In 2025, the emphasis on eco-friendly labeling has intensified, driven by environmentally conscious consumers and stringent regulatory standards. At SixB Labels, we have long championed sustainable practices, offering solutions like biodegradable labels and FSC-certified paper to align with both compliance requirements and customer expectations.
In conversations, on news shows, and in the headlines, inflation and recession have been constant buzz words of late, triggering discomfort in business and personal settings. This comes as no surprise: the unknown can provoke a lot of anxiety. With that in mind, this Simplifying Labeling Blog post aims to offer comfort and action ideas for you and your business.
The Realities of Inflation
Everyone buying and selling goods and services has been confronted by the current inflationary trend. The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, as of July 2022, shows that inflation, measured by the consumer price index, is up 8.5% in the past year. This is down from a June 2022 high of 9.1%; rapidly falling gas prices appear to be starting to blunt the latest surge. Although it does raise the value of such tangible assets as land, properties, and stocked commodities, inflation causes a reduction in purchasing power that has impacted every industry.
Like clockwork, every new U.S. administration ushers in big changes in trade, taxation, and manufacturing policies. True to form, the newest administration has just revisited the "Buy American" concept via a recent Executive Order on "Strengthening American Manufacturing," focusing on making and buying American goods as a way to boost prosperity here at home.
A re-invigorated push towards this goal of coming into compliance with a law that has been on the books for nearly a century will have an impact on the labeling industry. Labels provide a significant boost to marketing campaigns and in the current market, promoting the concept of "Made in America" or "Made in the U.S.A" could prove to be a highly effective sales tool to move a product. But there are also some caveats.
ESSENTIALS SERIES | We are kicking off this blog series on essential product labels, looking at how businesses are rising to the occasion of the COVID-19 health crisis offering products like hand sanitizers to fulfill those deemed "essential needs." Keeping in mind that during this unprecedented period in our history, SixB Labels has a special responsibility to stay open safely — with more information on our operations here in the blog post "We're Here For You." — particularly serving industries such as those in medical, healthcare and food & beverage.
Facing a shortage of essential cleaning supplies we are seeing numerous entities forming, adding to, or even changing, their production lines to include hand sanitizer products. More and more operations are offering these sanitizers for free to the likes of municipalities, discounting prices and/or maintaining typical pre-high-demand price-points. SixB Labels has joined the effort from donation initiatives to prioritizing production on these essential hand sanitizer labels. This piece will focus on hand sanitizer labels in variations of design, technical specs and printing options.
Everyone who works in or buys from the printing industry knows that, like a variety of other businesses, printing is undergoing numerous and seismic changes. From rising demand for mass customization to the growth of digital printing to increased competition from other channels there’s a mix of positives and negatives in the industry. All the while, something unforeseen just a couple of years ago may influence the fortunes of the printing industry, and have a real impact on businesses: Tariffs.
This “T-word” has been a cause for concern for businesses and consumers alike, and we believe it is valuable to share more information about tariffs, by defining current events and forecasting what could happen in the near future. While SixB Labels is based in the Southwest our clients are national and we operate accordingly.
Fortunately for our clients and their customers, sourcing at SixB Labels is done in such a way that the potential impact of most recent tariffs is negated. The tariffs on these imported goods do not affect our company, because we don’t use raw materials from China, so we do not look to see price increases in our supplies. All the while, in this blog we look at how generally trade tariffs impact printing.