Self-adhesive label company sticks around for 40 years

Self-adhesive label company UPM Raflatac is celebrating its 40th birthday this year.

The company has its origins in the Finnish city of Tampere, where chemist Juhani Strömberg, working for paper converting company Raf. Haarla, set out to develop a water-based alternative to solvent-based adhesives.

The water-based label technology, which was uncommon for label printers in the 1970s, represented a significant advancement in that it enabled higher speeds on printer machinery and greater efficiency in label production.

Strömberg’s work was also a major step towards the sustainable production methods and label materials that underpin UPM Raflatac’s approach.

From small beginnings, the company now employs nearly 3000 staff and makes sales well in excess of a billion euros each year. It has 11 production facilities worldwide and produces thousands of solutions for product and information labelling.

“At Raflatac, a strong sense of presence has been retained for the company’s history and its founders. New has been built from the foundation of the old. Entrepreneurship has shown itself particularly at times of change, when a strategic determination and shared goal have led to success,” UPM Raflatac Executive Vice President Tapio Kolunsarka said.

To mark its 40-year history, UPM Raflatac is publishing a book: The Story of Raflatac - From Internal Entrepreneurship to Global Self-Adhesive Labelstock Business. To be released in the European spring of 2015, the book will be published in Finnish and English.