Australia can lay claim to being an "early adopter" of self-adhesive technology, when, in the late 1950's Avery Labels (as it then was) decided to appoint one of its first franchises to an Australian printer (W J Cryer & Co) in Sydney. Soon after, its raw materials division, Fasson (in conjuntion with the Dutch-based VRG group) decided to build a base-materials converting operation north of Adelaide, in South Australia. This move, driven by the then attraction of cheap energy proved to be a somewhat misguided decision geo-poltically - but it helped put a little-known desert town by the name of Elizabeth on the map.
The label-printing segment in this country has always reminded me of a textbook example of "near-perfect" competition - with many suppliers, but none dominating the others. Arising from a virtual zero base in the 1960's, it spawned a field of fiercely competitive entities all driven by a strong desire to compete on service, quality and innovation. I can't recall another example of the unbridled power of the entrepreneurial spirit being harnessed so productively as in the early days of the Australian label industry.
It was also a shining example of how the competitor "down the road" was the best regulator of providing "a good product at a fair price" - far more effective than the raft of ineffectual watchdogs and bureaucracy that we have today.
Names such as Assta, Briginshaws, Pemara, Impresstik, LabelCraft and Ulrichs (not to mention my own Avery brand) were powerhouses of innovation and inventiveness as they basked in the heady growth-rates of that era. Such growth stimulated the interest of the label press manufacturers and two dominated - the Swiss Gallus and the Japanese Kopack. In the early days they were the tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee of the industry (or more politely the Mercedes and the Lexus) and interestingly pursued different design philosophies: Gallus insisting on the separate or "in-line" print station approach, whereas Kopack adopted the CI (central-impression cylinder) configuration. Suffice it to say one wasn't better or worse - just different. (In fact a discussion of these "differences" would make a whole article in itself.)
Another epochal event occurred (a bit like Halley's Comet) - the co-incidence of these two events happening only once in a lifetime: I'm referring to the mutual back-scratching between the label industry and the wine industry, commencing in the 1970's and still continuing today.
Each industry exploded simultaneously on the scene, so to speak - when the local wine industry discovered overseas markets and realised that the self-adhesive label was its passport to success. After some early buyer-resistance to the concept of sticky labels replacing the traditional (and boring) paper labels, the label industry light went "on" when it realised that domestic wine growers represented an exciting new growth segment.
Suddenly, the self-adhesive label was embraced by wine label designers as a new platform upon which they could let their dreams come true - with virtually no constraints. Anything was possible - four-colour process combined with umpteen spot colours - screen-print combined with flexo - gloss and matte varnishes - special die-cut shapes - various substrates including metalics, pearlescents, fluorescents - embossing effects - holographic and diffraction foils. The list was seemingly endless and "only limited by your imagination" became the catchcry of the industry.
Conceptually, one could argue that the wine label became a miniature work-of-art and that the ubiquitous bottle-shop had become a virtual art gallery displaying their post-industrial ornaments - where technology meets creativity. In any event, for nearly two decades both industries co-existed in a marvellous example of commercial symbiosis.
It has been suggested that the Australian label industry is amongst the most efficient, competitive and innovative in the world, in large measure due to the scope given to it by the local wine segment. No paragraph would be complete without reference to the pioneering work undertaken by Assta in this regard, driven by the boundless energy and enthusiasm of one of the industry's "characters", Syd Staas.
Another innovation that should not go un-recognised is "DuoSheen". Perhaps a victim of the great Sydney/Melbourne divide, it was (and is) none the less one of the best examples of Aussie inventiveness - a low-cost solution to providing a tough, abrasion and grease-resistant laminate which also gave an optical brightness and sheen to the label underneath.
Again, conceptually, the label industry has enjoyed more "kick-starts" or renewed product life-cycles than you can poke a stick at. Unlike the mature offset market, which hadn't seen so much excitement for a hundred years, labels seem to have the wonderful capacity to re-invent themselves so as to ward off threatening technologies.
For example, we in this country persisted (for too long?) with over-engineered rotary-letterpress label production. With cost-pressures mitigating against such overkill we have morphed into flexo production - with virtually no loss of quality at a lower unit price. In response to customer demands to virtually "do the impossible" we have re-designed label presses to combine rotary-letterpress, flexo, rotary-screen and gravure - all in the one pass! Try visualising that combination in a sheet-fed offset press! Maybe there's a lesson there for our older brothers?
The label segment is now embracing digital colour printing, with variable-data/imaging as a means of responding to the (unreasonable?) on-demand needs of clients. Ironically, guess who are the biggest drivers of this need - the wine segment with its short and unpredictable seasonal varieties!
In some ways, I prefer to look upon the lowly label not as a printed product but as a "platform". It is a building block upon which offers unlimited scope to the creative and innovative craftsman of tomorrow. As the needs of consumer packaging grow more and different variants of the "lowly label" may emerge - in-mould, shrink-sleeve, digitally printed labels, etc. To consider them as "threats" is the old-fashioned model. They are all responses to changing needs and that is the lesson for offset.
Congratulations to the Aussie label industry on 48 years of growth, innovation and prosperity.
W. James Cryer
JDA Print Recruitment |
