Did you know labels are one of the biggest growth opportunities a distributor has? The market is booming on both sides of the label business.
Prime labels get the attention. These are the labels with bright colors and marketing sizzle that catch the customer’s eye on the retail shelf and say, “Buy me!” The bigger opportunity, however, can be found in industrial and durable labels. Towards Packaging puts the prime (or primary packaging) label market at roughly $10 billion to $11 billion in 2026, growing close to 7% a year. Meanwhile, Global Market Insights puts the industrial and durable label market at roughly $67.8 billion globally in 2025, growing about 7.5% a year toward $139 billion by 2035. Both sides of the market (prime and durable) are climbing fast. Durable is simply a much larger slice.
Here’s the part that’s easy to overlook: The same customers who buy prime labels also need durable ones. If you sell a power tool maker its prime packaging and branding labels, that same maker needs durable rating plates, warning labels and barcode labels that stay put through heat, oil, and abrasion. If you sell a specialty food brand its prime jar labels, it also needs freezer and date-and-lot labels on the back. If you sell a cleaning-products company the labels on its bottles, it needs GHS drum labels and barcode labels on every pallet. Same account, same buyer, more label spend you are already positioned to win.
The same product that needs an attractive label on the shelf also needs labels that survive extreme temperatures, moisture, and chemical exposure for tracking and identification. If you sell prime labels and not durable ones, you’re leaving the bigger slice of the market on the table. You’re also leaving the door open for someone else to take the account.
That’s the case for selling both. Prime labels get you in the door. Durable labels keep you inside. Not only is this business sticky, but customers tend to reorder on a schedule tied to production and sales volume. Together, they turn a single label order into a recurring relationship across the whole account.
Will Prettyman is General Manager of Wise’s Labels Plant in Anderson, SC. Wise manufacturers industrial/prime labels and tags, traditional forms, and digitally printed products and services for resale only. For more information, visit www.wbf.com or email Will at [email protected].
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