FINAT Congress 2014 was
recently held from 5-7 June in picturesque destination, Monte Carlo, Monaco. The
Principality of Monaco is a sovereign city-state, located on the French Riviera
in Western Europe. It is bordered by France on three sides; one side borders
the Mediterranean Sea. It continues to be an ideal tourist preference. 
The Finat Congress
with its theme “The Battle for Shelf
Appeal – Winning Strategies for the Label Industry”, attracted many stalwarts
of the label industry. Modern day retailing across the world indicates that success
in the battle to catch the eye of the consumer is of prime importance. There is
an imperative need for the most attractive yet cost effective product
decoration solutions. For label printers to excel and stay ahead of
competition, they need to be in tune with emerging trends, developments,
legislations and customer preferences. They need to take decisions to enhance
their own competence as also invest in alternatives to meet the ever growing
competition and challenges. Finat endeavors to empower the label printers
across the globe.
FINAT is the
world-wide association for manufacturers of self-adhesive labels and related
products and services. It was founded in Paris in 1958, and since then has been
representing the whole self-adhesive supply chain. With 600 members in over 50
countries around the world, FINAT has much to offer to label converters and all
suppliers to the labeling industry in terms of information exchange and the
opportunity to network internationally. Over the years, the FINAT Congress has
served as a vehicle for knowledge exchange, networking and inspiration among
current and future label business leaders, suppliers, analysts and observers of
the self-adhesive supply chain.
I fondly remember my
first Finat Congress at Paris in 2008. It was the year in which YMC was
launched and it was also the 50th year celebrations of Finat. It has
been a memorable event when I made the maximum number of global Label Friends!
That is what a Finat congress does, it brings you in contact with peers around
the world. Your vision and connection to the world of labels gets wider. Also
unlike label shows, it is not restricted to a single destination and provides
an opportunity to label printers to meet at exotic tourist spots in Europe.
Jules Lejeune, Managing Director Finat, while commenting on the
Congress says, “Many useful business takeaways under the header 'The Battle for
Shelf Appeal - Winning Strategies for the Label Industry'. From the '5 star
diagram' of brand appeal (Cartils) to a 360 degrees overview of the label
industry in France and Europe, via the future of product decoration in the eyes
of the applicators, the mix of packaging and labeling technologies according to
the brand industry, going beyond the shelf into 'mass customisation' (Mike Ferrari),
helped by A.O. printed electronics (McClelland), right into the 'grand finale'
of 3rd generation Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard.”
Andrea Vimercati past
president of Finat says, “For me it has been one of the most interesting
congress since 2001, my first one in Rhodes. We had high profile speakers and
two panels full of ideas for the attendance, especially the one with end users.
The Friday night at the Villa was great! All our guests were very surprised by
this stunning place. Last but not least the experience of Piccard has left a
cherry on the cake. This is the way the Finat Board intends to project the
future events, in order to give more bullets to our members so they can help
their customers to win the battle for shelf appeal!” Bertrand Piccard, Swiss aeronaut and explorer delivered
the Keynote closing address.
With increasing number of exhibitions, events and
conferences for labels taking place around the world, Label printers seem to
have been stretched as to how much time and money they should spend on
travelling to these premium shows around the world. Domestic event organizers
in their respective countries also take away a lot of the committed indulgence
that printers make in this respect. For this reason we see a decline in the
number of printers coming to such events even though there is promise of constructive
value in the content. Finat has always been able to offer extremely important
content at their congress and thus I feel it is time to restructure the event
so as to bring in a bigger number of printers from across the globe. This year
ironically the number of printers was quite low as compared to suppliers. The
suppliers are bound to get demotivated eventually as it is the printers for
whom they invest. Even though the visit to Monte Carlo has been a satisfying
experience for Isidore Leiser of Stratus Packaging, France yet he too feels it
is time we dwelled on ways to improve attendance. He says, “I found the Congress very interesting
and with many interesting topics the atmosphere was very cool. The places were
exceptionally beautiful but there was one big thing that was missing is the
number of label printers. How can we improve our industry if we, as members of
this label printing fraternity are not indulgent and are not involved?”
Lisa Milburn, Managing Director of Labelexpo was at the show
with her team along with the Label Guru, Mike Fairley. In her words, “The FINAT
Annual Congress 2014 held in Monte Carlo was a great event. We had a wonderful
opportunity to meet many industry colleagues and friends in beautiful
surroundings. The conference programme was very informative and the signals of positive
growth that were shared were extremely encouraging”. 
Gavin Rittmeyer of Martin Automatic
USA says"Great Congress in Monaco. Good balance of speakers to inspire
ideas for good leadership and practical measures to be creative and
effective." Iban Cid of Germark Spain said, "The venue, Monte Carlo! with nice Ferraris but very expensive city! Socially it was very nice to meet all
the industry friends. Specially the American's who have joined us. I had the
opportunity to celebrate my 50th anniversary with them. In terms of presentations
it was one of the best I remember. The most remarkable were the end users panel
with L'Oreal, Reckit Benkiser, Lego and a guy of a big US winery. I could
summarize it in two sentences: all of them love to have innovations from their
label suppliers but they are not willing to pay a penny more for the
labels!" Mikael Dahl of Nordvall's Sweden commented, "As usual, a
very well organized event and as always it was nice meeting and networking with
all friends within the industry. The working program at this year event was a
little different to previous ones, in my opinion I must say it was to the
better.The panel discussions, was an interesting concept. I think it is a very
important issue to improve and engage our industries end users to learn what
they think about printers and what they expect we can improve, so that we can
do better.This kind of an event is a tremendous opportunity, when all
stakeholders in the supply chain are gathered.The grand young man Helmut Schreiner, patriach of Schreiner Group said, "Finat
Congress was a great experience. Especially for the Schreiner Group; also
because of the number of awards."
Finat Congress is a
premier global Label event! Printers worldwide need to congregate in big
numbers to draw the benefit of what this unique institution provides. It is a
platform that unites the label fraternity to a destination once each year in a
fantastic networking environment with no barriers. It brings about the
opportunity to interact with and exchange ideas with peers in different
countries and explore the possibilities of alliances for mutual benefit. Many a
joint ventures internationally owe their origination conceptionally at the
Finat congresses. Printers return from Finat Congress with memories of good
times lingering their minds. As luck would have it I regret I could not attend
the conference this time but it gives me extreme pleasure that my friends
missed me at the congress. Steve Katz editor Label and Narrow Web tweeted so.
Calvin Frost President Channeled Resources wrote, “Everyone
missed you at the Congress and hope you will make it next year” Yes I will make
it next year!
Magazines or online websites may use this post by giving credit to the author!
Written by Harveer
Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India June 2014
