FINAT European Label Forum Provides Market Insights BY GREG KISHBAUGH The FINAT European Label Forum (ELF) 2026, held in Seville from May 27–29, brought together 254 delegates from 23 countries for three days of market insight, strategic debate and industry networking. At-
Future Packaging Leaders Recognized By FPA The Flexible Packaging Association (FPA), ad- vocate for the U.S. flexible packaging industry, has announced the winners of the 2026 Stu- dent Flexible Packaging Design Challenge. This year’s first- and second-place honors were awarded to student teams from Cali- fornia Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), with three additional packaging concepts re- ceiving Honorable Mention recognition.
tendance was up 6 percent compared with last year, including a 10 percent increase in converter delegates, while the tabletop exhibition featured 35 suppliers from across the label value chain. The Future Depends on Innovation Across the ELF program, one message stood out: future success will depend less on volume growth alone and more on agility, resil- ience, innovation, regulatory competence and stronger collaboration across the value chain. The event opened with a broader geopolitical and economic per- spective from Dr. Ilke Toygür, Director of the IE Global Policy Center and Professor of Geopolitics of Europe at IE University in Madrid. She described Europe’s current situation not as a temporary crisis, but as a period of structural transformation in which business strategy is in- creasingly shaped by power, security, technology, energy and trade dependencies. Market data from Panteia presented by FINAT showed that Europe- an self-adhesive labelstock consumption reached 7.37 billion square meters in 2025, up 2 percent on the previous year, but still broadly at pre-Covid levels. Within that total, paper rolls remained the largest segment but grew by only 0.9 percent, while non-paper rolls increased by 4.1 percent. Over the past two decades, the material mix has contin- ued to shift: paper rolls have declined from 73 percent to 67 percent of demand, filmic rolls have risen from 20 percent to 30 percent, and sheets have fallen from 7 percent to 3 percent. FINAT also shared preliminary, work-in-progress findings from its on-
As part of its commitment to fostering the next generation of packaging profession- als, FPA has sponsored the Student Flexible Packaging Design Challenge since 2004. The competition complements FPA’s annual Achievement Awards program by encourag- ing students to apply packaging science, en- gineering, and design principles to innovative real-world flexible packaging solutions. First Place Winner : The first-place award was presented to Cal Poly students Kanya Misra, Olivia Peterson, and Jennifer Takao for their Paw Pantry Pre-Portioned Nature’s Blend Dry Kibble concept. The team was advised by Ajay Kathuria, Ph.D., Professor.
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