In less than a month (September 25-27), the biggest label and package printing exposition in the Americas will be coming to Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, 15 minutes from Chicago’s O’Hare airport. If you are already in the label business, you are probably aware of this exciting event. If not, perhaps you should take notice anyway. Labelexpo alternates each year between the U.S. and Europe, with last year’s event held in Brussels. For those of you who have never been to a Labelexpo, this isn’t your run of the mill trade show; it’s very focused on label and package printing and for good reason. The global label production output in 2017 was approximately $36.98B and growing at a CAGR of ~ 4% through 2026, according to The Future of Label Printing to 2022(Smithers Pira, 2017). This is a market opportunity that can’t be ignored.

Even if you are not currently in the Label and Packaging field of business, this is a unique opportunity to see what it offers and more importantly the interesting production tools that are being shown. This market segment is where much of the genesis of new types of print production development takes place.

Although, according to The Future of Labels and Release Liners to 2021(Smithers Pira, 2016), the current label production process distribution still shows flexo as the predominant print technology for label and package printing. Flexo is still dominant primarily as a result of cost and performance advantages, and it will be for a while. A big part of that advantage is due to developments in both plate technology and optimized printing equipment over the last few years which provides flexo with new levels of quality and productivity. We are already seeing flexo displacing gravure on one end, and even putting pressure on the inkjet crossover equation. We expect this to continue with new plating and control technologies, many of which will be showcased at the event.