the hague, the netherlands &ndash august 26, 2015 &ndash fastpaced change in the label production market prompted the creation of the new finat european label forum, which attracted more than 300 participants from europe and beyond.replacing the longestablished annual finat congress and held in amsterdam from 1113 june, the finat european label forum represented all stages of the complex label value chain and placed a strong emphasis on business concerns &ndash particularly running a profitable business in today&rsquos economic environment. it covered a variety of disciplines, from branding and marketing to innovation, technology, manufacturing, and corporate affairs.&ldquothe definition and role of labels has changed dramatically in recent years with the advent of new product decoration technologies, from sleeves and inmould labels to printed electronics,&rdquo explains jules lejeune, managing director of finat. &ldquowith a customer base of brand owners and retailers that is increasingly international, and a world of consumers who are social and online media experts, this is indeed a challenging scenario for label converters. and with the task of achieving change firmly placed on label converters, europe&rsquos industry association, finat, has both the desire and the duty to create a new informational and educational platform for its members.&rdquolejeune reported that labelstock consumption in 2014 was up 5.7 yearonyear and the industry saw &lsquosteady and strong recovery&rsquo since 2012 and the global economic crisis. growth continued at 8.8 for paper labels and 7.7 for film stocks in q1 2015 as compared to q1 2014. he also introduced the membersonly finat radar that tracks european converter, brand owner and material supplier trends developments in conventional vs. digital press purchases and provides a regular halfyearly benchmarking report on these topics. the most recent finat radar converter survey found that 40 of europe&rsquos selfadhesive label converters are already active in printing sleeve labels, with at least 20 embracing sleeves, flexible packaging, andor inmould labelling.president emeritus of the european council, herman van rompuy, presented on the future of business in a complex european landscape. he stated, &ldquointerdependence is the key to a successful european union, and to addressing many of the opportunities and challenges that face europe as a whole, the euro itself, and the current economic situation within the eurozone.&rdquocomplete pr with details are in the word document
