Afera President’s Message to the Industry for 2024

To the stakeholders of the European adhesive tape value chain,

We have begun 2024 after a very tumultuous year. For me, 2023 was the most chaotic and unpredictable year I have ever encountered in my professional life. Last year was profoundly emotional for me as I will detail further, stemming from witnessing humanity’s collective (non-)response to the self-inflicted crises we face. 

As such, this is a very personal address, as it reveals my fears, my emotions, but also my hope, my reasons for hope—I draw the most hope from the very strong collaboration among us in Afera. The openness of the Members to engage in solution-finding, and the very human character of this—as friends with a common goal: to further ourselves. The Afera community has displayed remarkable resilience. We have worked together, leveraging our collective strength to cope with both predictable challenges, such as new regulatory legislation, and the unpredictable ones that have become a hallmark of our times. This unity and collaborative spirit within Afera is what gives us hope and direction as we navigate these “VUCA” times.

I will not look back much on the events and activities of last year, however good they were. Yes, we achieved marvels in 2023—you can read about these in the excellent reports on our website. Here I want to leave space for contemplation…

We started 2023 with cautious optimism, believing that the supply chain issues which have plagued our industry were on the verge of resolution. However, the year unfolded in ways none of us could have predicted. The global economic landscape underwent seismic shifts, bringing many companies to their knees or at least causing significant issues. The inflation, and in quite some cases, “gouge-flation”, skyrocketed, followed (logically and justifiably) by very high salary demands from the workforce. But please do spend a minute to think about who’s actually to blame for all this and take into account who really benefitted from the stark increase in (especially) energy prices…

In the middle of all this economic chaos, the world was also dealing with a lot of political mess. The war in Ukraine continued, and at the very end of the year there was a new, really bad conflict in the Middle East that caused untold human suffering. 

2023 also marked a year in which the ‘pandemic in slow motion’ (our worst adversary being the climate and environmental crisis) became increasingly apparent to even the most conservative but still did not lead to the action required. As I feared, the COP28 was a major disillusionment. The role of major corporations, particularly in the fossil fuel industry, is maddeningly unhelpful. Effectively turning their backs on helping to solve the global climate issues and instead giving 100 billion to shareholders shows the kind of world of dichotomous perspectives that we currently live in.  

Thinking hard about human nature and having read many books on it last year, I know this could have been expected, unfortunately. I do hope, however, that this is all just the rearguard action, a final convulsion of the neoliberal faith in “the market” as the almighty force and money as the all-powerful entity which should be worshipped. That Gordon Gekko has passed. 

In any case, I think we can all agree that the era of “business as usual” is finally over, however hard some want to keep it, no matter how much money the lobbyists keep throwing at it. In this context, I am very happy to see that our tape industry recognises that ‘green’ is not just a trend but a necessary transition: Green is indeed the new black. However, I also came to the shocking realisation that we may be moving too fast for a significant part of our industry. That we are leaving some behind. So this has become one of my top goals for 2024: To take everyone with us on the journey to a truly sustainable industry. In the pace required. And by putting in the effort and energy to listen, to be truly inclusive.

Another signal that we cannot just sail on autopilot, that we have to be on our guard and keep in touch, became apparent to me during and after the Annual Conference. We need to listen better to our Members, and we need to realise what Afera is here for. And we will! We have taken the first steps towards a complete overhaul of our meeting schedule and conferences. We will involve many of you in creating this, with the goal of making these the best in the world for our industry!

As we step into 2024, let us continue to build on this foundation of collaboration—no, actually co-creation!—and innovation. The challenges we face are significant. We can, however, rephrase them as opportunities for growth, transformation and leadership in sustainable practices.

Happy New Year, and may 2024 be a year of positive change for us all!

Sincerely,

Evert Smit
Afera President