Digital label print in Europe

With its Digital Label Market Study, the international label industry association Finat establishes some real metrics, defining the way in which digital print has manifested itself in the European label industry, which has now been profiled through an in-depth study of current status, anticipated market sizing and growth to 2022, converter benchmark data, and production trends.

• The study carried out by the American societyLPC showed that, at European level, digital represented 9.7% of market value (the label industry’s total value is in excess of €16 billion): an evidence of significant acceptance.
• Of the 2000 digital label presses installed in Europe, 76% are toner-based systems and 24% are inkjet/hybrid. However, the growth curve to 2022 shows inkjet press installation growth expanding at a higher year-over-year rate than toner-based press systems.
• Converters were also asked to define the challenges they are experiencing with their current digital presses: cost of ownership came in at the top, followed by press downtime due to service issues and the challenge of finding enough business to fill the available digital capacity. Another problem (printing high-opacity whites) was added to the list for toner-based presses, and finishing requirements and colour matching were also noted by inkjet press owners.  
• Among brand owners, some end users request combination-printed labels (probably for label multi-versioning) they are not yet generally specifying toner or inkjet (or, indeed, digital label print). However, end users are now increasingly insisting that their label converters avail themselves of digital print technology, confirming that this is, indeed, a major change in direction for the label industry.