A new study of the dynamic sleeve labeling market has just been published by AWA Alexander Watson Associates (awa-bv.com). The report, “AWA Global Sleeve Label Market Study 2018,” confirms how strongly sleeve labeling technology has established itself in a relatively short timescale.

Today claiming around 18 percent of the overall global label market, it is a maturing technology — but growth is still strong, at an annual 5.5 percent. As the study documents, most of the volumes are in heat shrink sleeves, representing around 88 percent of usage, and with the Asian region claiming the highest volumes by far.

Across all sleeve label formats — heat shrink, stretch sleeve, ROSO MD sleeve and RFS MD sleeve — the major end-use market sector is beverages at 66 percent of volumes, with food-related applications following at a distant 19 percent.