“Taken together”, adds Paul Jarvis, “self-adhesive labelling represents real added value and flexibility for the brand owner and contract packer and often delivers a lower total applied cost than other labelling technologies.” As shown at the recent Brau Beviale global beer exhibition in Nürnberg, and at Emballage in Paris, the label has become a key packaging element on the retail shelf that attracts the eye of the consumer at what Procter & Gamble describe as the “first moment of truth” in the consumer’s purchasing process.
As Rik Olthof explains “brand owners have less time to sell their products from the retail shelf than before.” In 80’ a consumer visit to a supermarket took 40 minutes, today the average visit is just 20 minutes and at the same time the number of items on the shelf has quadrupled.
AWA, Alexander Watson Associates, an international consultant company specialised in packaging, has researched the beverage market in depth. On this regards Corey M Reardon Ceo at AWA says: “Increased competition is making manufacturers focus on their branding and marketing and for both primary product labels and promotions. Self-adhesive labelling has a lot to offer.
The functional features it can deliver, such as adhesives for special purposes – for pasteurisation, ice bucket performance, long storage in damp conditions (essential for vintage wines), and wash-off capability for returnable bottles – are encouraging beverage retailers and brand owners to consider a change from traditional glue-applied labels, which still command over 50% of the beverage market.”
Mark Ruijgrok, Global Beer Director for self-adhesive label stock manufacturers at Avery Dennison, taking into consideration the world’s leading brewers observes that “The top four companies not only have the volume business, but also the value business: the premium brands.” Premium beers are a fashion market that must keep side by side consumer preferences and aspirations, and their customers are increasingly global.
‘Thinking out of the bottle’ is essential for brand owners seeking to win the war for customers, and the label is a perfect starting point”, Mark Ruijgrok adds. Beverage packaging, both in terms of containers and labels, is diversifying, with bag-in-box, PET bottles, gable-top cartons, and even flexible pouches joining glass bottles and cans on the supermarket shelf. In such an arena, a flexible and infinitely variable medium such as a self-adhesive label must have a strong future’, concludes Mark Ruijgrok.
FINAT, founded in Paris in 1958 and headquartered in The Hague (The Netherlands), is the world-wide association for manufacturers of self-adhesive labels and related products and services. With 600 members in over 50 countries around the world, FINAT has much to offer to label converters and all suppliers to the labeling industry in terms of information exchange and the opportunity to network internationally.
