State of the Industry: Labels, Digital Printing Making Significant Inroads
The greatest growth is in the Asia/Pacific region, which grew at more than 6 percent in 2012, while the slowest growth is in Europe, which grew less than one percent in 2012. North American growth was just over 2 percent (See Figure 1 in the photo tab to the right).
Corey Reardon, president and CEO at AWA Alexander Watson Associates, notes that growth in labels has been constrained by alternatives such as flexible packaging (which is replacing rigid packaging), as well as direct printing on rigid packaging. Indeed, flexible packaging is growing faster than either labels or rigid packaging and "the impact of direct inkjet printing is significant," says Reardon.
Jack Miller is founder and Principal Consultant at Market-Intell LLC, offering Need to Know™ market intelligence in paper, print and packaging. Previously, he was senior consultant, North America, with Pira International.
Known as the Paper Guru, Jack is the former director of Market Intelligence with Domtar, where he also held positions as regional sales manager, territory sales manager and product manager. He has presented at On Demand, RISI’s Global Outlook, PRIMIR, SustainCom World and at various IntertechPira conferences. Jack has written for Printing Impressions, Canadian Printer, Paper 360, PaperTree Letter and Package Printing, along with publishing a monthly e-newsletter, MarketIntellibits.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from The College of the Holy Cross and has done graduate studies in Statistics and Finance.
