One touch web review - international media - flexogravure
One touch web review - international media - flexogravure
One touch web review - international media - flexogravure
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
44<br />
F&C<br />
Magazine<br />
Interviews<br />
Advancing sustainability<br />
in a complex value chain<br />
extremely long, complex, and<br />
specialised<br />
By Jules Lejeune, managing<br />
director, Finat<br />
Interviste<br />
Solutions and<br />
challenges for<br />
self-adhesive labelling<br />
Self-adhesive labels have contributed<br />
significant benefits to packaging;<br />
and their versatility, cleanliness, and<br />
variability have made them firm favourites in<br />
many key fmcg market sectors – on foods<br />
(both as primary and secondary product<br />
labels and for ‘priceweigh’ applications and<br />
other variable information print); on personal<br />
and homecare products; and, particularly,<br />
on beverages.<br />
The beverage boom<br />
The global growth in premium beers has<br />
proved a dynamic self-adhesive label market<br />
around the globe in recent years; and wines<br />
– both premium cuvées and bulk supermarket<br />
qualities – are toby ay enjoying the<br />
eyecatching on-shelf appeal that short- or<br />
long-run self-adhesive labels can create,<br />
both by the traditional print processes and<br />
by today’s high-quality digital label print. This<br />
flexibility has made ‘limited editions’ a practical<br />
possibility. ‘Fashion’ soft drinks, such as<br />
smoothies, juices, and CSDs (carbonated<br />
soft drinks) are also popular users of the<br />
self-adhesive label, which delivers a variety<br />
of innovative finishes and effects on a wide<br />
choice of label face materials – including<br />
textured papers, foils, and clear films (which<br />
give the favoured ‘no label look’ on a clear<br />
container).<br />
A designer’s dream<br />
The unique self-adhesive laminate also<br />
makes it possible to diecut exceptionally<br />
complex label shapes on press – a designer’s<br />
dream – and to apply multiple labels<br />
(front, back, neckstrap, etc) in just one pass<br />
on the packaging line. Finally, track-andtrace,<br />
product authentication, and tamperevident<br />
features can be an intrinsic part of a<br />
self-adhesive label.<br />
Sustainability issues<br />
As a key contributor to the global packaging<br />
industry, the self-adhesive label industry is<br />
as committed to the cause of sustainability<br />
as all its peers. However, it faces some<br />
unique challenges in the context of sustainability<br />
– in relation to the industry’s extremely<br />
long, complex, and specialised value chain.<br />
At the heart of a self-adhesive label is the<br />
‘sandwich’ of a face material, adhesive,<br />
release coating, and release liner. In itself,<br />
this is a combination of many different<br />
components, to which must be added the<br />
printing inks and other on-press processes<br />
that create the finished label, ready for automatic<br />
application to a product. No single<br />
level of the value chain can offer a full and<br />
detailed picture of the process of delivering<br />
a self-adhesive label; but, despite this complexity,<br />
the self-adhesive label industry must<br />
present a single, united profile if it is to be<br />
able to communicate with, and partner, the<br />
brand owners, the retailers, and ultimately<br />
the consumers in the environmental arena.<br />
It makes sense for an industry association<br />
such as Finat, which represents the whole<br />
label production value chain -- raw material<br />
suppliers, labelstock coaters and laminators,<br />
and label converters -- to take on that<br />
responsibility.<br />
For a number of years, Finat has been<br />
creating and updating industry-standard<br />
performance test methods, and – with an<br />
increasing number of sister organisations<br />
around the world – is currently engaged