According to the European association for the self-adhesive label industry, Finat (The Hague, Netherlands; www.finat.com), European consumption of self-adhesive label materials last year declined by 25.8% compared with 2022. Finat did not, however, give any absolute figures.

In the previous year, the association had already seen an overall decline in demand by 4.7%.

In addition to the inflation-related consumer restraint, the reasons for the heaviest decline since 2003 are “excessive stocks”, triggered by a long strike in the paper industry in the first quarter of 2022, according to the association. As a consequence of this, label converters had from Q3 2022 proceeded to top up their stocks and last year ordered far smaller quantities.

A first ray of light was seen in the last quarter of 2023, when demand rose slightly by 2.1% compared with the same period of the previous year. For the current year, the association expects a further, albeit moderate upturn in sales.