When winter brings logistics to a halt: causes and solutions. News | 10.02.2026

Underestimated threat to process reliability: outdoor storage in winter

In harsh industrial environments – whether in steelworks, precast concrete production or mechanical engineering – logistics largely takes place in the open air. What works smoothly in summer often becomes a hidden cost trap in winter. Frost, moisture and massive temperature fluctuations affect labelling to such an extent that complete traceability becomes a matter of luck.

When labels become a source of error

We observe a recurring pattern in our customers' daily practice: the choice of labelling is often only critically questioned when the first batches ‘disappear’ in the outdoor warehouse. The moment a label falls off or becomes illegible due to icing, the digital chain is broken.

For the operations manager or logistics manager, this means an immediate loss of efficiency. If the forklift driver has to get out at −10 °C to manually search for labels or re-identify batches, this not only costs valuable time, but also increases the error rate massively.

It's not about the label, it's about the process

The goal of professional industrial labelling is not the ‘perfect label’ itself. Rather, it is about ensuring a stable overall process. Seamless traceability must be independent of weather conditions.

The physical challenges are manifold:

• Cold-active adhesion: Conventional adhesives lose their viscosity at sub-zero temperatures and become brittle. The result: the label loses contact with the substrate.
• Moisture resistance: Condensation or snow must not soften the surface material.
• Scannability in icy conditions: A high-quality print image must remain clearly recognisable after de-icing.

Material coordination as a lever for cost reduction

This source of error can be eliminated through precise material coordination. As experts with over 45 years of experience, we know that it all comes down to the combination of specialised plastic substrates and cold-resistant adhesive systems.

In practice, for example in a steelworks, the use of frost-resistant GRAPHIPLAST® labels has been shown to drastically reduce search times in winter. The investment in technically coordinated labelling usually pays for itself after the first frost periods due to the elimination of rework and search times.

Conclusion for management

Process stability in winter is a matter of material selection. Those who adapt their labelling to the extreme conditions in outdoor storage at an early stage protect their supply chain from unnecessary interruptions.

Let us work together to check whether your current labelling is up to the task of coping with the coming frost periods. Often, it is small adjustments in the material that make a big difference in winter logistics.