Chris Ellison handing over the FINAT presidency to Philippe Voet

Interview FINAT president Chris Ellison handing over the FINAT presidency to Philippe Voet

More than 50 years ago Mans Lejeune, founder of Lejeune Association Management started working for and with FINAT. After Lejeune sr. retired in 2002 his son Jules Lejeune took over as Managing Director, but four years earlier he also took over the FINAT account. There is a long history and partnership between FINAT and Lejeune.

Lejeune is the constant factor within the FINAT association as the presidency changes every two or four years. Also during this pandemic this tradition continued. Chris Ellison CEO at OPM (labels & Packaging) Group Limited UK, who served in that role from 2017 stepped down and handed over to Philippe Voet, CEO at Etivoet Belgium, last June. A perfect moment for an online joint interview. An interview that is not only FINAT related but also about their family, family business, career and passion for the industry. Of course, the impact of the pandemic is addressed as well as the role of Lejeune for the FINAT organisation.

Family & businesses

Where do you live and can you tell us something about your family and your businesses or actually family businesses?

Chris: ‘I live in the UK in North Yorkshire, it is a great area to live in. I started working in the industry in 1986 when I was 21. You could say by accident as I had the opportunity to buy into a very small printing company; from this we created the OPM (Labels & Packaging) Group. I found the industry challenging and interesting because 36 years ago it was an industry that was young and a young industry gives opportunities. Technologically the industry was moving quickly. Just look at the equipment we were using and the work we produced back then compared to now. The changes have been massive in 30 years. But still the opportunities are there. The business is always evolving with challenges and opportunities. If you have the spark and passion, it is a great business to be in. For me it has been a fantastic journey. OPM Group has become a family business since my wife Susan became co-owner in 2005. She runs the commercial side of the business. Our daughter and son are also working in the family business, both in their own field of expertise. Our daughter will take over from Susan and my son is currently in sales. We are probably one of the biggest family companies in the UK in our sector. And it’s great, not everyone can say that they get out of bed every day and work with their best friends.’ 

Phillippe: ‘I live in Belgium, Sint Pieters Leeuw, just west of Brussels. It is a superb region to walk and for running, one of my favourite things to do. The region is famous for the local fruits and Lambik or Geuze, a specific type of beer only brewed in this region. Too bad beer is not my favourite drink……... I’m married and my wife and I have 3 kids (18-15-13) and we have a dog. My wife is not working in the family business. She’s running her own business and my kids are too young to work. Together with my brother we are the third generation running the family business. I entered the business about 10 years ago. I have a different background than most people in the industry. I’m a pharmacist and I worked for 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry. My experience in the pharmacy is based on hard skills, like management, operational management and technical management. By joining the printing industry, I could add more soft skills, like innovation and the creative part of the graphic industry. I’m not saying I was missing it but it is complimentary. Call it personal development, I’m a learner and love to expand my knowledge.’ 

18 months of covid-19

How did you experience the pandemic?

Chris: ‘This pandemic we saw it coming like a wave from China. When it was here we managed to stay united. Although we are all competitors our industry turned vital during the pandemic. Therefore we helped out each other whenever we faced supplies issues. FINAT helped with the best practices. We were learning on the job since there was no predefined route. We all learned some new skills and it taught us the value of relationships. Online and the live meetings we were missing.’

Philippe: ‘covid-19 is a paradox, it separated us physically but as Chris said we can do things together. We saw we can help each other inside the company but also outside. There was a flexibility that wasn’t there before. That is really positive. Association wise we saw the same trend. Some projects slowed down, other projects took advantage from the pandemic. Some meetings were faster than ever possible before. Because in Zoom meetings it was easier to get everybody together. This positive side of this tough period we should maintain and keep up for the future.’

Most proud of

Chris, what achievement during your presidency you are the most proud of?

‘There is not one achievement me myself should be credited for. I’m a great believer in the team. Everybody has made a great effort in the last 18 months keeping things together. We’ve gone from Brexit to the pandemic. We’ve managed to remain successfully united, we managed to keep the group together. All willing to help each other, to help the greater good. It brought us all closer together, even though we were not physically together.’

‘It’s thanks to the excellent basis that FINAT built over the last 60 years we could do this. There is a real passion within our association. There is a history and it’s not one person that is going to change that overnight. We need to build, refine end evolve. Keep tweaking it and keep the association relevant. That’s the key. But most importantly we are a group of people in the same position, and we need to stay united.’ 

FINAT Goals coming years

Philippe: what are your goals for the coming years?

‘As we have seen during our online European Label Forum (ELF) in June, fundamental changes are taking place in the sector. I want to focus on 4 pillars.

• Friendships and networking slowed down due to covid. We need to reconnect and strengthen the community again.
• We offer Benchmarking and market trends, but we need to grow the data and data analysis for our members to drive their business.
• We should become part of, be involved in common goals and the projects we have do like UV-Foodsafe or CELAB Europe. These are really important for our industry and FINAT should be the linking pin within the industry.
• Last but not least we need to have a common voice to Europe. Europe is implementing a lot of new regulations in our market. We will have to search for the best way to embrace these and build a strategy how we can mould these regulations to our advantage.’ 

FINAT & Lejeune association management

What does the role of Lejeune mean for FINAT?

Chris: ‘Huge, absolutely a huge role. Lejeune has changed the way of managing FINAT. Over time Bert has joined the team and made changes in the communication. I’m no expert on Zoom. But I can see there has been a committed effort within Lejeune for this platform to stay connected. And yes, occasionally things can go wrong, it’s still technology. We had Zoom meetings all the time; technical seminars, awards events. This year we even had our European Label Forum (ELF) online, several webinars and a learning platform. Lejeune has done a fantastic job bringing that all together and managing that. The industry and FINAT owe Lejeune a lot to make this happen. Jules: “You and your team make the job pleasurable and easy.’

Philippe: ‘I can only say, I absolutely agree with Chris and I’m looking forward to working with Lejeune during my presidency in the coming years.’

Text: Ria Luitjes
Pictures: FINAT, and or Chris Ellison / Philippe Voet