Pryvatna Drutkarnya was forced to re-enter production in order to keep the business viable. Mikhail Gluhovski was the CEO. Robert Rae, the managing director for sales at GEW offered the equipment to be supplied free of cost.
“Thanks to the goodwill of our European partners,” says Gluhovski, “We found an appropriate way to buy cardboard and consumables for new orders and to pay off debts at the same time. We are thankful to GEW and everyone who helped us.”
Asteria strike again
In 2021, Asteria acquired UK’s CS Labels. Asteria Group, located in Gullegem, Belgium was able increase its turnover to 170 millions euros. Asteria boasts 17 factories in Belgium, England and the Netherlands. It also has factories in Germany, Finland Estonia, Denmark, France, Germany and Germany. Asteria is not shy about its desire to purchase more label converters.
Now, UK’s Berkshire Labels has become the latest addition to the Belgian group. Berkshire is home to three Mark Andy presses. It also has an HP Indigo, a Bobst Digital Master 340 and a Mouvent printer unit. Asteria confirmed that Paul Roscoe would continue to be Berkshire’s CEO.
Ives Declerck, Asteria Group CEO, comments, “Berkshire Labels is a great company and great fit for the Asteria Group, and it will complement and expand our existing European and UK production sites. We look forward to supporting Paul and the team at Berkshire in their exciting growth plans.”
For the disabled, label conversion provides employment
Handiprint was founded in 2010 and has 201 employees. 150 of these are disabled. Each employee is trained in more that 10 areas, such as graphic design, digital printing, shape, signage, routing, calendar production, and offset printing.
This year Handiprint is launching a new challenge: to become the first “adapted” company to invest in the roll label market. This initiative came to the notice of Marie-Anne Montchamp, the French Secretary of State for Solidarity and Social Cohesion, who welcomed the project, calling it “a tremendous step forward.”
Food packaging – use once, don’t throw away
Many empty plastic bottles, and other packaging used in fast food restaurants litter the streets and parks of Europe. The European Union’s lawmakers are taking the lead in reducing this pollution with a new law in force since January of this year. Restaurants are now restricted to using reusable containers. The law’s passage was met with protests, many from unanticipated quarters. Deutsche Umwelthilfe (Institute for Ecology) confirms their strong support for reused packaging, but also adds that all disposable packaging which is hazardous to the environment or the climate must attract a tax of 20 cents. Imagine what fast food restaurants would think.
One major French fast-food chain has an interesting complaint. Its reusable cups are so tempting to customers that many leave with them. This saves you time and effort.
Labels and envelopes
People don’t write many letters these days, and Elep is Belgium’s last remaining envelope manufacturer. The Truepress Jet L350 is a Truepress Jet L350 purchased from Screen. Says Elep’s CEO Yves Pfeiffer, “We wanted to invest in the latest technology, and the Screen digital inkjet press offers vivid, hard-wearing colors with low migration, which is increasingly important on the self-adhesive label market. Also, Screen’s European headquarters at Amstelveen are just 90 minutes away from our plant.”
Elep seeks to capture market share within the overcrowded fast-delivery and short-run label sector.
Swedish coffee?
Nordvalls Etikett AB, one of Sweden’s largest label converters, has acquired Germany’s Kölle Etiketten GmbH and is in the process of taking over ownership. Two years ago Nordvalls went international, acquiring a UK label converter, but Kölle is its first step into Europe’s biggest label market. Curiously, Kölle Etiketten’s main product is not labels but tea bags. However, like Nordvalls, Kölle is a family-owned and managed business, and third-generation CEO Phillip Kölle will continue to manage the German plant, teabags and all.
Belgians invest in bio-refining
Futtero is responsible for the design and operation of refineries that make polylactic acids (PLA), a synthetic plastic capable of taking over many petroleum-based ones. Its latest project is for a plant at Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine in France to produce 75,000 tons of PLA per year.
“We describe our polymer as the first ‘bio-renewable’ plastic,” says Futerro CEO Frédéric Van Gansberghe. “Derived from vegetable carbon, it can be easily and ecologically recycled to obtain a virgin polymer of the same quality as its first life cycle: this is a unique characteristic.”
The plot of land needed for this project remains vacant. But 250 workers will be hired and the refinery could impact public opinion on plastics packaging labels. But don’t count your chickens just yet…
Holygrail 2.0 Initiative
European Brands Association AIM works on an automated solution for the tedious, expensive and time-consuming recycling of packaging. Over 160 European companies have joined forces in the Digital Watermarks initiative “HolyGrail 2.0.”
Simple concept: Invisible codes are approximately the same size and shape as postage stamps. They cover almost all of the packaging’s surface. Every code has information that can be used to aid automatic recycling. When packaging waste arrives at the sorting center a camera detects the “digital watermark” and sorts each item as appropriate (e.g. Sort by plastic type or usage food/nonfood. There is nothing simpler. It’s quite simple. For a start, it’s one of those brilliant ideas, like credit cards or barcodes, that can only get off the ground if lots and lots of people and companies decide to join in. And given that Europeans can’t yet agree on the number of holes in a salt shaker, digital watermarking is probably not for tomorrow. It is important to keep this in mind.
Substrate prices fall – at last
Flexible Packaging Europe, (FPE), reports that European substrate prices dropped in Q4/2022. BOPP films saw the most dramatic drop, with a 15% decrease in Q3 and Q4, however most materials dropped between 5-10%. According to analysts, this is due to sluggish sales and worry about the future. This has caused converters reduce their stockpiles. It’s a known fact that European substrate prices rose by an astounding 60% in 2022, year-over-year.
Europe’s labelstock markets reflect this trend: 4th quarter volumes were down 24%, the biggest year-on-year fall since FINAT’s records were started in 2003. Taking the year 2022 as a whole, European labelstock deliveries by producers were down by “only” 4.7% by volume.
According to a survey, most label converters plan on increasing their output by Q1/2023. FINAT, however has slowed down its normally optimistic outlook. To quote its latest forecast, Europe’s label markets in 2023 must face: “Economic uncertainty…caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, rising energy and raw materials costs, rising interest rates and a looming recession.” Happy New Year, folks!