As the label industry faces geopolitical and supply chain challenges, converters have been tasked with being more flexible than ever before. During FTA’s FORUM INFOFLEX, Michael Apperson, former CEO of Loparex and Resource Label Group, helmed a panel discussion on leadership, agility, and utilizing the newest technologies to meet customer demand. Mark Glendenning, president and CEO, Inland Packaging, Tara Halpin, CEO and owner, Steinhauser, and Tim McDonough, president and CEO, Flexo-Graphics, an Inovar Company, joined Apperson to explore the latest trends and how they’re cultivating success at their label converting companies.

Apperson set the stage with the realization that there are currently 2,200 label converters in North America. “That’s more than there are Walmarts,” he noted. “There’s one in every town. The cool part about labels is your competitors are your friends. From events like FTA to TLMI, that’s special. We don’t have that in many industries, and that makes it a really cool place to work.”

Given the ongoing economic challenges and uncertainty, 75% of brands have trouble predicting their demand. That requires converters to remain nimble with their customers. If brands struggle to predict their demand, converters must respond with speed and responsiveness. Converters must understand their customers, from their lead times and order-to-shipment windows to their inventories and what moves the needle on-shelf.

“To delight our customers, we have to delight and thrill our team,” stated Halpin. “We have to educate them, and that starts day one. We have to train and develop our people so they have the confidence and energy to delight our customers, to come up with ideas that are outside-the-box. Steinhauser gets feedback from our customers every day that they love our team because we’re responsive. If our team is happy and thrilled with their environment, you can see and feel that – and our customers feel that.”

Ongoing challenges

In order to best serve customers, label converters must remain staffed with skilled employees. The workforce challenge is arguably the top obstacle facing the label and package printing industry.

“Looking at my son’s friends, I figured if they all went to college I wouldn’t have any workers,” explained Glendenning. “We need to get connected into our communities. We talk here at FTA about all this cool technology, how automated and clean we are, and how every machine we run is basically operated by a computer. Yet, we have this image of dark, dangerous, and dirty as a manufacturing facility. We need to get into the communities and school districts to get those kids and their families into our buildings to see what we actually look like vs. what they think we look like. There’s a really great career here for them.”

“This has to be multi-generational and it has to keep going,” said Apperson, citing the industry’s growth efforts. “One of the beauties of this industry is you get to see your work all over the place, and that creates a lot of pride because we’re building something here.”

Relying on technology

Technology – AI and automation, specifically – will also help attract new workers. Flexo-Graphics, an Inovar Company, has implemented AI to stay connected with other Inovar locations. Flexo-Graphics has spent two years working through data to optimize its processes, and the result has been a 20% increase in throughput.

“We are certainly embracing the technology,” noted McDonough. “Our pledge is no one will lose a job, but they might be doing something different.”

“We use AI every day, and it’s the most amazing technology I’ve ever seen,” added Glendenning. “We started using Perplexity. At Inland, we were intentional and thoughtful that we’re going to dig into this technology. ChatGPT 5.0 was a real game-changer, and since then every AI system has gotten better. We’re pushing everyone in a management role to get comfortable utilizing AI. We also talk to our suppliers about how it’s being integrated. For years, our customers compiled information for their orders and we would recompile it. I think you finally see the potential of that coming to fruition.”

Adapting to change

One attribute that has been a hallmark for this industry has been the willingness to change and remain flexible. Adopting AI and automation falls into that category.

“Our executive leadership team has to be comfortable with CoPilot,” says Halpin. “We’re coaching, teaching, and getting them comfortable using it every day. Cost analysis, estimating, analyzing the jobs that come through, and accounting – and customer service is next.”

From a workforce perspective, this technology is not foreign to the younger generation, either.

“It’s part of their toolbox,” noted Apperson. “If you don’t use AI in your business, you will be behind. Make yourself faster and more efficient. A lot of the answers are there with technology. If you have the perfect schedule, your company does run better. If you’re not trying it, that’s dangerous. AI doesn’t solve everything, but as it learns, it gets better. The next generation that’s coming in, that’s a tool they’re used to and they expect it at a company they’re applying to.”

The economic and geopolitical challenges will also require significant change at the converter level.

“The practice we had over the last 3-5 years with different challenges, we see it all pretty quickly in 2026,” remarked Glendenning. “The real beauty of our business is we have so many customers with unique requirements and needs that there’s always going to space for smaller converters. That’s part of the secret sauce. In our world, scale only takes you so far. You have to be super-focused and have outstanding customer service.”

McDonough, however, is optimistic for the future of the label and package printing industry. “We’re not expecting a significant slowdown, but things will get more difficult and expensive, which might stretch margins,” he added. “But I do expect growth.”