Forum unites converters from Europe and India
India has a growing consumer-led economy and a strong inflow of foreign capital. Although there are serious problems with India’s infrastructure, both factors have helped to boost the country’s industrial base and its international competitiveness. All this adds up to ideal conditions for building markets for self-adhesive labels and related services, as many western suppliers and manufacturers and suppliers have already found. In fact Label Summit India, which took place in February in Mumbai, attracted more than 600 visitors from India and nearby countries. Its success was said to reflect the the booming Indian label industry, whose annual growth is projected at 20 percent over the next few years.
Against this background, the FINAT trade association has established a forum between the European and Indian self-adhesive labeling industries. The aim is to give small and medium-sized member companies in both regions opportunities for doing business with each other. The European Union’s Asia Invest program supports the forum, which will be organized in cooperation with the national trade associations VskE (Germany) and LMAI (India).
The move will culminate with face-to-face meetings between companies in New Delhi in December, but will start in August when members of the Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) meet in Mumbai to discuss the practical aspects of doing business with European companies. FINAT plans to launch a web site for the project (www.euro-indialabel.com), which will allow interested companies the opportunity to pre-register and submit their company profiles. The organization hopes that about 80 small and medium-sized label printers and converters from both trade regions will form the core of the Euro-India Labelling Exchange, as the forum will be named.