INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL OF ELSET,
MR. AVGERINOS CHATZICGRYSOS
Interview taken by Elena Tsakiri
“The label… sticks with the product”. That’s the main message that Mr. Avgerinos Chatichrysos bring through his interview at newspaper “Agrobusiness”. He’s the president of the Administrative council of ELSET and he explains us the role and the meaning of the label in the current market circumstances and he guides us to the “sanctuaries” of the label industry.
Q: Mr. Chatzichrysos, what does a label means for a product?
A: I will reverse your question and I will ask you: what a product should be without a label. How should a product have a code, in order to be put on the shelf? How could the consumer recognize the product he wants to buy? How could he evaluate the product if he doesn’t know what exactly did he buy? So, the label is the “identity” of the product. It “sticks” with the product and its package and it follows the product even in… the dumpster.
Q: So, the label is a form of advertisement?
Q: Of course. The label starts where the classic advertisement stops. It has the emblem of the product, its firm, its slogan and its colors on it. Also, it mentions the details of the product’s features and way of use. It makes the product more familiar to the consumer.
Q: Where can we find a label?
A: Almost everywhere. Many people think that they can find labels only on the shelves of a supermarket (on food products, on drinks, on cleaners or on personal hygiene items). But in fact it’s everywhere: on medicines, on cosmetics, on lower shops, on confectionaries and on gas stations. On logistics there’s the “hidden” label, which follows and separates the massive quantities on the warehouses. Also, we must not forget that products from the abroad, apart from its own label, have a second one, with its basic slogans translated.
Q: We read in an article about the label industry that called the label as the “ambassador” of the greek production. What does that mean?
A: When a product is going to another country, it has to compete with the foreign products. It has to be of an excellent quality, to be certified, to comply with the international specifications and other conditions, that can’t be analyzed right now. There’s also another factor that, if we ignore it, the game is already lost. The package has to follow the rules of the international producers and, in some times, to get over them. Imagine, for example, a consumer that wants to read the information of the product and suddenly he realizes that the label is fading or snapping out. Also, it’s unacceptable for a label to be of a poor model or to have subdued colors.
Q: As we understand, your work requires great specialization.
A: The self-adhesive labels need special devices that require not only big investments, but also special knowledge and absolute specialization. Printing, varnishing, screen printing and lamination has to be done in the very same device and in the very same time. The final form of the product has to be adjusted to the gluing machines of our clients and to be applied correctly on the products.
Q: The financial crisis has affected you in adjusting to the new market circumstances?
A: Label industry needs continuous adjustment by its nature. It requires constant modernization and that doesn’t mean only the renewal of our machinery. We have to monitor the producers and the packaging methods. The materials, the shapes and the package sizes are changing all the time, just like the delivery quantities, the delivery times and in general the needs of the market. If someone waited for the financial crisis in order to adjust, he has already lost a very important amount of time. Crisis was just a cause for their appearance, as some of them shouldn’t appear in any other circumstances.
Q: What do you think about the label industry’s future?
A: The future of the label industry is connected with the future of the country’s economy. The market is suffocating, not only due to the recession. It needs a way out of it, it needs to be released. There are people and businesses that are tied to anachronistic perceptions and that’s a big obstacle for their development. We need to free our thinking, neither wishes nor anti-developmental perceptions. As ELSET, we are trying hard to accomplish it.
Q: You talked about things that we rarely hear. Thank you very much.
A: We would like to thank you too. You gave a chance to label industry businessmen to announce their positions.
