Labelexpo India 2016 closed its most successful show to date on 20 November. Held at its new home for the first time, the India Expo Centre in Greater Noida (Delhi NCR), the four-day trade show was its biggest-ever edition and hosted 8,029 visitors. 

Billed as the largest dedicated label and package printing event for the South Asia region, Labelexpo India amassed the latest technology and solutions available to printers with over 200 exhibitors occupying the show floor. The show was used as a catalyst for many new product launches with announcements from Atul Papers, Avery Dennison, Bobst, DuPont, Flint Group, GEW, HB Fuller, Konica Minolta, manroland, Monotech Systems, Nilpeter, OMET, PGI Technologies, SPGPrints, UPM Raflatac, Webtech and Zonten.

Endorsed and supported by the Label Manufacturers Association of India, All India Federation of Master Printers, Delhi Printers Association and Authentication Solution Providers’ Association, Labelexpo India also hosted the revered LMAI Avery Dennison Label Awards. The prestigious gongs were given out for excellence in six categories: Flexo, Letterpress, Offset, Combination Printing, Digital and by gold sponsor Avery Dennison. The event was also supported by silver sponsors: Iwasaki Tekko, Label Planet, Nilpeter, Omet, Orthotec, UPM Raflatac, Vinsak and Xeikon.

Jade Grace, Labelexpo India event director comments: “2016’s edition of Labelexpo India has been an enormous success with a 50% rebook for 2018. The venue move has been well received and got the seal of approval from both exhibitors and visitors. The watchwords from this year’s show were definitely new technology launches and press sales. Business being done on the show floor was really amplified by the numerous innovations unveiled during Labelexpo that could be transformative for the Indian market. We also had excellent feedback on the calibre and variety of buyers visiting the show, with many significant sales contracts being inked by exhibitors including: Alliance Printech, Grafotronic, HP, Marks Enterprises, Multitec Aids, Nilpeter, Omet, Vinsak and Xeikon.”

Quotes from exhibitors:

K Shula, Atul Paper Pvt Ltd: “We had a good experience at Labelexpo India 2016, the show had more footfall than the last show in 2014. We were able to interact with many people from release liner and label stock businesses from India and abroad, some old and some new. Our products Glassine and CCK from Munksjo with different GSM, width and color were well received by new customers. We had around 80 new business leads during the four days. We were also able to receive the orders for 60mts of material at Labelexpo. Labelexpo India 2016 was well organized and we hope it will be even better in 2018.”

Vijay Ramachandran, Henkel IMEA: “Henkel India is pleased with the overwhelming response it received at Labelexpo India 2016. The expo provided us a good platform to showcase our expertise in the area of pressure sensitive adhesive business, which helped us to strengthen the existing relationship with our clients and also facilitated new business opportunities. At the event, we showcased our diverse portfolio of solutions in the pressure sensitive adhesive business to over 250 visitors, which resulted in many leads. Besides showcasing UV Hotmelt technology, our key technology for labels and tapes businesses, we also showcased Hotmelt, solvent based and water based acrylics technologies. This helped the visitors to get a better understanding of the various uses and applications of these technologies.”  

Tilkesh Jathan, Loparex India Pvt. Ltd: “Changing the venue itself may have been a risky and herculean task. But, overcoming the hurdles and manoeuvring the show to such professionalism is highly commendable. The best part of Labelexpo India is that it brings all the manufacturers and end users under one roof. It’s not important that we always get the return on investments to the show. But what is important is that the information and knowledge which is shared, are stupendous.” 

Alex Stevenson, Luxul FZC: “Visitor numbers to our booth were higher than anticipated and the general quality of discussion and positive responses to our presentations lead us to believe that Luxul has a bright future in the Indian label and folding carton market. Our strategic alliance with Sunrise Inc and Mr Naveen Mehta, as well as our decision to exhibit has been fully justified. The technical interchange between our visitors and exhibition staff was ‘brisk’ and interesting, and several common technical issues were discussed – hopefully leading to mutually beneficial future business. Our European technical partner Alex Stevenson noted the highly impressive continuous improvement in quality and technical competence in the radiation curing field since his first visit to India in 1986 – when UV curing was still something of a space age mystery – and was happy to report that the gap which he witnessed back then is closing fast! Labelexpo India 2016 has definitely exceeded our expectations, and we would like to sincerely thank the organizers for their efforts in staging this excellent event.”

Hope Hu, Martin Automatic Inc: “Martin Automatic was very happy and received a fruitful harvest at Labelexpo India 2016. The visitors are mostly target customers seriously interested in smart solutions to improve press efficiency and reduce material cost/wastage. We received 70 leads at the show and there are several requested formal offers for their flexo presses and converting lines. The most significant lead is Mr Deekap Duggal from Kap Cones ordered his second Martin Automatic auto splicer and rewinder at the show while his first set of Martin MBS auto butt splicer and auto transfer LRD rewinder just arrived in their factory. Mr Duggal also committed to having his new OMET press equipped with the Martin Auto splicer and rewinder which will be the third set of Martin units in their production facility.”

Rekha Sharma, Manroland India: “Labelexpo India is a very professionally organized show. Since we participated for the first time, it was very good experience. Our main aim was branding and image building for Novexx Solution as a separate identity after its disassociation from Avery Dennison. We had some serious buyers too.”

Alan Barretto, Nilpeter India: "Labelexpo India is of strategic importance for us - as India is our home market. Our products are manufactured in Chennai - and as part of Nilpeter's global development team, we present numerous innovative technical features across the Nilpeter product lines. We are proud to say that our products also now is exported to regional markets. At the show we introduced the new FB-350s where the new platform ensures shortest possible setup waste in the market, including our multi-layer cross-over enabling five-page labels as well as the gravure units for both opaque and metallic coating.” 

Paolo Grasso, OMET: “At Labelexpo India, Omet met with success by selling two iFlex; a significant international acknowledgement for the Italian company. The first iFlex is to be installed at the new premises of Huhtamäki PPL Webtech Labels in Mumbai at the beginning of 2017. The Finnish group specializes in flexible packaging and is active on the market for more than 80 years, counting 14 manufacturing sites in India. Even Insight Graphics chose OMET iFlex to “re-start”, after a terrible fire destroyed its label division based in Kolkata. We are very glad that two of the greatest and most promising players in the Asian market chose OMET. They understood the value of the technology applied to our machines and how fast they can generate ROI.” 

Peter Frei, Pantec GS Systems: “As the middle class in India is growing fast, brand awareness grows along with the welfare. For label printers this means a big business opportunity but also a change towards meeting increasing differentiation requirements. It generated a steady flow of qualified printers who showed great interest and desire to adopt efficient in-line concepts. At the booth, the demo production of an outstanding Tequila label was convincing. Visitors to Labelexpo India became enthusiastic when they saw the 25'000 strokes creating such an attractive multi-effect label in a single pass at press speed. We are delighted with the visitors’ feedback that the performance of RHINO™ meets both, the volume and the quality requirements of the growing middle class."

Praveen Gupta, UPM Raflatac: “Labelexpo India is the perfect opportunity for label industry stakeholders to meet each other face-to-face and to catch up with the new advances in the industry. We had a very busy and successful four days on the UPM Raflatac stand, meeting our clients, allied trade partners, and making new, interesting contacts. A big thank you to everyone who came to visit us, we hope you enjoyed seeing our latest product developments for food, pharmaceuticals and other labeling applications as well as our new solutions like the Label Life concept and lifecycle assessment tool. This year, we also had some exciting experiences for visitors, such as a fashion show that turned our label materials into gorgeous fashion pieces. The show was the talk of the exhibition and our stand was chosen as the “stall of the day” on the third day. It was a pleasure to see so many of our customers participate in our gala night, an evening filled with entertainment and networking. Thanks a lot for making the evening a memorable one. We are optimistic about the growth of the Indian label market and look forward to further success at the next Labelexpo.”