More news from Labelexpo

My usual show coverage pattern is to traipse around on the last day, trying (with a degree of desperation!) to catch up with all the people and stands that I’ve missed during the first few days – bursting as they inevitably are with wall-to-wall press conferences and appointments.        

However, it’s this last-ditch process that garners the most significant comments from exhibitors because by then they know whether they’ve had a good show, whether they’ve seen enough visitors to warrant the vast expense of exhibiting, whether they’ve taken orders on the stand and/or anticipate subsequent sales.               

Generally speaking, I hear mixed comments on this final ‘mop up’ tour, but on this occasion exhibitors were universally positive. To a man (or woman), they declared themselves thoroughly satisfied with results.               

Here’s one example from Simon Godbold of Ashe Converting: ‘We’ve confirmed five machine purchases – two Sapphire S2 turret slitters, a Diamond duplex slitter and two new Opal glue-less turret rewind slitters.’            

Christof Naier of Gallus had this to say: ‘Once again Labelexpo was the melting point of the label industry, proving itself as the number one exhibition worldwide and a must-see for every label printer. For Gallus it was an excellent show. We staged 61 demonstrations and saw 30% more visitors than 2011. The Gallus Print Shop concept comprising the Heidelberg Linoprint L digital printing system and further processing on a Gallus ECS C generated a lot of attention. In view of the high number of entrants in the digital market, visitors were looking for guidance in their decision-making process and the Gallus Print Shop concept was timeous, showing a practical combination of digital and conventional printing methods in a production environment. Sales of digital and conventional equipment at Labelexpo have already reached high double digit numbers, plus numerous promising leads.’

And enthused Esko’s Ilse Decuyper: ‘We love Labelexpo: it takes place in the core of our business and in our home country. Workflow management, colour management and prepress have kept our crew extremely busy for four days.’

Aside from numerous positive comments about sales, sales and more sales were resonating buzzwords. Heard on many lips were phrases such as UV LED curing, low-migration inks and laser die-cutting – all providing great topics for PPM’s feature articles in the first part of 2014.

Federico d’Annunzio provided a memorable demonstration of Gidue’s Digital Flexo technology.