Labelexpo Europe tops previous editions

Labelexpo Europe 2013, on 24-27 September, was the largest in the event’s history, say its organisers.

Covering seven of Brussels Expo’s exhibition halls for the first time, the tradeshow pulled in 31,795 visitors, a rise of 11% from 2011. Almost 600 exhibitors took part, up from 550.

Across the show’s 31,000sqm – the largest floor size in the expo’s 33 year – companies also unveiled more than 150 new products.

Big launches included Epson’s Sure PrecisionCore technology and its SurePress L-6304 UV inkjet label press. Mark Andy presented its award-winning PRO-LED flexo curing system. Ritrama premiered its Core Linerless Solutions. Screen revealed its Truepress Jet L350UV single pass inkjet press.

Labelexpo Brussels 2013 was very useful with so many new technologies and innovations. The industry is moving towards short run and fast changeover jobs and Labelexpo provided many options for responding to this growing trend. Digital labelling was also very interesting with many innovations. But HP’s solutions for digital labelling inspired me the most.

The show also had a successful debut for its feature areas. The Package Printing Workshop showcased opportunities in both digital and conventional printing for folding carton, lid laminate and stand up pouch decoration.

The Inkjet Trail gathered inkjet technologies and compared their results when producing identical label designs on the same label stocks.

Lisa Milburn, managing director of Labelexpo Global Series, said the show confirmed a long-awaited revival in Europe’s fortunes as well as a bright outlook for the packaging industry.

“With the Eurozone now out of recession, confidence and optimism is beginning to return to wider global industry and converters are starting to invest in their businesses again,” she said.

Labelexpo was very informative. For me, the interesting technologies included digital packaging and direct engraving for flexo sleeves and plates. Four days is long enough to have a good look at the entire show. To study and understand in detail and make decisions on investment might need one or two more days.

For Ashe Converting Equipment, Simon Godbold, sales manager for narrow to mid web machinery, reported five separate machine purchases during the event.

“Two sapphire s2 turret slitters were confirmed as well as a diamond duplex slitter and two new opal glue-less turret rewind slitters were confirmed during four very busy days,” he said.

“Specific machines were launched by Ashe at this year’s show and were well welcomed by the audience that came to view them fully operational on the stand.”

Labelexpo for us was fantastic. People who visited us liked Nilpeter’s approach of incorporating value-added technologies within our presses such as foiling, die-cutting and digital capabilities.

Cheshire Anilox Technology premiered its new maxfloUV engraving, attracting “huge interest” with its “print versatility and innovative way of resolving the long standing problem of UV spitting”, said sales director Sonia Arcos.

“Visitor numbers to our stand far surpassed Labelexpo Europe 2011,” she said. “Some of the products that proved popular with visitors were the MaxfloUV Anilox, shown in Europe for the first time, the easyflo hd for mimicking screen printed opaque whites and the proflo Anilox for full HD printing.”

Percept Print Solutions UAE and its software development Partner Iware Solutions India are very happy with Labelexpo Europe as it was our first attempt to promote our Print Smart MIS as well as Know Your Productivity Solution to the international market. We got many dealership inquiries from countries such as Spain, South Africa, Lebanon and Poland, and more than 40 serious leads from various countries during the show.

Domino’s booth saw 60% more visitors than in 2011, with a boost from the Inkjet Trail, said Philip Easton, director of digital printing solutions.

“It is also good to see the Labelexpo team continuing to innovate and refresh the visitor experience,” he said.

EFI garnered “record sales lead”, according to Paul Cripps, managing director for EMEA.

“Visitor numbers were up significantly, not just from our own region but also with growing attendance from Asia and Latin America,” he said.

Labelexpo Brussels was very informative with lots of new products and innovations. The show also drew many visitors from the Middle East and particularly from Saudi Arabia, which shows the commitment of the region towards new technologies and keeping abreast with it. Compared with other prominent shows such as Drupa and other print shows, I would say this show was very much focused within the industry, which is why it is so much more meaningful and interesting for professionals in labelling and narrow web based packaging. I was able to see at least 14 narrow web machines with multiple applications. Presses these days are built with this modular concept to house units with multiple applications. This is getting better and better and this is really good for the wide possibilities of print.

Duncan Ferguson, director of Pro Graphics for Epson Europe, said Epson had its “busiest Labelexpo Europe yet” with more than double the leads it gathered in 2011.

“The announcement of Precision Core technology coupled with the new SurePress L-6034VW digital label press created huge interest,” he said. “Many orders were taken for products at the show, including the SurePress L-4033AW digital label press and SureColor SC-S70600 wide format printer.”

Gallus had “an excellent show”, said Christof Naier, VP Sales and Marketing. “Especially the Gallus Print Shop concept including the highly flexible near-line solution comprising the Heidelberg Linoprint L digital printing system and further processing on the Gallus ECS C generated a lot of attention,” he said.

“Based on the high number of new digital supplier entrants many visitors were looking for orientation in their decision making process.”

Marcus Tralau, CEO of Kama GmbH, said Labelexpo provided an effective showcase for the firm’s new stripping and blanking unit SBU to “professionals from the US, Latin America, the Far East and, of course, from Europe”.

At MPS, the launch of the EB flexo press helped drive “a very successful show”, said owner Eric Hoendervangers. “The debuted EB press demonstrated at the show was sold,” he said.

“Also unveiled at Labelexpo was the extended MPS EF multisubstrate press line… Multiple orders of all three versions of the new EF press line were received during the show including the demonstrated EF-APC Advanced press.”

Nilpeter sold 24 presses at the event, said sales and marketing director Jakob Landberg. “Receiving its European debut was the sleeve-based FA-4 for high-end labels and packaging, and the high-performance FB-3 UV-flexo press,” he said.

“Two years ago there was less hype and it was not such an exciting exhibition… This year we have had customers come on the stand and have enthusiastically made a purchasing decision on the spot.”

Stacy Hoge, marketing specialist at Phoseon Technology, said UV LED curing technology was “a hot topic” at Labelexpo Europe. “Our high amount of booth traffic from OEMs, ink suppliers and end users interested in UV LED curing technology was really impressive,” she said.

Polar demonstrated its range of solutions including die-cutting, in-mould and tax-labels, said PR manager Matthias Langer. “The exhibited stand-alone die-cutter DC-M received great interest,” he said.

Screen Europe generated “huge interest” with a debut for the Screen Truepress Jet L350UV digital label press, said its president Brian Filler. “Since the show we have been inundated with requests for follow-up in-depth demos, so I have to say that the whole event was extremely worthwhile,” he said.

Jonathan Sexton, marketing director for narrow web and screen at Sun Chemical, reported “40% more leads compared to Labelexpo Europe 2011”.

“Labelexpo Europe was also the launch pad for our new product, SolarFlex Neutron White, which generated great customer interest generating more than 100 inquiries,” he said.

“The geographical breadth of visitors to our stand from more than 70 countries means that we will also looking to extend even further our reach in narrow web into developing regions.”

Taghleef Industries’ stand attracted “an extremely high number of label converters/printers especially from overseas”, said marketing communications coordinator Corinne Rougeau.

Paddy Bailey, VP sales at UPM Raflatac EMEA, said the firm had “a record amount of customers visiting our stand”.

“Recycling and environment remained hot topics at the show, and our Label Life concept was of interest to both label printers and end-users from all around,” he said.

Dr Andre Gysbers of Wink Stanzwerkzeuge said the company saw “an enormous increase of leads compared to 2011”.

“Wink’s Labelexpo product launches were especially popular,” he said. “The ProShift technology for staggered printing and die-cutting, supported by Esko, the very stable adjustable anvil cylinder GapControl by Rototechnix, as well as the MCR longlife coating for flexible dies received a very positive response.”

Xeikon’s CEO, Wim Maes, said the show “exceeded our wildest dreams”.

“Labelexpo Europe enabled us to close several deals and it boosts the number of sales projects for the next period,” he said.