LABE INDUSTRY: FIGHTING WITH THE CRISIS
Avgerinos Chatzchrysos*
Fifty years has passed by the “package revolution”. We turned from the non-pack delivery of the grocery stores to the flow pack of the supermarkets. The glass bottle with the company’s name graved on it was replaced by the plastic disposable bottle or the tetra pack. The detergent powder on the carton box now is a bottle with a measuring tape cap. That’s when the “label revolution” broke out. The label had a lot of names before adopting the common name it has now: sign, model, drawing, cliché, paper, carton, ribbon, badge, card, image etc. Nowadays, every product has its own self-adhesive label as a reference point.
Small or a little bigger, with or without a slogan, with many or a few colors, with much or a little information about the product, but always with the name of the company on them, labels is the “identity” of the product. Also, we must remember that the empty packages are recognized through their logos even in the dumpsters.
That’s what a label highlights. However, while it presents not only the product but also the producer, the label keeps its own identity hidden.
The label industry is an “autonomous” sector that has only a few things in common with classic typography, despite of the fact that a lot of people think that they are the same thing. They use neither the same devices nor the same paper nor the same technicians. Also, they serve totally different goals. That’s why there are many businesses on the sector of self-adhesive labels that cover the customers’ needs, regardless of whether it’s a small cottage or a big corporate industry.
The label has a lot of things to “say”, she has to be typed with sharp colors, to stick well on the package, to gain the client’s interest, to be a different kind of advertisement and many more that need a lot of space to be explained. All those features require time, money, knowledge, specialization and passion.
Framing the greek products that are being disposed to the abroad, the label becomes something like an “ambassador” for the national production to the international market. It’s not just the last touch before the product is put on the shelf of a store in another country. It follows the package on the shelf, the storage space, the consumption area, the dumpster, even on… the landfill. She has to be environment friendly and easily removed, in order to have the ability of being recycled.
The current crisis circumstances are difficult for all kind of businesses and those of the label industry are not the exception. However, despite the reduction of the operations’ circle, the work positions are quite in the same number as they were in better times. The production quality continues to be maintained on a high level. The market needs are being covered with the same consistency. Also, the label industry is always open to innovations.
All those facts prove that the efforts of the label industry are successful and that, while the greek economy is in its worst, albeit something does move.
*Mr. Chatzichrysos is the president of the Administrative Council of ELSET
The article has been published on the newspaper Agrobusiness
