McLean

Times are tough; there’s no doubt about it. Costs are rising, competition is fierce and the economy is in a tailspin (or nose dive, depending on your perspective). “This was a difficult year for the [tag and label] business due not only to macroeconomic issues, including high energy costs and continuing high raw material inflation, but also because of growing competition to labels and tags in the packaging industry itself,” noted Corey Reardon, president and CEO of AWA Alexander Watson Associates, McLean, Va. The rising costs of materials—across the board—are at the top of most printers’ list of issues. A majority of tag and