Belgium Just over the frontier in Belgium are the headquarters of two of Europe’s largest label converters: Bopack and Reynders. Bopack recently wound up its labeling systems division, citing falling sales and “deadly” f…
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  • Plastic? No, whey

    Plastic? No, whey First it was corn, which was suddenly discovered to be the miracle eco-ingredient for everything from gasoline to plastic films. Now it’s whey, the watery stuff that is left over when you make cheese. A group of European prin…
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  • Is the digital label business recession-proof?

    Is the digital label business recession-proof? The short answer to that is, of course, no. The slightly longer answer is that label converters are still showing a flicker of interest for investing in digital presses. Clever Etiketten in the Hague (N…
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  • Cut, cut and cut again

    Cut, cut and cut again EskoArtwork, based in Ghent (Belgium) and one of the world leaders in prepress technology for the narrow web sector, has also not escaped the chill wind of recession. In February, the company – which employs 900 and had…
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  • Press on regardless

    Take a trip round the websites of the principal manufacturers of conventional label presses in continental Europe and you will experience a deafening silence on the subject of new presses sold since the start of 2009. This may be a sign of discretion…
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  • Silicone Value

    Silicone Value Silicone represents only some 5 percent of the material cost of labelstock, but in these hard times every cost element is coming under scrutiny. Germany’s Wacker Silicones reckons it has come up with a winner. Its latest silico…
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  • RFID tags tap new markets

    RFID tags tap new markets Bathroom and kitchen fittings seem an unlikely new field for RFID tags, but Hansgrohe, the company that puts its products into a substantial part of Europe’s bathrooms, now uses smart tags to control its workflow, and…
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  • Mind your language

    Mind your language The phrase “Any language you like so long as it’s English” may (generally) work in North America, but each of Europe’s 70 or more languages is jealously guarded by some nation or region for whom it is part…
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  • M&A

    M&A CCL recently acquired German label converter Eltex (specializing in making high-tech PS labels for the automotive and household appliance sectors), but the global downturn has not yet seen many mergers, acquisitions or disappearances among E…
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  • Digital developments

    Digital developments Back in 2000, Stratus Martin Etiquettes in Limoges, France, was the first PS label converter in France to install a digital press. Since January 2009 the company has been beta testing HP’s new WS6000. If the tests are conc…
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  • Linerless labels

    Linerless labels After so many disappointing developments over several decades, the headline “Breakthrough in linerless labels” must rank as one of the more boring headlines (along with “Small earthquake in South America” and…
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  • Eastern Europe

    Eastern Europe While label consumption in Western Europe has slowed almost right across the board, some small items of good news are coming in from farther east. Giant food concern Nestlé has confirmed its intention to expand operations in Po…
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  • Association news

    Association news FINAT, the Europe based label association, is preparing for its 2009 annual congress, to be held in Antalya, Turkey, in June. The Turkish label association, which is co-hosting the event, last year set itself the ambitious target of…
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