Label Industry Searches For Power Of Connection BY JULES LEJEUNE, FINAT MANAGING DIRECTOR
Association Leaders Unite To Tackle Print Talent Crisis A cross-association meeting focused on ad- dressing the print and packaging industry’s growing workforce challenges was held on February 19, bringing together senior trade association leaders from across the UK to drive a more unified approach to talent attrac- tion, development, and retention. The meeting was convened and led by Joanna Stephenson, Managing Director of packaging and print specialist marketing agency Think B2B Marketing and co-found- er of voluntary organisation Young People In Print (YPIP). YPIP has an ongoing mission to champion industry collaboration and create sustainable career pathways for the next gen- eration of print and packaging professionals.
For more than three decades, Labelexpo Europe has been the global meeting point for the label and narrow-web community, and FINAT has been proud to stand alongside it as a long-term association partner. The move from Labelexpo to LOUPE (Labels and OUter Packaging Em- bellishment) from 2026 is more than a rebrand. It signals a structural
shift: (self-adhesive) labels remain the anchor, while the ecosystem wid- ens, geographically and technologically, towards adjacent narrow-web and outer-packaging embellishment. FINAT is the European home for narrow-web label converters and their suppliers. Our goal is to empower the European narrow-web label industry as it evolves, and offer clear value to current and next-gener- ation professionals, at both small and large companies. We are rooted in self-adhesive labels, and we actively track and support other current and emerging narrow-web applications such as sleeves, pouches, IML and selected flexible packaging, where customer expectations and technology pathways increasingly overlap. Our role is not only to describe change, but to help members pre- pare for it, turning trends into practical options: roadmaps, skills, guid- ance, and credible connections across the wider packaging and recy- cling ecosystem. Over the last 20 years, labels have evolved from a mainly print- and-convert self-adhesive application into an increasingly integral packaging and information layer, intensifying their critical, high-value role in branding, protection, compliance and, increasingly, traceability.
Representatives from packaging and print trade bodies, including the Independent Print Industries Association (IPIA), Graphics and Print Media Alliance (GPMA), Sheet Plant As- sociation (SPA), Flexo Industry Association UK (FIA UK), Confederation of Paper Indus- tries (CPI), British Printing Industries Federa- tion (BPIF), British Coatings Federation (BCF), British Contract Manufacturers and Packers Association (BCMPA) and the Printing Indus- try Confederation (PICON), alongside the YPIP team, attended the session, reflecting a shared recognition that talent attraction and retention and workforce skills shortages are a sector-wide issue requiring collective action.
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