Both industrial printers and their office technology dealer customers see potential to diversify and invest in label printing, envisioning it as a seamless pairing for those who already offer cutsheet, toner-based solutions, driven by everything from the expansion of grocery store SKUs to the growth of e-commerce distribution centers.
The numbers bear out their bullishness: the size of the global print label market reached $55.2 billion in 2025, according to Mordor Intelligence, estimated to rise to $57.0 billion this year and then reach $67.0 billion by 2031, on compounded annual growth of 3.28%.
“It’s adjacent to a lot of the work they’re already doing,” said Michael Cox, director of category strategy – packaging and labels at Konica Minolta – Industrial Print. “Their accounts are already buying labels, they’re just buying them from somebody else. It’s a tangential business that they can bring out to existing customers.”
Those in the dealer channel who have been supplying commercial accounts with toner products have the opportunity to go to commercial printers and say, “You’re already getting this business from us; here’s this other thing,” said Cox, who cites a Keypoint Intelligence estimate of 12.1% growth for the category through 2029, alongside research from Alliance Insights (formerly NAPCO Research) showing that 73% of commercial printers have diversified into labels.
Michael Cox of Konica Minolta’s Indudtrial Print Division
“The Venn diagram of customers overlaps really hard,” including vertical markets requiring labels, such as the medical and legal fields, at a time when the cut-sheet business is declining in margin and revenue. “It’s a fantastic growth opportunity for our dealer network…It’s not difficult to walk in and say, ‘Now we have this other piece in our portfolio.’ We’re also training our dealers to provide support.”
The package becomes part of the branding
Among the trends driving the growth is an emphasis on package branding in grocery stores, given the widening range of SKUs with seasonal, flavor, and other variations, and the ability to capture new customers at an inflationary time when fewer people are eating out, Cox said. “This is a great opportunity for [supermarket] brands to catch some new eyes,” he added. “Anything with a label on it tends to do well, even in tough economic times.”
Beaverton, Oregon-based mega dealer Pacific Office Automation, which partners with Konica Minolta among other OEMs, has had “massive success” in label printing, according to Tom Kucharski, director of production. “Any product that is available for somebody to market has the opportunity for a solution surrounding labels—even packaging,” he said. “When you look at what industries are capitalizing off of it, it’s the food industry, it’s marijuana and alcohol, and we’ve also had a lot of [other] beverages.”
Pacific Office Automation has succeeded by educating its sales force on what the products can do, and then attacking the vertical markets that seem most promising, with the space and operator desire to take it on in-house, Kucharski said.
“You need half a million dollars, this much space, this much power, you need volume” to make it worthwhile, he said, adding that the company started with a potential customer conversion rate of probably 10% but has raised that to more like 25%. “We’re gathering information, making sure we have all those objections [addressed], and making a deal or saying, ‘You’re not a good fit. Keep outsourcing,’” Kucharski added.
Toshiba, which has been in the barcode printer business for 30 years, has been targeting dealers that are members of the Business Technology Association (BTA), who see opportunities both in their existing customer base but also as a way to reach new customers, said Tony Venice, director of product marketing, Toshiba America Business Solutions.
Toshiba’s BX610 is a 6” barcode label printer, One of its primary applications is printing tree wraps and plant stakes for the horticultural market.
E-commerce demands label printing
“With the continued growth in e-commerce distribution centers, the demand for labels continues to grow,” he said. “Some of those vertical markets are a focus area for our copier and laser printer business as well. Manufacturing is another area. There’s a lot of regulatory compliance requirements driving the need for label demand. In food processing, there may be requirements for traceability on the aspects, as well as nutritional information. Healthcare has always been an area—a lot of that has been very critical, patient safety and patient care.”
Toshiba’s Tony Venice
Toshiba has a dedicated team focused on the barcode business that helps educate BTA dealers on how to sell such products, ensuring continuous support and education in pursuing these markets. The company has seen numbers showing continuous growth over the next five or six years of 5% to 6% in label printers, Venice said. “If you look at that compared to laser printers, it’s pretty much a flat market,” he noted. “Not only the devices but the volume of labels being printed out of those devices is going to continue to grow.”
Toshiba dealer Adams Remco, based in South Bend, Indiana, has had significant success in the manufacturing-heavy environment of northern Indiana and southern Michigan, notably in the recreational vehicle business, said Kennedy Cross, vice president of sales and operations. The company has expanded from 4-inch into 6- and 8-inch labels, including two-sided, as well as selling printers themselves, typically 100 to 150 at a time.
“We work with not only the end assemblers but also subcontractors,” he said. “They all work on the same type of operating system and share codes with each other…We’re working through as many end users as we can to pick up the subcontractors.”
The BX410 is Toshiba’s premier 4” barcode label printer. This model is typically used in high-volume warehouse environments.
Thermal printers provide a versatility of uses ranging from plastic spikes in garden centers to nurses’ badges in major medical centers to receipts in resorts and timeshares, Cross said. “You truly have almost as diverse an opportunity as you would with a regular copier-printer,” he said. “You need someone who can be the go-to person for the local sales offices.”
Epson America also has seen growth opportunities for on-demand label printing for packaging and other uses, said Connie Kuo, product manager. “We are working very hard to develop resellers and dealers to help us push on-demand color label printing,” she said. “It’s grown by double digits year-over-year.” The company also recently expanded its portfolio with the CW-D3800 printer that uses dye ink instead of pigment ink, she added.
Market trends toward faster delivery and faster service have prompted companies to switch label printing from outsourced to in-house, enabling them to get out from under minimum-order quantities and print however much they want, Kuo said. “Untapped market segments are ideal for this product because a lot of people never thought of a label printer for badges,” she said. “We try to bridge the gaps and bring those customers into color label and badge printing.”
Epson offers Label Boost Shipper Software that pairs with ColorWorks (below) to create vibrant shipping labels, QR codes, and special promotions.
Technology dealers who have contacts in school districts, corporate, and government offices can contact a school principal, for example, and ask how they manage visitors coming onto the campus, Kuo said. The monochrome thermal printing traditionally used for badges “creates unclear information,” she said. “There are no indicators that tell you when this person is supposed to be on the campus, and when they’re supposed to leave.”
But there are many other applications besides security, Kuo said. “For example, in K-12 they can use the color label printer for school projects, science classes, music classes, even for school competitions,” she said. “There are a lot of different activities for which they can use the printer.”
Connie Kuo of Epson America
