LOUPE Americas widens the lens

For decades, Labelexpo Americas was exactly what its name suggested: the place where the North American label industry came together to see the latest presses, materials, inks, finishing equipment, and converting technologies. And September 15-17, the event returns to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, but under a new name – LOUPE Americas 2026. The show marks the first North American edition of the event since Labelexpo Global Series became LOUPE Global. 

While labels remain at the heart of the show, the new identity reflects the reality taking shape across the industry: many label converters are moving into flexible packaging, shrink sleeves, pouches, folding cartons, smart packaging, and other adjacent markets. Oh, and LOUPE is an acronym, standing for Labels and OUter Packaging Embellishment.

In many ways, the name has changed because the industry itself has changed. The roots of the Americas event date back to 1989, when the first Labelexpo USA was held in Rosemont with roughly 60 exhibitors. The event was created because the label sector needed a dedicated venue at a time when it could easily become lost within larger general printing shows.

Fast forward nearly four decades, and the event has become one of the industry’s most important global gatherings. The previous edition in 2024 attracted more than 450 exhibitors and 12,000 visitors from 73 countries.

Tasha Ventimiglia, group director, Americas, LOUPE Global, has had a front-row seat to much of that evolution. She joined the organization in 2001 and recalls walking onto the show floor for the first time in 2002. She says, “I vividly remember being completely blown away by the scale and innovation shown at the event, and thinking, ‘OK, now I get it – this industry is huge!’”

And now it’s bigger than ever, with faster equipment, greater automation, sustainability, smart technologies, and increasingly sophisticated embellishment showing how far the market has progressed.

Beyond the Label

Perhaps the clearest indication of the show’s wider focus is the emphasis on flexible packaging.

For more than a decade, narrow and mid-web technology originally developed for label production has increasingly been adapted to shrink sleeves, pouches, and other roll-to-roll flexible packaging formats. For converters, the appeal is straightforward: the ability to apply familiar printing and converting expertise to adjacent markets that can provide new revenue opportunities.

The sweet spot is not necessarily competing head-to-head with traditional wide-web flexible packaging producers. Instead, label converters can capitalize on the types of work their existing processes already handle well: shorter runs, multiple SKUs, personalization, rapid turnaround, and value-added decoration.

That trend will be difficult to miss on the show floor.

Press manufacturers will demonstrate narrow and mid-web flexo, digital and hybrid systems producing flexible packaging, while suppliers throughout the workflow will feature laminating, slitting, pouchmaking, coatings, inks, films, and embellishment technologies.

HP Indigo will showcase both its 200K and 6K+ digital presses, with the 200K producing flexible packaging and shrink sleeve applications that will move into finishing demonstrations from suppliers such as Gonderflex and Karlville.

Mark Andy will demonstrate flexible packaging production on its Performance Series S9, while Flint Group Digital Xeikon will surface-print pouches on its TX500 using TITON toner technology.

A B Graphic International will also make the North American debut of ABG FlexPack, extending the company’s established label finishing expertise into short-run flexible packaging and pouch production.

The activity is not confined to presses. Suppliers including Siegwerk, INX International, Flexcon, Nobelus, Avery Dennison, Cosmo Films, and others will highlight inks, coatings, films, and constructions designed for flexible packaging applications.

For converters evaluating diversification, LOUPE is essentially putting much of the required ecosystem under one roof.

Folding Cartons Enter the Conversation

Flexible packaging is not the only adjacent market receiving greater attention.

Inline folding carton converting will also have an expanded presence, reflecting another opportunity for label converters looking beyond pressure sensitive work.

Steven Haedrich, president and third-generation owner of New York Label & Box Works, will serve as LOUPE Americas’ Folding Carton Ambassador. His own company’s experience illustrates how that diversification can happen organically.

“The move into folding cartons was driven by our clients,” Haedrich explains. “Many brands trusted us with their label printing and included artwork for folding cartons. It became clear that by offering both, we could simplify the process and provide greater value.”

Haedrich sees significant overlap between the two markets, particularly as technologies such as digital printing, automation, smart packaging, and inline converting continue to evolve.

Short runs and rapid design changes are becoming more important in cartons, just as they have been in labels. Automation is helping address labor shortages and productivity pressures, while technologies like RFID, QR codes, and NFC are extending connected packaging capabilities into paperboard.

Haedrich will address those opportunities during a September 15 session focused on inline folding carton converting, including the strategic and operational considerations label converters should evaluate before entering the market.

“Folding cartons are a core part of the future, highly synergistic with labels, with label technologies readily adaptable to folding carton production,” he says.

Sustainability Gets More Specific

Sustainability will, unsurprisingly, remain one of the dominant themes at LOUPE Americas. But what appears to be changing is the nature of the conversation.

The industry has moved well beyond simply putting the word “sustainable” on a product brochure.

Tyler Matusevich, sustainability director at Brook + Whittle and LOUPE Americas’ Sustainability Ambassador, sees the market shifting toward more specific, evidence-based packaging decisions.

“It is no longer enough to call a package ‘eco-friendly,’” he says.

Brands need to understand whether a package can actually be recycled, how a label, sleeve, adhesive, ink, or coating interacts with the recycling stream, and how material choices may influence EPR fees, regulatory obligations, and carbon footprints.

That places greater responsibility on label and packaging suppliers because even relatively small components can determine the recyclability of an entire package.

At the same time, converters and brands are still required to balance sustainability with performance, appearance, cost, and speed-to-market.

“The biggest challenge is that there is rarely a perfect answer,” Matusevich says. “A package has to protect the product, run efficiently, meet regulatory requirements, look good, hit cost targets, and improve environmental outcomes.”

LOUPE Americas will give attendees an opportunity to see how suppliers are addressing those tradeoffs through recyclable shrink sleeves, wash-off adhesives, downgauged materials, mono-material constructions, barrier coatings, recycled content, and improved recycling compatibility.

One initiative designed to bring those ideas together is The Label Trail, a guided, end-to-end demonstration involving Avery Dennison, CarbonQuota, Cerm, Esko, Grafisk Maskinfabrik, Kurz, Scribos, and Flint Group Digital Xeikon.

Built around a fictional brand “Dancing Fish,” the approximately 60-minute experience will follow a label from job specification and order handling through prepress, carbon measurement, digital printing, embellishment, and finishing.

The exercise will also incorporate sustainable materials, brand protection, and smart packaging, providing attendees with a practical look at how carbon data, automation, and connected technologies can be incorporated into an actual production workflow.

Automation, AI, and the Workforce

Of course, materials and equipment are only part of the challenge facing converters.

Finding, training, and retaining skilled employees remains one of the industry’s most persistent problems, making automation and artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly important parts of the productivity conversation.

LOUPE’s expanded education program reflects that reality.

The first day will feature sessions on automation, AI, smart packaging, and diversification, including a converter panel addressing workforce development, AI implementation, succession planning, and capital investment.

The day will conclude with an “AI in Action” workshop designed to allow attendees to build and customize an AI agent around their own business requirements.

On September 16, workforce issues will take center stage again during “The Talent Landscape: Navigating Today’s Labor Market,” while other sessions will tackle M&A activity, current manufacturing conditions, and market intelligence.

The show has also introduced an expanded “access all areas” education pass providing admission to keynotes, breakouts, and workshops during the first two days, along with session summaries and an executive overview accessible after the sessions.

That increased emphasis on education is significant. A trade show can no longer be solely about walking the aisles and looking at machinery. Converters are being asked to make decisions about AI, automation, sustainability regulation, workforce development, diversification, M&A, and new production technologies – often simultaneously.

LOUPE appears determined to give those business issues more space alongside the equipment itself.

Bringing More Voices into the Discussion

Another new element will be the expanded LOUPE Americas Ambassador program. Joining Haedrich and Matusevich are Katie Harrington, senior marketing manager at Winpak, serving as Future Leaders Ambassador; Corey Reardon, president and CEO of AWA Alexander Watson Associates, as Label Market Intelligence Ambassador; and David Totten, director of innovation at Nosco, representing flexible packaging.

The ambassadors will participate in educational sessions, networking events, and an Ambassador Forum on September 16 covering emerging technologies, market demands, and new opportunities.

Reardon will also participate in a keynote examining the current state of label manufacturing and the market trends likely to influence the year ahead.

Meanwhile, Harrington will help host a Future Leaders Meet Up, and the education program will conclude with a women’s roundtable focused on career development, mentorship, networking, and preparing the next generation of industry leaders.

“For over 45 years, we have partnered with the most forward-thinking minds in our industry,” says Jade Grace, managing director, LOUPE Global. “We saw the value of a collaborative mindset across the value chain, which experts can bring to our community.”

A Familiar Show with a Wider Lens

For longtime Labelexpo Americas attendees, much about the trip to Rosemont will feel familiar.

The same Chicago-area venue. The same aisles filled with presses, finishing equipment, materials, inks, inspection systems, and software. The same opportunity to reconnect with customers, suppliers, and industry friends.

But LOUPE Americas 2026 also represents something different.

The transformation from Labelexpo Americas to LOUPE is an acknowledgment that many companies once defined almost exclusively as “label converters” no longer see themselves that narrowly.

They are producing flexible packaging. They are exploring folding cartons. They are installing RFID and connected packaging technologies. They are using automation and AI. And they are increasingly being asked by customers to provide complete packaging solutions rather than a single printed component.

Ventimiglia says the goal is for LOUPE to remain the place where that evolving community gathers “to learn, connect, and grow every two years.”

That may ultimately be the best way to understand the new name: The label remains very much in focus, it’s just that the lens has simply gotten wider.