The inaugural Durst Oceania and ProPack.pro 2023 Labels State of the Industry Report has asked label converters whether they will be upgrading their equipment – the findings were surprising.

To produce the results for the 2023 Labels State of the Industry Report, ProPack and Durst commissioned an external research agency to conduct a phone survey of Australian and New Zealand label converters with 200 businesses surveyed in Australia and 100 surveyed in New Zealand.

The survey found there is a strong appetite for the label converters to upgrade their equipment over the short to medium term with almost half of respondents confirming they “might be” or “will be” upgrading soon.

Interestingly, 16 per cent of respondents had recently completed the purchase of new equipment and were therefore not in the market for further purchases.

Only 39 per cent were not looking for new equipment – which means that six out of every 10 label converters has upgraded or will be looking to upgrade in the short to medium term, if they haven’t done so already.

While most label converters did not want to share specific details about their businesses – some were happy to share their thoughts – on the basis of anonymity. For the purposes of transparency and authenticity, we have published direct quotes from the survey.

Are you likely to be upgrading your equipment in the short to medium term?

We will be upgrading soon – 24 %

Comments:

• “We are always looking for new equipment.”
• “We are not looking at high end expensive equipment necessarily.”
• “We are looking at purchasing some new digital label equipment.”
• “We work in flexo, so we would also need additional converting and finishing equipment.”
• “I am currently in the market for a digital label printer, and I would be interested in financial support and pricing.”

We might be upgrading soon – 21%

Comments:

• “Yes. But we are looking at some second hand equipment.”
• “We need to get approval from the big bosses before we can upgrade – but this is likely.”
• “We are likely to be upgrading within the next 18 months.”
• “I wasn’t planning on it, but if I was given the right offer then I would consider it.”

We have just upgraded – 16%

Comments:

• “We have just purchased some new finishing equipment, so we will not be upgrading for a little while now.”
• “We upgraded our equipment three months ago.”
• “We bought a Durst machine very recently, so we are ok for now.”
• “We have just bought an Epson.”
• “We invested in some new HP equipment recently.”

No. We will not be upgrading soon – 39%

Comments:

• “I am planning to retire shortly, so I will not be buying any new equipment.”
• “Not planning on it, we need the cash for other parts of our business.”