The labelling game: challenges and trends

In light of increasing regulatory demands globally, labelling today is a highly intricate process that is even more vital to products than ever before. Food and beverage industry players are particularly concerned about the costs of materials and are keen to optimise their investment while increasing brand recognition.

The following Q&A with Artem Krukov at Sidel talks about trends in labelling and how a greater focus on sustainability and flexibility is changing the way labels are created and applied.

What are the most important challenges in labelling for the beverage industry?

Similar to the manufacturing industry as a whole, beverage producers are searching for greater efficiency and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for their labelling equipment. There is also a significant focus on sustainability. The label is one of the main interfaces for communication with the consumer. Companies are changing their labels constantly to respond to fast-changing consumer preferences.

How is labelling becoming more sustainable?

By reducing label thicknesses and surface areas, customers can cut costs and improve the carbon footprint of label production and the labelling process.

Label producers are working to ensure that labels do not affect PET recycling.

Another important trend is the conversion of labels from shrink sleeves to BOPP labels (plastic roll-fed labels for wraparound application). This is a very important step in bottle labelling, since containers labelled with shrink sleeves are difficult to recycle. Hence, the shift to BOPP labels not only provides recycling capabilities, but also helps companies reduce their carbon footprint even further.

Historically, labels have caused issues with PET recycling to food-grade standard because the label or the glue has affected the recycling process. Today there are several initiatives that can minimise this impact, namely label surface/size reduction, wash-off glue development and glue application minimisation.

What is the reason for focusing on glue characteristics?

We can observe this tendency via two trends.

First of all, customers around the world are eager to reduce the amount of glue for three reasons:

1. More glue equals higher costs.
2. Less glue usage positively impacts machine cleanliness, which leads to higher efficiency.
3. Glue affects the recycling process.

Most importantly, customers want to address all of these factors without sacrificing product quality.

The second trend can be seen only in some countries: customers want to increase glue distribution to make label application more solid and stable.

How has the move towards lighter bottles affected labelling?

Packaging design has a critical impact on the efficiency of the entire supply chain. Over the past 30 years, we have more than halved the weight of a 1.5-litre PET bottle, while increasing output speeds by 2.5 times, with considerable savings in terms of raw material and gains from a productivity perspective. Therefore, it is a story about ‘rightweighting’ — making sure that the package is minimised while still maintaining its technical performance and high consumer appeal.

Some manufacturers use nitrogen to add resistance and stability to the bottle. Sidel has designed its labellers so that they can manage the extra demands of bottle lightweighting with or even without nitrogen.

The most advanced solution for handling lightweight bottles is the Super Combi, where the labeller is placed in between the blower and the filler as part of an all-in-one solution. With this setting, labels are applied on the empty bottles handled by the neck, reducing the risk of scratches and improving overall bottle quality.

How can labelling provide more flexibility?

Labels are key components of any brand marketing mix, allowing manufacturers to differentiate their products and give end consumers the information they need and increasingly expect. The growing variety of beverage types and bottle formats has made labelling increasingly challenging. More than ever, flexibility has become a valuable benefit to beverage producers. Top priorities today are faster product and format changeovers, simple operations and optimised processes that use the same equipment for different label types, while still ensuring consistent uptime.

Product personalisation is about being able to produce smaller batches of products with their own labelling in a very short time. Hence, the main challenges are the short timeframe for creating customised graphics and labels. Personalising the label is a difficult process, as there are so many different elements involved. The change usually starts with marketing and then has to go through design and production phases and lastly storage and transport. In fact, the standard process for a label change can easily take over four months.

With the rise of online shopping, there has been a challenge to supply consistent, unique and durable packaging and label solutions. This has opened new opportunities to offer personalised packaging solutions for product protection during shipping, by rightsizing the packaging and making sure that it provides a seamless brand experience for consumers.

What is the most up-to-date Sidel labelling solution with high flexibility?

The most flexible labelling solution to date from Sidel, the EvoDECO Multi, brings next-level modularity into labelling. It offers a standardised carousel that can be equipped with up to four different labelling technologies, including hot melt, roll-fed, self-adhesive and cold glue. Moreover, switching between various labelling modules is quick and easy thanks to plug and play connections, offering producers the freedom of labelling choice and total flexibility. Meanwhile, when being part of Sidel’s Super Combi settings, the labeller can run at up to 90,000 bottles per hour (bph).