Labeling and product decoration are critical to the packaging industry, combining the essential information to identify a product with the sales enhancement properties of branding and on-shelf visibility.
The status of this market is documented in the newly published 16th edition of AWA Labeling and Product Decoration Annual Review 2022. It explores all the different facets of the subject across the main labeling formats – pressure-sensitive, glue-applied, sleeving, in-mold labels – and their supply chain characteristics.
The new study details the profiles of the different end-use application segments, including primary product labeling, variable information printing, and security labeling, and sets them in the context of in-depth regional market analyses.
In 2021, AWA estimates that global label demand approximated 71,010 million square meters — showing a growth of some 3.8 percent over the prior year. While these figures span all the label and product decoration technologies, 41 percent of these volumes were in pressure-sensitive labels, 34 percent in glue-applied labels, and 19 percent in the sleeve labeling technologies.
Regionally, the countries of Asia continue to claim the largest market share, 45 percent of the total; Europe a 25 percent share; North America an 18 percent share; South America 8 percent; and Africa and the Middle East 4 percent.
