European label associations call for resolution to dispute at UPM paper mills

If the shortage of paper grades for label release liners and papers for label facestocks continues as planned, through a ‘chain reaction’, there will be far reaching repercussions for: 

• the continuity of manufacture of labels and narrow web packaging; 
• the supply of self-adhesive labels to FMCG customers, especially the food and pharmaceutical sectors; 
• the distribution of labeled goods to stores and consumers, and, ultimately, 
• the well-being of 500 million consumers at large in Europe. 

In Europe, currently some 8 billion square meters of self-adhesive label materials are being used annually. This corresponds to around 240 billion labels used in a variety of sectors like food and beverage, health and personal care, medication, household and industrial chemicals, transport and logistics, retail, consumer electronics, automotive products etc. 

Labels are all around us. Their unique combination as enabler of ‘product decoration’ (branding, consumer information), as identifiers of variable information (unique article numbers, barcodes, RFID codes, best before dates, price tagging, passenger tagging) and as performers of specific functions (closures, temperature indicators, anti-counterfeiting devices), have earned them the reputation as essential component of the critical infrastructure of the European economies, as we have seen during the Covid crisis in 2020 and 2021. 

The strike that is now lasting over a month has already caused severe delays in the supply chain, with delivery times now exceeding three months. If continued even beyond 19 February as announced last Friday, it could lead to a pan-European standstill of supply chains within weeks, causing severe damage to the European economic recovery and adding to the present inflationary tendencies. 

Finat and the national label associations are of the opinion that this strike is not proportionate to the lasting damage that may be created if it is continued any further. We urge all stakeholders (employer, unions and authorities alike), to take the European macro-economic implications of this dispute into consideration, and to assess their social responsibility to the wider European community in resolving this dispute. 

The label and narrow web packaging industry encompasses a sophisticated network of some 3,000 specialised providers of labels and labelling products, with a total workforce of nearly 100,000 employees in Europe. Finat and the nine dedicated national label associations together represent over 1,000 label companies, and in volume terms their joint membership covers over 75 percent of the total market volume in Europe. 

The Hague, The Netherlands – 8 February 2022 

Associations co-signing this statement:

FINAT – The European association for the self-adhesive and narrow-web packaging industry

AIFEC – The Spanish and Portuguese association for manufacturers of roll labels www.aifec.eu 

BPIF Labels – Labels special interest group of the British Printing Industries Federation

DLA – The Danish trade association for producers of labels and suppliers to the industry

ELSET – Greek association of label producers 

ESD – Turkish association of label producers 

GIPEA – The Italian association of Italian manufacturers of self-adhesive labels (a division of Assografici)

Grafiska Företagen – The Swedish Graphic Industries Federation 

UNFEA – The French national association of manufacturers of self-adhesive labels 

VsKE – The German association for manufacturers of self-adhesive label and narrow web converters (covering the DACH countries)