Seville hosts successful FINAT ELF 2026

There is something about gathering 200-plus label industry professionals in a beautiful Spanish city that has a way of sharpening the conversation. Maybe it is the distance from the day-to-day pressures of running a business, or maybe it is simply the energy that comes from being in a room full of people who understand exactly what they are up against.

The 2026 FINAT European Label Forum, held May 27–29 at the Hotel Barceló Renacimiento in Seville, Spain, delivered two days of discussion that felt unusually direct, unusually honest, and — in the best way — unusually useful.

FINAT, the association representing the European self-adhesive label and narrow-web converting industry, has been hosting the ELF annually for more than a decade. Over that time, it has grown into the gathering that serious label businesses put on the calendar — not for the big-booth spectacle of a trade show, but for the peer-level conversations you simply cannot have anywhere else.

Carrying tradition

This year’s Seville edition carried that tradition forward. The event featured an agenda that was very much of this moment: artificial intelligence, sustainability regulation, workforce challenges, technology choices, and the competitive pressures that are reshaping what it means to run a label business in Europe today.

FINAT president Philippe Voet and managing director Jules Lejeune have been describing the industry as standing at a strategic inflection point. Spending two days in Seville makes it easy to see why. The challenges are not new — AI adoption, compliance with the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), talent shortages, and margin pressure have been building for years — but the urgency around them is undeniably higher.

A live audience poll early in the program asked delegates to identify the primary drivers of industry change over the next five years. AI and automation came out on top, followed closely by sustainability and regulation. That result was not surprising. What was striking was how little disagreement there was in the room. The industry knows what it is dealing with. The harder conversation — which the ELF Forum does a good job of facilitating — is what to actually do about it.

Assessing infrastructure

On AI, the conversation in Seville was notably grounded. Luke Lejeune, presenting on the industry’s near-term trajectory, described the current moment as a shift from experimentation to operation. The technology has moved past the pilot phase. The question now is whether label businesses have the underlying infrastructure — machine connectivity, ERP integration, reliable data quality — to extract real value from it. The honest answer for most operations is: not yet, but they are working on it.

What came through clearly from the discussions among peers was a practical consensus: build the digital foundation first. Start with focused use cases like scheduling or purchasing support, and do not let the pressure to appear innovative push you into over-investing before the basics are in place. AI, as more than one person noted, performs to the level of the data and systems beneath it. It amplifies what is already there. That makes the infrastructure work the unsexy but essential first step.

Economy

Setting the broader stage was a session from Ilke Toivo on the geopolitical and economic outlook. Her assessment was not exactly cheerful: Europe is operating in a prolonged low-growth environment, with a 1.7% forecast and sticky inflation that is proving harder to shake than expected.

The deeper structural challenge she flagged is what economists have started calling the “China shock” — China’s share of global industrial output has tripled since 2001. And the label industry is feeling that directly. Imports of Chinese paper jumper rolls have grown roughly 33% annually in recent years, and China carries an estimated three billion square meters of excess label production capacity that is actively finding its way into European markets.

Against that backdrop, Toivo outlined four sovereignty pillars shaping European policy ahead: single market integration targeted for 2028, energy independence, technology sovereignty, and a rebuilding of defense industrial capacity. For converters who trade across borders and source globally, understanding which direction policy is pointing is not background noise. It is a planning input.

Analyzing sustainability

Sustainability generated equally engaged conversation, and the tone here was notably different from the policy-level debate most attendees encounter in trade press. The question in Seville was not whether to comply with PPWR — everyone in the room has accepted that — but how, given the genuine difficulty of navigating fragmented recycling standards, inconsistent certification schemes across markets, and timelines that continue to shift.

Add in emerging PFAS restrictions on certain inks and coatings, and the regulatory landscape starts to feel genuinely complex. There was real frustration in the room about the lack of practical guidance. There is also a real appetite for FINAT to take a more active role in harmonization and advocacy. The association has been doing exactly that. It works with CELAB and Afera to engage the European Commission directly — but the need from the membership is substantial and growing.

The sustainability conversation also surfaced something worth noting for any converter still thinking about compliance as a cost-only exercise. Brand owners are increasingly making it a supplier selection criterion. The companies that can demonstrate credible, verifiable sustainability performance — including the data infrastructure to support it — are going to be better positioned as the regulatory requirements fully take hold. Compliance as commercial advantage is a real opportunity, not just a talking point.

Workforce challenges

If AI and sustainability were the macro themes, workforce was the most personally felt topic in the room. A panel of leading converters — including Chris Ellison, managing director of OPM Labels & Packaging in Northern England and FINAT’s Immediate past president, alongside colleagues from stretch and shrink sleeve operations in France and Switzerland and a large UK FMCG supplier — addressed what amounts to a slow-moving crisis.

Experienced workers are leaving the industry in their 50s. Plus, recruiting younger talent is hard. In the UK, Brexit has closed off a labor pipeline that used to work reliably. And the industry’s reputation as a manual trade does it no favors with a generation that has plenty of career options.

The panel was honest about what automation can and cannot solve here. It can lower the skill threshold for entry-level roles, help new hires get productive faster, and free experienced operators for higher-value work. What it cannot do is bring people through the door who have never considered label converting as a career.

That requires changing how the industry presents itself — and the Young Professionals Network, which held its own sessions alongside the main program, had sharp things to say about it. YPN participants were candid. The industry is largely invisible to most young people entering the job market. Meanwhile, the marketing language used to recruit is rarely compelling. Open-house days at converter facilities, stronger university links, social media presence that reflect what modern label converting looks like — these are not complicated ideas, but they require consistent investment and attention.

Focusing on technology

On the technology side, it was clear that the industry has largely moved past the flexo-versus-digital conversation. The practical consensus among converters today is hybrid. These configurations allow businesses to optimize across run lengths and application types rather than betting everything on one platform.

What was perhaps more interesting than the hardware discussion was the point that kept coming up in parallel. The real differentiator is not the press – it is the workflow. Prepress automation, post-press integration, and the ability to use machine data to make better operational decisions are where the efficiency gains are most accessible and most impactful.

Transitioning to LOUPE

One piece of industry news that was clearly on people’s minds: Labelexpo Europe has officially rebranded as LOUPE — Labels and Outer Packaging Embellishments. The new identity was announced at the Barcelona show in September 2025 and reflects a deliberate push into folding cartons, flexible packaging, and pouches alongside traditional label products.

For narrow web converters, the event is another signal that the boundaries between labeling and packaging are continuing to blur. Plus, the industry events and associations shaping the conversation are moving to reflect that reality.

Passing the torch

After a full day of sessions, Seville delivered on its promise as a social setting. Delegates were hosted for a dinner at a beautiful farmhouse venue that included cocktails, an equestrian show, dinner, and a Flamenco performance that felt entirely right for the occasion. But the evening carried more significance than a celebration — it was also where the torch was officially passed to a new generation of FINAT leadership.

During the farmhouse dinner, FINAT announced the appointment of Dana Kilárska as its new president and Vito Giurazza as vice president. Kilárska, CEO of Purgina in Slovakia and a familiar face to anyone who has followed the Young Professionals Network over the years, becomes the first woman ever to serve as FINAT president — a milestone worth pausing on for an industry that has spent considerable energy at this very forum talking about the need to attract and elevate new talent.

Giurazza, CEO of Tikedo in Italy and a Board member since 2023, brings a background in strategy, M&A, and business growth across European converting operations.

Honoring Voet, Ellison

The evening also honored the two outgoing leaders. Philippe Voet and Chris Ellison — both of whom have been central figures at recent ELF gatherings and in the broader work of shaping FINAT’s strategic direction — were named honorary members of the association in recognition of their years of service.

Voet, who guided FINAT through the post-pandemic period and restructured the association around its four strategic pillars, closed his presidency with characteristic warmth. Ellison, who served as president from 2017 and whose voice was heard prominently in the workforce discussions at this very event, has been a steady advocate for the people side of the label industry throughout his tenure.

It was, by any measure, a meaningful evening — and a reminder that events like the ELF are not just about the conversations in the conference room. The relationships built and renewed over dinner in settings like this are part of what makes the Forum genuinely different from a trade show, and part of why industry members make the trip year after year.