Dear customers, dear customers,

As her long -standing reliable partner in terms of labels and test plaques, Seton always strives for her satisfaction. For this reason, we would like to inform you today about what effects the current global situation (pandemic and war events) has on the label and plastic industry.

The beginning of the year 2022 was primarily shaped by the hope that Covid 19 would no longer be a global problem in the near future. But soon, in addition to the continued present pandemic, other major challenges for the label and plastics industry should arise: the consequences of the Brexit referendum, a 100-day strike in important paper factories in Finland and, above all, the war in Ukraine led to a noticeable Restrictions in the global supply chains, to shortage of materials and too rapidly increasing energy and raw material costs.

Since the beginning of this year, our purchase was faced with price increases to previously unknown extent, which we tried to compensate for several months. Unfortunately, this development continues unabated for the foreseeable future. Currently we have to continue to take note of new or further price increases in logistics and procurement almost weekly. The fact that this now affects our sales prices and that the delivery times are sometimes a little longer than you are used to is a fact that we very much regret. Wherever possible, we try to keep the effects for you as end customers as low as possible.

We have taken the following measures and initiatives:

⦁ Price stability by December 2021 Despite the raw material prices that were already rising at that time,
⦁ Switching to regional providers with short paths to prevent bottlenecks in the supply and to alleviate cost increases in transport costs,
⦁ Significant investments in raw materials in order to secure the supply in the long term and also to counteract the drastic cost increases,
⦁ Significant increase in our finished goods inventory at your own risk,
⦁ Quantity and acceptance planning with our framework contract customers,
⦁ Use of alternative materials for avoiding production stalls

We are currently very well positioned in the area of ​​standard products such as safety identification on film, aluminum or plastic. This is not least because we have procured the raw material requirement for the current year and even beyond before the tense market situation occurs. So we are still able to produce and deliver these particularly frequently requested articles at short notice.

With an offer of over 70,000 articles, however, not every product is constantly in stock and immediately available. Delivery bottlenecks can currently be created primarily for special materials such as reflex film, paper in light colors and magnetic film. In such cases, however, we try to largely maintain the short delivery times through other suppliers or almost identical substitute materials, which you are used to and can expect from us.

Our recommendation:

In order to support us in maintaining our delivery capacity, we would like to ask you to continue to plan in perspective and to check your own stocks, if necessary, regularly. In addition, as it has been practiced many times and very expediently in recent months, you should continue to keep in touch with us regularly.

We are aware that the predictability of our customers depends to a large extent. You can be assured that all Seton employees work in a solution-oriented manner to offer you the proven and usual service even in these challenging times.

Source information:
You can read more about the strike of the Finnish paper factories here:

More about the effects of corona pandemic on the supply chain of foils and labeling: