John Penhallow10.10.23
With just one exception, every Labelexpo Europe event since 1985 has been bigger and better than the previous one. The jury is still out on the 2023 edition, but it will almost certainly be greeted by shouts of acclaim by the exhibitors, and even louder shouts from the organizers.
In two years’ time the show will move to Barcelona, and the question we all ask: “Is Labelexpo Europe a show with a great
future behind it?”
One industry expert has his misgivings: he finds that the show’s marketing is too B2C. Okay for Hollywood but not for a highly technical industrial show. And when that industry expert is Klemens Ehrlitzer, longtime manager of the German label association, perhaps we should listen. Klemens points out that investing in label equipment is far from being the only thing label converters have to worry about. Sustainability, the digital revolution, national and European legal framework, supply chain security, and employee training are just some of the things that keep converters awake at night.
Klemens argues, with some justification, that the big shows are fine as gigantic showrooms but don’t address so many of these other subjects. It is certainly true that the Covid-19 pandemic has altered perceptions of where and how to transmit and receive information.
However, in your correspondent’s humble opinion, you can’t beat a show like Labelexpo for creating a gigantic marketplace where buyers and sellers can talk (and drink) together for four solid days.
Condat is part of the UK-based Lecta group, which has announced plans to close one of these two lines, and no prizes for guessing which one. No one yet knows how many redundancies there will be, but management has predictably announced that reductions will be as few as possible, and the unions, equally predictably, went on strike, blockading the entrances to the site to press the company and the local authorities to take steps to prevent the planned line closure.
The Lecta group also owns Cartieri del Garda in Italy and Torraspapel in Spain, but in terms of label papers and liners it ranks far behind European industry leaders like UPM Raflatac or Herma. Will local or national or even European public bodies step in to save the proposed shrinkage? With European elections coming up next year anything is possible, but the declining market for publishing and commercial papers is the same worldwide, and the outlook for the village of Lardin-Saint-Lazare is bleak.
At the end of July, Autajon announced the acquisition of its first company in the UK, Simply Cartons, and its third, Tendero, in Spain. To date, Autajon is only a low-ranking player in the huge German market and has no manufacturing sites in Eastern Europe.
Headed by the secretive Gérard Autajon, second-generation owner-manager, the group now employs over 4,000 and has global sales of €600 million ($640 million). In the past, the CEO was accused by the “Panama Papers” of cooking the company’s books, but today this seems to be all forgotten and does not tarnish Autajon’s image as one of the few world-level label and packaging businesses headquartered in France. Allons enfants!
A mild recession in Germany now looks inevitable, and the country’s paper and packaging industry has not come out unscathed. Industry association VDP, reporting on the first seven months of 2023, notes a 20% fall in overall paper/packaging production when compared with the same period of 2022. Graphic grades fared worst but all categories were down. In France, Copacel, which tracks paper and board production, also showed a substantial year-on-year fall, in July, of 12.9%.
SMAG was founded by the present CEO’s father in 1980. His son, Stéphane Rateau, subsequently took over, and along with his financial director Jean-Marie Mercier has guided the fortunes of the business until now. SMAG markets a wide range of label-related equipment, its flagship being the Galaxie finishing line. Competition in this business is fierce, not least from larger companies like ABG, and with no third generation of managers in the offing, SMAG has been discreetly looking for a buyer for some time.
The new deal with Rhyguan foresees rapid integration of the two companies’ production lines: some SMAG products will be assembled in China then finished at SMAG’s plant South of Paris, and the entire Rhyguan portfolio will henceforth be marketed by SMAG in France and French-speaking Africa.
Rhyguan’s European manager Daniel van Zelst, operating out of the Netherlands, will step in as president of the Board of SMAG holdings, while Stéphane Rateau “...will continue to manage the daily business and remain CEO of SRAMAG.”
Stéphane’s favorite hobby is to go fly-fishing in Ireland. What’s the betting that he’ll soon have more time for this?
Sales are handled by Durst, and 20 of these hybrid presses have already been sold, according to Omet’s Marco Calcagni. Other Italian press manufacturers like Cartes and Lombardi are also having a good year.
Overall, Italy’s manufacturers of label and packaging machinery seem to be remarkably chipper: sales in 2022 were up by 3.6% compared to 2021, which was itself a record year. How does this country, so long associated with la dolce vita, manage to do it? Well, a 40-hour working week and retirement at 67 may have something to do with it. Compare this to France where, earlier this year, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 nearly caused yet another revolution.
Today, after several successful takeovers, the group is a force to be reckoned with in the label press business. Its latest coup is a deal with the Belgium-based Asteria Group to supply a slew of Bobst Digital Master presses to several of Asteria’s 33 label converting plants.
The “All-in-One Digital Master” is a top of the range digitalized and automated press, which does everything from printing to embellishment and dieutting.
Asteria is also big in flexible packaging and folding boxes, so the label deal with Bobst might just possibly be the start of something even bigger. Better than cuckoo clocks, for sure.
In two years’ time the show will move to Barcelona, and the question we all ask: “Is Labelexpo Europe a show with a great
future behind it?”
One industry expert has his misgivings: he finds that the show’s marketing is too B2C. Okay for Hollywood but not for a highly technical industrial show. And when that industry expert is Klemens Ehrlitzer, longtime manager of the German label association, perhaps we should listen. Klemens points out that investing in label equipment is far from being the only thing label converters have to worry about. Sustainability, the digital revolution, national and European legal framework, supply chain security, and employee training are just some of the things that keep converters awake at night.
Klemens argues, with some justification, that the big shows are fine as gigantic showrooms but don’t address so many of these other subjects. It is certainly true that the Covid-19 pandemic has altered perceptions of where and how to transmit and receive information.
However, in your correspondent’s humble opinion, you can’t beat a show like Labelexpo for creating a gigantic marketplace where buyers and sellers can talk (and drink) together for four solid days.
Death of a village
Lardin-Saint-Lazare can only be found on the best and most detailed maps of France, but it is in some ways a microcosm of Europe’s paper and packaging industry. This village in the beautiful Dordogne region is home to the Condat paper mill, which directly employs 420 and indirectly keeps the whole local community on an even keel. The mill runs two production lines, one for graphic papers and one for specialty label papers.Condat is part of the UK-based Lecta group, which has announced plans to close one of these two lines, and no prizes for guessing which one. No one yet knows how many redundancies there will be, but management has predictably announced that reductions will be as few as possible, and the unions, equally predictably, went on strike, blockading the entrances to the site to press the company and the local authorities to take steps to prevent the planned line closure.
The Lecta group also owns Cartieri del Garda in Italy and Torraspapel in Spain, but in terms of label papers and liners it ranks far behind European industry leaders like UPM Raflatac or Herma. Will local or national or even European public bodies step in to save the proposed shrinkage? With European elections coming up next year anything is possible, but the declining market for publishing and commercial papers is the same worldwide, and the outlook for the village of Lardin-Saint-Lazare is bleak.
Autajon rides out
If you like nougat, that almond-and-honey candy that makes your jaw stick together, then Montelimar, a town in the Rhone valley, would be a good place to holiday. But the town’s second-biggest claim to fame is as the headquarters of Autajon, France’s biggest homegrown label converter. Well established in most Western European markets, and with plants in North America and China, this family-owned company has recently been on the M&A trail.At the end of July, Autajon announced the acquisition of its first company in the UK, Simply Cartons, and its third, Tendero, in Spain. To date, Autajon is only a low-ranking player in the huge German market and has no manufacturing sites in Eastern Europe.
Headed by the secretive Gérard Autajon, second-generation owner-manager, the group now employs over 4,000 and has global sales of €600 million ($640 million). In the past, the CEO was accused by the “Panama Papers” of cooking the company’s books, but today this seems to be all forgotten and does not tarnish Autajon’s image as one of the few world-level label and packaging businesses headquartered in France. Allons enfants!
Who would have thought it?
Not so long ago, Germany was the throbbing industrial heartland of Europe. Exports were high, unemployment was low, nothing could go wrong. Except it did. A shaky three-way coalition government and rocketing energy prices now put Germany on par with Britain as Europe’s leading (or should that be trailing?) basket case.A mild recession in Germany now looks inevitable, and the country’s paper and packaging industry has not come out unscathed. Industry association VDP, reporting on the first seven months of 2023, notes a 20% fall in overall paper/packaging production when compared with the same period of 2022. Graphic grades fared worst but all categories were down. In France, Copacel, which tracks paper and board production, also showed a substantial year-on-year fall, in July, of 12.9%.
We like your company, we’ll buy it
For many years, French label finishing manufacturer SMAG, or SRAMAG, has been striving to develop its business in China. Now China has come to France, buying out a majority holding in SMAG. The announcement, made on September 1, brings Rhyguan, a major Chinese press manufacturer, into the heart of the European market.SMAG was founded by the present CEO’s father in 1980. His son, Stéphane Rateau, subsequently took over, and along with his financial director Jean-Marie Mercier has guided the fortunes of the business until now. SMAG markets a wide range of label-related equipment, its flagship being the Galaxie finishing line. Competition in this business is fierce, not least from larger companies like ABG, and with no third generation of managers in the offing, SMAG has been discreetly looking for a buyer for some time.
The new deal with Rhyguan foresees rapid integration of the two companies’ production lines: some SMAG products will be assembled in China then finished at SMAG’s plant South of Paris, and the entire Rhyguan portfolio will henceforth be marketed by SMAG in France and French-speaking Africa.
Rhyguan’s European manager Daniel van Zelst, operating out of the Netherlands, will step in as president of the Board of SMAG holdings, while Stéphane Rateau “...will continue to manage the daily business and remain CEO of SRAMAG.”
Stéphane’s favorite hobby is to go fly-fishing in Ireland. What’s the betting that he’ll soon have more time for this?
Propinquity, Italian style
One of the (many) surprises of Labelexpo Europe was to see Durst’s digital press displayed so prominently at the Omet booth. They may not speak the same language, but these two Italian manufacturers have been actively cooperating for several years. Durst does digital, Omet does flexo, and the new XJet press does both.Sales are handled by Durst, and 20 of these hybrid presses have already been sold, according to Omet’s Marco Calcagni. Other Italian press manufacturers like Cartes and Lombardi are also having a good year.
Overall, Italy’s manufacturers of label and packaging machinery seem to be remarkably chipper: sales in 2022 were up by 3.6% compared to 2021, which was itself a record year. How does this country, so long associated with la dolce vita, manage to do it? Well, a 40-hour working week and retirement at 67 may have something to do with it. Compare this to France where, earlier this year, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 nearly caused yet another revolution.
Chocolate and clocks
A cynical comedian once remarked that in a thousand years of peace, the only things the Swiss had ever succeeded in making were chocolate and cuckoo clocks. Enter Bobst, a family-run Swiss business having quite a lot of success in label and packaging machinery. When your correspondent first visited Bobst some 15 or more years ago, the company made wide-web package printing machinery, and Jean-Pascal Bobst, then as now the CEO, was just looking at the possibilities of the label sector.Today, after several successful takeovers, the group is a force to be reckoned with in the label press business. Its latest coup is a deal with the Belgium-based Asteria Group to supply a slew of Bobst Digital Master presses to several of Asteria’s 33 label converting plants.
The “All-in-One Digital Master” is a top of the range digitalized and automated press, which does everything from printing to embellishment and dieutting.
Asteria is also big in flexible packaging and folding boxes, so the label deal with Bobst might just possibly be the start of something even bigger. Better than cuckoo clocks, for sure.