AWA assesses label market trends at Seminar Series

AWA Alexander Watson Associates brought together label and packaging industry members for its AWA Seminar Series on September 13-14, 2026. Held before LOUPE Americas, the event’s three tracks included deep dives into pressing industry topics. They featured: AWA Label Release Liner Seminar, AIPIA Smart Labeling Seminar, and AWA Pressure-Sensitive Graphic Arts Seminar.

During the Label Release Liner Seminar, Corey Reardon, president and CEO, AWA, delivered critical market data illustrating the industry’s future trends. The Seminar Series placed a premium on collaboration and innovation, which will be required to solve many of the label and packaging industry’ greatest challenges – from recycling to material sourcing.

“One of our key themes is around partnership and the importance of collaboration to implement and solve issues that are bigger than any one company,” explained Reardon. “We’ll see issues big enough for more than one company to tackle, and programs like this, along with various associations, are good platforms for disseminating information to solve these problems.”

Reardon presented the latest market data across a backdrop of significant challenges like tariffs, inflation, and sourcing challenges, among others.

Release liner trends

Regarding release liners, almost 50% of release liner produced globally is going into labels. Without labels, the 2025 release liner market is measured at 61.9 square billion meters of paper and film materials. These release liners are produced for labelstock, graphic, medical, and various other markets – all areas where release liner is used in both pressure sensitive and non-pressure sensitive applications.

Globally, 43% of release liner is produced in Asia-Pacific, while 25% emanates from Europe and North America, respectively. Nearly 50% (48%) of release liner goes into the label market, with the remaining 52% destined for graphic films, tapes, hygiene, medical, etc. When looking at label release liners specifically, the global market is measured at 29.5 billion square meters. When assessing that volume, 55% of liner substrate going into labelstock is glassine/SCK paper, and 15% is Polyolefin Coated paper.

AWA monitors overall release liner growth quarterly. According to Reardon, there was more stabilization in growth heading into 2025. In 2026, the beginning of the year saw increased growth, as well.

“The uptick in Q1 in 2026 is promising for the label market because there have been indications of overstocking due to inflationary pressures and pricing increases,” noted Reardon.

Label Market Dynamics

When taking a look at the general label market, AWA shows 39% of the global volume of labeling goes into pressure sensitive labeling. Meanwhile, 35% is glue-applied, 20% is in shrink sleeves, and just goes into 2% IML. When segmenting the pressure sensitive market, 43% is primary product labeling, which includes FMCG products. The leader, however, is VIP labeling at 49%. Food and beverage serve as the main application areas, with 23% and 44%, respectively.

Supply side disruptions continue to be market drivers, with different dynamics from Covid-19 and other supply events. Actions in the Middle East are impacting trade across the globe, which has an effect on material availability. According to AWA, 70% of our industry’s costs are in material purchases, meaning a big impact.

“Based on our North American PS Label Cost Index, the last few periods we’ve seen significant cost increases pass through to our industry and have significant impact on market dynamics over the next few quarters,” said Reardon.

Due to these challenges, material sourcing has changed. “There’s been a shift from a more global to regional sourcing approach over the last few years due to various disruptions and uncertainties across the globe,” added Reardon. “It’s not necessarily local sourcing but more regional than we’ve seen in the past. Tariffs continue to plague the policies in North America.”

Other trends

Sustainability and recycling have emerged as a key subject of the AWA Seminar Series. “It’s important to note that we have a lot to do, and this is one area where collaboration across the industry and supply chain and various trade organizations can address these issues that are bigger than one company,” commented Reardon. “Even competitors need to work together to solve problems, and we’ll see a lot of that at LOUPE, where sustainability and recycling is at the forefront of what’s important moving forward.”

Smart technology will only increase in the future, as well. AWA envisions a connected future, with a ramp-up in adoption of these technologies. The need for RFID is driven by demand for safety, security, customer engagement, and track-and-trace.

“RFID and smart labeling is one of the key growth drivers for the industry, and we believe in the next 10 years every label will incorporate some form of smart technology at some point in its production,” explained Reardon. “It’s still to be seen where it will be incorporated, be it in raw material product or into the converting processes, or post incorporated with a pressure sensitive label before the product is put on the shelf. We’re pretty optimistic about how smart labeling, across a whole spectrum of technologies, will develop over the next 10 years.”