Top Tag & Label Converters Survey
Label printers put expansion plans to action in response to a challenging economy.
THE LESS-THAN-stellar sales of today's converting market haven't lulled key tag and label industry players into stasis. After all, the tag/label market is forecasted to outperform the GDP, and converters are quick to hatch, and act on, strategies for better exploitation of the existing market.
In pP's 2002 State of the Tag and Label Industry Report (March 2002), Nashua Corp. President Tom Pagel advised: "Label producers must make a wider range of products, and be a specialist at every one of them." Respondents to pP's 2002 Top Tag and Label Converters Survey have taken that message to heart, with a whopping 74 percent indicating they will move into new areas of package printing in 2002.
Growth opportunities vary. Thirty-seven percent of participants with expansion plans are set to add new label printing processes; 33 percent will explore different label end-use markets; and 18 percent of respondents will begin converting flexible packaging.
Another notable finding of pP's survey is the move toward sophisticated prepress capabilities within the printer's facility. Nearly 46 percent of survey participants will upgrade in-house prepress functions this year, while less than 1 percent plan to send more work to a trade shop or other prepress facility.
Fiscal year 2001 presented a mixed bag of sales results for the tag and label industry. While just over half of survey participants realized sales growth from 2000 to 2001, nearly 41 percent counted losses. Eight percent report even sales figures. Optimism prevails among the industry, however, as 63 percent predict improved profit margins for 2002.
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