Professionally printed labels are big business nowadays. Very big. Industries need to identify and differentiate their products and brands, custom labels can be used in exciting new ways, and the volume of printed square metres in the sector has nearly doubled in recent years. Even in this online era, label design plays a hugely important part in acceptance of a product. The label or sticker on a bottle or item of packaging reflects its brand's message and identity.
The latest figures from the marketing research institute Smithers Pira show that the volume of printed square metres in this sector rose from 4 billion in 2014 to 7 billion in 2017.
What is label printing?
It would be impossible today for the worlds of retail, commerce, industry or distribution to operate without labels. They can be found with multi-coloured illustrations on almost everything that we buy in high street retail stores, pharmacies, DIY shops, and even out-of-town hypermarkets and garden centres – whether products are pre-packed in bottles, tubs, jars, pots, trays or other types of containers, shrink-wrapped or even affixed directly to items as diverse as lawnmowers, tennis rackets, clothing or hardware.
Labels are an essential medium that can be used to identify and help to market all kinds of goods, as well as provide essential consumer or legislative information such as weight or volume, supplier or manufacturer contact details, ingredients or contents lists and maybe storage, handling, healthy eating, usage or safety information.
In addition to this, almost all labels nowadays carry a barcode – the patterns of black and white lines that are scanned at automated checkouts – to identify and price items on the customer's till slip. Barcoded labels of various kinds are also used in the manufacturing, handling, shipping and distribution sectors for applications as diverse as assembly and factory automation, in parts and components identification, and the field of tracking and traceability throughout the supply chain.
New label innovations in recent years have also seen the growth of special types of labels capable of interacting with mobile phones to access websites, provide further consumer information, enter competitions, play games or become part of social networks. Some labels are even uniquely variable or personalised.
In short, labels have become an essential component of everyday modern life in one form or another. No surprise then, that labels of all kinds are one of the fastest growing sectors in the printing industry, along with flexible packaging, averaging around 4-6% per annum growth worldwide for at least the last 30 years (current growth is estimated at 4.7%), and almost always achieving growth above GDP. On a global basis, labels are produced by a highly specialised niche printing industry sector which currently generates over $60 billion in turnover.