LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

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Steffen Haaga ¡ Director of Global Business Development ¡ CERM ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Morten Reitoft from Inkish meets Steffen from CERM at LabelExpo 2025 in Barcelona. They discuss the number of Latin American printers, especially from Mexico, attending this year, and how both have recently invested in the region to expand their reach, seeing it as a fast-growing and promising market. Steffen notes that while global uncertainty has slowed some decision-making, European customers currently remain confident and are actively investing. He agrees that the current US uncertainty has, in some ways, strengthened European momentum, with many companies choosing to invest themselves out of potential crises. Steffen reflects on how challenges can drive innovation and how the industry must keep evolving. They then revisit CERM’s recent acquisition of Omikai about six months ago, which he says has gone very well — the teams work smoothly together, their cultures fit, and Omikai’s strong infrastructure, combined with CERM’s label expertise, is already showing results. While Omikai will continue serving commercial print, CERM plans to build label, packaging, and flexo capabilities on top of it rather than narrowing its scope, expecting this will strengthen the core platform overall. They also discuss how CERM’s partner ecosystem continues to grow, with new collaborations announced at the show, including those with MPS and Durst Group. This integration focus reduces manual touchpoints, improves cost control, and boosts production efficiency. Steffen concludes that CERM sees growth globally: in Europe, North America, and especially in emerging markets like Poland, Italy, Spain, and across Latin America, where they now also have local-language teams — a sign that their strategy is working.

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Patrick Berverling ¡ Purchasing Manager ¡ Geostick ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Morten Reitoft from Inkish interviews Patrick from Geostick at the CERM booth during LabelExpo in Barcelona. Patrick explains how he led Geostick’s transition to a paperless production workflow. About 1.5 years ago, when a printer breakdown halted production because physical job tickets couldn’t be printed, he questioned why they weren’t already paperless. Although the company already had digital job tickets and computers, they were still printing paper job bags. He faced skepticism from staff who had seen previous failed attempts, so his biggest challenge was cultural—getting people on board. He started small with just one press, gradually expanding to others. As operators saw the benefits, they began requesting to go paperless themselves. Now, Geostick is fully paperless, with major improvements: operators can update job data directly in CERM, information is instantly visible across both of their sites, and moving jobs between machines is far easier. This has increased flexibility, reduced errors, and improved productivity—especially on the front end. Previously, CSRs manually checked every order on paper; now, many orders are automatically validated by CERM without CSR involvement, freeing time and reducing mistakes. Patrick also notes their use of Infigo for a web-to-print shop, which allows customers to reorder and modify label jobs online—a big success, particularly for repeat orders. He concludes that going paperless has made Geostick far more efficient, responsive, and accurate, and there’s no going back.

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Gouglas Gibson ¡ CEO ¡ Infigo ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Morten Reitoft from Inkish interviews Doug Gibson from Infigo at the CERM booth during LabelExpo in Barcelona. Doug explains how Infigo, traditionally known as a web-to-print platform for commercial printing, has spent the last 4–5 years actively adapting its system for the label and flexible packaging industry, which involves far greater complexity than flat-sheet commercial print. This journey began with early development work alongside Geostick and has since expanded to customers like Blue Label in the US, with feedback-driven development shaping the platform. Unlike larger software vendors who release features broadly and hope they fit, Infigo works closely with customers to prioritize and build only what solves their immediate, real-world needs. In labels, most larger converters currently focus on reordering workflows rather than first-time ordering with complex embellishments or die-cuts. Infigo’s role is to simplify the complex specification process and make repeat orders easy. The integration with CERM is key: Infigo can aggregate job data from multiple production sites (five or six, for example), display it in a single interface, and even enable load balancing between sites, while keeping CERM as the central MIS backbone. Doug highlights that the tight collaboration with CERM has been crucial. The companies have built trust through years of working together—even navigating the inevitable challenges—and this partnership has allowed them to deliver integrated, automated solutions that bring real value to converters like Geostick.

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Karin Enderle ¡ International Sales Manager Packaging ¡ manroland Goss ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Morten from Inkish speaks with Karin at manroland Goss during LabelExpo in Barcelona. With 40 years in print and packaging and only weeks into her new role, Karin traces the shift from long-run, sheetfed commercial work toward web, automation, and especially flexible packaging, now accelerated by brand demands and differing regional regulations. She walks through the configurable VARIOMAN concept on display: a non-stop unwind with flying splice, infeed and web cleaning, then as many offset units as a job requires, plus hybrid options such as an inline flexo station and gravure units for varnish, high-laydown whites, and barrier layers. A turn bar enables two-sided work. Curing is centered on electron-beam for food-safe, low-migration results, complemented by hot-air dryers and, where appropriate, UV or LED-UV. The sleeve-based press covers a wide repeat range up to about 43 inches, runs very thin and stretchable films for sleeves and flexible packaging, and can also handle folding carton; output can be roll-to-roll or roll-to-sheet. Beyond packaging, the platform is being used for pharmaceutical leaflets on ultra-light papers down to roughly 27 gsm. Karin emphasizes that specifying one of these lines is a consultative process—scoping current and future needs, iterating configurations, and producing test prints—because the same modular press can be tailored to very different applications.

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Julie Watson ¡ CEO ¡ Ultimate Tech ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Julie explains that Ultimate has been investing heavily in R&D over the past few years, expanding its solutions beyond commercial print into new segments such as labels, digital packaging, and wide format. The company’s goal is to eliminate manual prepress work by enabling full hands-free automation from web storefronts or MIS systems through to printing and finishing. At the booth, they are demonstrating automated label production with an HP Indigo press and a GM LC350 laser die-cutter, showing how their software dynamically handles mixed jobs, different shapes, sizes, barcodes, and changeovers all on a single roll. Julie notes that digital printing is changing the market by enabling shorter runs, personalization, and mass customization, while also creating complexity from managing many SKUs and batches—something Ultimate’s solutions can fully automate. The system can even manage extended content labels such as pharmaceutical booklets and handle batching and separation for multi-customer rolls directly from CSV or MIS data, with no manual touch points. She highlights Ultimate’s unique strength in centralizing workflows: instead of separate imposition software tied to each device, Ultimate offers a unified platform that can drive diverse applications—commercial, mailing, books, labels, and wide format—through a single pipeline. This reduces training and maintenance complexity while improving scalability. Julie adds that while many customers still run Ultimate on-premise, the software can also run in the cloud, on Windows, Mac, or Linux servers, and can dynamically scale for peak seasons. This flexibility allows customers to start small, expand capacity when needed, and process maximum volumes during high-demand periods. She concludes that this approach helps converters accept more orders, shorten turnaround times, and boost revenue during peak seasons.

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Raymondo Duval ¡ Ultimate Automation Facilitator ¡ Ultimate tech ¡ LabelExpo Barcelone 2025

Ray explains that Ultimate’s growing portfolio isn’t a burden but an advantage, because it all builds on the same core foundation: placing pages, objects, labels, and stickers on media automatically—whether it’s paper, plastic, or vinyl. While their functionality has broadened into labels, extended content labels, packaging, and prototyping, their focus remains automation and centralization, helping customers unify production across multiple print segments. He notes that many converters entering the booth face the same challenges seen years ago in commercial print: short runs, rising job counts, complex upstream metadata, and too many manual steps. Once they see Ultimate’s automation in action, they realize they can produce personalized and variable labels at scale without adding staff—freeing existing equipment to run more jobs. Ray adds that buyers of new digital presses often inherit multiple different DFE/imposition systems, which complicates training and maintenance. Ultimate solves this by centralizing all job preparation, including embellishment and finishing (like laser cutting), into one automated workflow—so customers don’t need separate tools per device. He concludes that this centralization lets converters diversify applications and grow their business using the same resources, and that the key message from LabelExpo is simple: automation, automation, automation.

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Simon Cooper ¡ Founder & Managing Director ¡ SimplyInkjet ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Five years ago, Simon Cooper set out with a clear mission — to help businesses get more from the machinery they already own. Today, as Managing Director of SimplyInkjet, Simon leads a team of experts who specialise in revitalising existing equipment through the seamless integration of industry-leading inkjet technology. “We saw that many companies were facing the same challenge,” Simon explains. “They needed the benefits of modern inkjet solutions but couldn’t justify the cost, time, or disruption of investing in completely new machinery. We knew there had to be a better way.” At SimplyInkjet, that “better way” comes in the form of innovative retrofitting solutions. By upgrading existing equipment with cutting-edge inkjet systems, the company unlocks new possibilities for mono and full-colour applications alike. The result? Enhanced performance, reduced costs, and a future-proofed production line. “Our goal is simple,” says Simon. “We provide endless print solutions by giving our clients’ machinery a new lease of life. Whether it’s increasing efficiency, adding full-colour capabilities, or simply extending the lifespan of a production line, we’re here to make it happen.” With a reputation for expertise, reliability, and forward-thinking innovation, SimplyInkjet continues to help businesses stay competitive in a fast-changing market — proving that sometimes the smartest investment isn’t new machinery at all, but unlocking the hidden potential of the equipment you already have.

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Carmina Pinto ¡ General Manager ¡ Flexografica ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Jean Lloyd from Inkish speaks with Kamina Pinto from Flexographica at LabelExpo 2025 in Barcelona. Kamina explains that Flexographica is based in Guatemala and has been in business for 28 years, primarily as a flexo label printer. However, in recent years, they have also started producing small-quantity stand-up pouches and adopted digital printing about 14 years ago. The company handles a mix of large flexo orders and many small digital ones to meet the diverse needs of its customers, focusing on delivering consistent high quality at competitive prices. She says she is at LabelExpo to explore new technologies, particularly inkjet, which she sees as offering more vivid colors and potential differentiation compared to other digital systems. In Guatemala, she notes, there has not been much investment in new digital technologies, and Flexographica aims to be the first mover so others will follow. Kamina emphasizes that brands don’t usually dictate technology—they expect excellent quality—so it’s up to her team to guide them on what’s possible. She adds that while there are many solutions on display at the show, choosing the right OEM partner is critical because digital equipment requires long-term support and stability, not just a low upfront price. She concludes that she is looking for technology that can help Flexographica stand out from competitors by offering something different rather than competing solely on price.

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Harald Jasper ¡ Managing Director ¡ ACTEGA Metal Print ¡ LabelPrint Barcelona 2025

Morten from Inkish interviews Harald Jasper from Actega at LabelExpo in Barcelona about their breakthrough metallization technology, Ecoleaf. Harald explains that for years, metallization at the show was shown only as dummies, but this time it is running live on a press from Gallus. Traditionally, metallic effects were made using foil carriers, which generate large amounts of waste. Ecoleaf replaces the foil with metal flakes suspended in water: a binder is digitally printed and cured on the substrate, then metal flakes are applied and adhere to the binder, creating a glossy metallic surface comparable to foil. He says this method cuts the carbon footprint by at least 80% because it eliminates polyester film production, metallization, and transport. The gloss and reflection now match conventional foil, and when overprinted with inkjet, the results are striking. Harald notes that metal flakes themselves are recyclable and that Actega has received RecyClass certification confirming the recyclability of the finished products. Developed over eight years by a multidisciplinary in-house team, Ecoleaf is already shipping and can be mounted on almost any press—typically at the start of hybrid presses for overprinting with inkjet, or at the start of flexo lines for applications like spirits and whiskey labels. Actega’s focus now is scaling up from 8-hour runs to 24/7 production, expanding globally to support major brand customers, and developing new applications such as shrink sleeves and possibly cardboard. Harald emphasizes that big brands are increasingly driving the push for sustainable packaging, and Actega aims to meet that demand with Ecoleaf.

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Christoph Gamper ¡ CEO ¡ DURST ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Morten from Inkish interviews Christoph Gamper, CEO of Durst Group, at LabelExpo in Barcelona. Despite the extreme heat in Hall 3, Christoph shares that business at Durst is just as “hot,” with the company continuing to grow and now having over 4,200 systems installed worldwide, including more than 550 digital engines across 33 countries. He explains that Durst’s success is driven by a collective mindset within the company—while they don’t aim to be the biggest, they strive to be the best in technology. Everyone at Durst has bought into this goal, creating what he describes as a big, happy family pushing forward together. Christoph says he spends little time in his office and is often traveling to meet customers, attend trade shows, and visit markets like China and the United States, ensuring he stays close to the market and to customers’ needs. He sees his role as leading the innovation roadmap while also “sniffing the markets” to deeply understand customer pain points, with Durst’s mission being to remove those pains. He credits Durst’s success to its strong mid-management, close collaboration between teams, and a culture where leadership actively engages with both staff and customers. He also outlines Durst’s expansion beyond labels into other areas, especially packaging, including corrugated and folding carton, through Durst Group’s partnership with Koenig & Bauer under Koenig & Bauer Durst. In addition, Durst remains committed to large-format printing, ceramics, 3D printing, additive manufacturing, and new ventures in software. Christoph highlights All4Labels as a customer and mentions being particularly proud of All4Site, a company he founded in New York, brought back to Europe, and which is now rapidly growing under Redstone Capital with major clients like Nike. He concludes that while not every segment develops at the same speed, Durst is growing strongly, expanding strategically, and maintaining its focus on innovation, quality, and customer satisfaction.

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Chiara Prati ¡ CEO ¡ PRATI ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Wayne Beckett from Inkish interviews Chiara Prati at LabelExpo in Barcelona. Chiara is part of the second generation leading Prati, a company founded in 1973 by her father and now over 50 years old. She explains that Prati has long specialized in designing, manufacturing, and servicing finishing and converting machines for the label industry, later expanding into flexible packaging—and now, for the first time, also into folding carton.

At the show, Prati is launching the new Digifast 20000, a larger-format solution aimed at folding carton production. It complements their existing Jupiter modular platform, which mainly serves the food and beverage sector. Chiara says their stand showcases equipment covering all market segments—food and beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, security labels, logistics, and retail—demonstrating how Prati machines can handle a wide range of applications from narrow to mid-web. Each machine on display is running a job tailored to a specific market to highlight its versatility.

She adds that Prati operates globally through a strong distributor and service network, with a branch office in Dallas since 2018 to support the United States market. Chiara says the first day at the show has gone very well, with customers excited to see Prati’s move into mid-web solutions, which opens new business opportunities for converters. Wayne concludes by praising the impressive size of the Prati booth and the impact they’ve made at the show.

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Robert Rae ¡ Managing Director ¡ GEW ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Wayne Beckett from Inkish interviews Robert Rae, Managing Director of GEW, at LabelExpo 2025 in Barcelona. Robert shares that the show has been incredibly busy, with GEW’s stand packed and orders already being placed. He explains that GEW is a global company turning over about £65 million annually, employing 160 people, and operating three factories in the United Kingdom. Their UV curing systems are installed in over 70 countries, with more than 100,000 UV lamps running worldwide, supported by 40 distributors who handle service and spare parts. While 60–70% of GEW’s business comes from OEM partnerships with leading press manufacturers—including Nilpeter—the other 30–40% is direct with end users, particularly for retrofitting older machines. The big focus at LabelExpo is GEW’s ArcLED technology, which allows users to easily switch from mercury-based UV lamps to energy-efficient LED curing. Robert explains that switching to LED delivers many benefits: 50–70% lower energy consumption, reduced CO₂ emissions, lower web temperatures, improved registration, no ozone extraction, lower maintenance, and more consistent process control. He notes that every GEW system made since 2015 using their Rhino or RLT power supplies is LED-ready. Retrofitting involves simply swapping the mercury cassette for an LED cassette and doing a quick software update, which can convert a press to LED in just one to two hours. The return on investment is typically under two years thanks to energy savings and efficiency gains, and customers can still switch back to mercury instantly if needed. Discussing the United States market, Robert says recent tariffs and currency fluctuations have created some uncertainty and dampened customer confidence. Still, GEW continues manufacturing in the UK and is working closely with partners to minimize the impact on customers. He concludes by noting that with LED now making up about half of GEW’s production—and over 3,000 LED modules built for the narrow web market last year—the shift to LED has become a clear industry standard.

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Andrew Strand ¡ Business Development Manager ¡ CERM ¡  LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Pat McGrew from Inkish interviews Andrew Strang, Business Development Manager at CERM, during LabelExpo 2025 in Barcelona. Andrew explains that CERM has spent decades building an open software architecture and a strong network of integrations with industry partners, allowing them to serve as the backbone of MIS for label and packaging printers. Customers, he says, are looking for end-to-end workflows—systems that can seamlessly connect prepress, presses, finishing, and converting equipment to move jobs efficiently through production. He notes that while many companies want to partner with CERM, the choice of integrations is often driven by customer needs. A recent example is CERM’s newly launched two-way integration with Durst, which was developed in response to customer demand and is already live at several sites. Andrew describes how these collaborations often start with customer requests, then move into product team discussions and technical trials until stable connections are established. While many in the industry view CERM as just another MIS vendor, Andrew highlights their deep specialization: their heritage is in labels and flexible packaging, and they are now expanding into folding carton. Unlike generalist MIS systems, CERM focuses solely on this sector, meaning its R&D and support are entirely dedicated to the specific needs of label and packaging converters. He concludes that this singular focus makes CERM a strong fit for companies in this space, offering solutions built precisely for their workflows.

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Dr. Adrian Steele ¡ Managing Director ¡ Mercian Labels ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Pat McGrew from Inkish interviews Dr. Adrien Steel, Managing Director of Mercian Labels, at LabelExpo 2025 in Barcelona, about how CERM has been central to the company’s drive for efficiency and growth. Adrien explains that CERM has become the “point of truth” for Mercian’s entire production platform, integrating all their hardware and software systems into a single cohesive workflow. They adopted CERM in 2016 and, after an initial implementation phase, have continually built deeper integrations over time. He highlights their biggest productivity leap: integrating CERM with ABG’s Connect platform to automate the conversion of short-run digital labels into finished rolls—traditionally one of the biggest bottlenecks. This project, launched in 2019 and fully operational from 2022, won a global label industry award and has delivered major results: a 9% improvement in turnover per employee in 2023, followed by another 13% in 2024. Adrien notes that this automation not only boosts efficiency but also builds customer trust by improving delivery reliability and product quality, which in turn strengthens sales and retention. He adds that productivity gains have continued despite tough market conditions across Europe, and that profitability has grown as a result. Looking ahead, Mercian is now exploring ways to integrate AI into order processing. Adrien also discusses the cultural side: staff at Mercian expect continual change as part of the company’s drive to be a world-class label manufacturer, and seeing ongoing improvements motivates them. Rather than resisting new tools, employees embrace them as part of their culture—so much so that stopping innovation would unsettle them. Adrien concludes that embracing change, automation, and innovation through platforms like CERM has made Mercian more competitive and secure and has helped build a high-performing, future-ready team.

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Adrian Brown ¡ Director ¡ All4Labels UK ¡ LabelExpo Barcelona 2025

Morten from Inkish interviews Adrian from All4Labels at the Actega booth. Despite the heat and broken air conditioning, Adrian speaks enthusiastically about All4Labels’ long history dating back over 130 years and their reputation as a first mover in the label industry. He explains that while All4Labels does not have its own booth at the show, they are present through partnerships, especially with Actega, using Actega’s technology in two key products: Star Shine and Star Direct. These are used to create on-demand digital metal finishes and are central to their focus on sustainability and innovation.

Adrian highlights that the decision to adopt this technology was driven by sustainability goals, which made it easy to present to customers as part of their ongoing innovation strategy. The products are fully recyclable, and they recently received RestiGlass approval for PET with Star Shine and Star Lake, which supports recyclability efforts. He says the implementation has been well received by both their sales teams and production staff, and their leadership actively encourages further development in collaboration with Actega.

He describes the process as similar in principle to old bronzing techniques but far cleaner and more advanced, with metallic flakes applied to an adhesive and then overprinted. The technology works with various printing methods, including silk screen, flexo, offset, and digital, and performs well in durability tests. Adrian concludes that combining sustainability, scalability, and high visual quality has given All4Labels a competitive edge and that the entire company is excited about continuing this innovative journey.