How many letters did you write and take to the post last year? Twenty? A hundred? And 10 years ago, how many? Let’s face it, nobody sends letters much anymore, except maybe at Christmas. Except for the UK, Europe’s postal services are still state-owned, and massively loss-making. 

However, they can still show initiative, and one recent innovation concerns those little PS labels called postage stamps. Traditionally, these are mainly printed in gravure. The process is expensive and requires long production runs. Reproducing in offset the colors of stamps previously printed in gravure is a feat achieved by a subsidiary of France’s La Poste. At its plant in the Dordogne, Philaposte prints 1.3 billion postage stamps each year using offset, rotogravure, letterpress, intaglio, and digital processes. One of the latest challenges was to reproduce in offset, for its customer Japan Post, four stamps normally printed in rotogravure.  

After a few machine trials, Philaposte matched in offset the exact gravure colors of the stamps. Christophe Descubes, Philaposte’s pre-press expert, adds “Now we know how to do it, we can integrate it into our prepress processes.” 

…or the last trump card? 

It is common knowledge that the new US administration is imposing prohibitive import tariffs on a wide range of products. While the volume of European-made labels exported to America is very low, certain significant exports carry European labels across the Atlantic – and none is more important than wine. Of the wine consumed in the US, 25% is imported, with France, Italy, and Spain being the main sources. 

Historically, duties on bottled wines are low, but by the time you read these lines that could have changed. To some extent it already has, since in 2019 the then US government imposed a 25% duty on European wines. In 2021 this was suspended, but only for five years. 

A European exporter, consulted on this issue, told your correspondent: “Most wine exported to the US is medium or top-of-the-range stuff, and American connoisseurs will go on paying the price. But if Brussels retaliates as it probably will, we Europeans will just say goodbye to those Californian vintages.”

And as for spirits…

If Europe’s wine exports are in the doldrums, spirits are not likely to turn up trumps either. But this has not stopped Autajon, one of Europe’s major label converters, from its M&A program. Based in Montélimar in France, this company traditionally keeps its cards close to the chest. But now it has announced the acquisition of Lithobru Cognac. No prizes for guessing what labels this company specializes in. And no prizes either for guessing where most French cognac normally gets exported to. But Autajon is probably taking the long view.

Label papers: price decline foreseen for Europe in the first quarter 2025

After a bullish third quarter (+80 to 100 €/t depending on quality) and a stable end to the year in terms of pricing, 2025 opened with a number of price cuts on the label paper market. This sector, which has become more competitive in recent months, is suffering from a tepid recovery. Against this backdrop, some mills had to concede price cuts averaging 20 to 30 euros/ton, applicable from January or February. 

One source sums it up: “Producers with the most attractive rates were able to maintain them, while others had to slash them by up to €100/ton. And in between, we’re seeing drops of 20 to 30 euros/ton. Order books are not very full. Normally, the sector recovers in January, but this year is far from dynamic. 2025 does not look set to be a memorable year…”

Gallus – first the good news

Gallus Group, a subsidiary of Heidelberg, has installed its Gallus One digital press at label converters in both the Czech Republic and Hungary. The two companies are well pleased within just a few months of installation, says Gallus CEO Dario Urbinati. Czech converter Flexon installed the Gallus One in November 2024. It chose the digital press with additional flexo unit and a semi-rotary diecutting module – to reduce changeover times for increasingly shorter label runs. 

Martin Chaluš, owner of Flexon, says the new press has replaced two of its conventional presses. He adds that anyone who wants to stay in the label market needs a combination of both digital and conventional technologies. Yeloprint of Szombathely, Hungary, installed a Gallus One in October 2024, also with flexo units and semi-rotary diecutting. The company was looking to diversify its technology offering to provide faster, short and medium-length label jobs. 

Dávid Péter, owner of Yeloprint, says the company needed additional capabilities to meet changing customer expectations for shorter runs, and stated that the speed, quality, and the web transport system of the press was critical to the company’s decision. 

And now the less good

Gallus’ parent company, Heidelberg, has announced a restructuring plan aimed at reducing personnel costs at its main site south of Heidelberg in Germany. This downsizing, approved by Germany’s powerful trade union, will mean the elimination of 450 of the current 4,000 jobs. 

According to Group management, this restructuring is intended to prepare the company for a changing economic environment while strengthening its position in the printing and packaging markets. The Wiesloch-Walldorf site is considered by many to be the largest and most modern printing press manufacturing plant in the world. The workforce reduction will be achieved mainly through early retirement and voluntary redundancies. Heidelberg’s CEO, Jürgen Otto, says this measure is intended to boost the company’s competitiveness by reducing payroll costs, which currently stand at a staggering €800 million per year, while freeing up resources for strategic investments. These will include solutions based on AI and diversifying into industrial products for other non-printing sectors. 

The Group is maintaining its financial forecasts with stable sales, expected at 2.4 billion euros, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 7.2%. Looking to the longer term, says Otto, Heidelberg is aiming to increase sales based on international expansion, particularly in Asia, and strategic partnerships, for example with MK Masterwork for packaging and Canon for digital printing. He added that the Wiesloch-Walldorf site will remain central to this strategy, despite the reduction in its workforce and the rationalization of its activities. 

Where will tomorrow’s label presses be manufactured?

If you ask a European label converter to name half a dozen press manufacturers, chances are that Hontec will not be one of them. Yet the Hontec Group, established in 2009, is a Chinese manufacturer of label printing presses and label finishing converting machines, and it is nibbling away at European markets. To date, Hontec Group says it has sold more than 1,000 machines, mainly in China but also in 38 other countries, including Turkey. A growing player in the Turkish label and flexible packaging industry is label converter MORE Ambalaj based in Izmir. It has expanded its machine park by investing in three machines from Hontec’s portfolio: a FlexiCon 350-8c flexo press, a hot stamping flatbed, and an inspection system module. According to Label Process, Hontec’s agent in Turkey, the Chinese press manufacturer is “poised to continue its growth in Turkey.”

“After a bullish third quarter and a stable end to the year in terms of pricing, 2025 opened with a number of price cuts on the label paper market.”

The European label converter who couldn’t name Hontec is more likely to know Graficon Maschinenbau. This Swiss machinery manufacturer makes and sells narrow web finishing equipment under its own brand and also represents Grafotronic and some Bobst machinery ranges in the German-speaking parts of Europe. Now Graficon has just announced the sale of new equipment to a long-standing customer in Germany. 

ATB Systemetiketten GmbH in Herne, which already successfully installed a Grafotronic DCL2 350 for digital finishing in 2018, has now decided to purchase two more Grafotronic machines based on its positive experience. The latest investment includes an additional Grafotronic DCL2 350 and a Grafotronic HI3 570, designed to process large rolls into finished small rolls efficiently. ATB Systemetiketten GmbH uses the latest technologies in flexo, digital, and inkjet hybrid printing, and it offers customized solutions for a wide range of industries. Grafotronic has a unique family history as a Polish-Swedish joint-owned maker of finishing equipment, with manufacturing in Poland.

Sustainability lives!

UPM, the Finnish producer of PS rollstock (and other paper-based products) is the only forest and paper company listed in the global and European Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). The DJSI assesses the sustainability performance of companies in the environmental, social, and governance dimensions. 

According to UPM’s new CEO Massimo Reynaudo, “As the industry leader in responsibility, we are committed to the UN Business Ambition for 1.5°C and the science-based targets to mitigate climate change, via our UPM Biofore program. We have identified the goals and respective targets where we can have the biggest positive impact through our operations, products and solutions, or where we can minimize our negative impact. This includes biodiversity, forest action, responsible sourcing, and climate action.”