expanded our presence around the world in this relatively new  market for CCL. Our geographic reach across 23 countries naturally  diversifies macroeconomic and currency risks for investors.  As the U.S. economy slowly improved in the second half of  2011, North American sales recovered from a soft start to  end the year slightly up, and our European operations posted  solid growth despite the Eurozone debt crisis. Emerging  markets offered our customers greater opportunities, and this  drove double-digit sales growth for us in these geographies.  Excluding the impact of currency translation, worldwide Label sales increased by 7% and profitability improved slightly  compared to 2010, despite significant material cost inflation.  Our 21.8% EBITDA* margin continued to be at the high end  of the range for the specialty packaging industry.  CCL Design benefited from the export success of our German  OEM customers and had another solid year. Emerging markets now represent over 20% of CCL Label’s  total revenues and remain a major success story. Sales in Asia  passed $75 million for the first time and continue to grow at  a rapid pace. Thankfully, our Thai operations were unaffected  by the terrible floods in Bangkok in terms of physical damage.  However, some customers closed their factories temporarily  for safety reasons, and the remainder were forced to cut  production levels, reducing demand significantly in the fourth  quarter. We expect to see a robust rebound in the first half of  2012 to replenish depleted inventories. To prepare for that  and the ongoing growth in the region, CCL will invest a further  $10 million in Thailand in 2012, with a third facility in Bangkok  providing much-needed additional capacity. All business sectors and geographic regions performed to  expectations in 2011. We continue to gain share in the Home  & Personal Care sector as customers consolidate through  mergers and acquisitions and look to retain fewer and larger  suppliers that are able to serve them from multiple locations  around the world. Strong double-digit sales increases in Latin  America and Asia were offset by slower growth rates in the  developed world. However, nearly 40% of our sales in this  sector now come from emerging markets. Latin America continues to provide growth opportunities in all  our customer sectors. Our Brazilian and Mexican operations  both had banner years in 2011 with strong double-digit  sales growth and excellent profitability levels. This gave us  confidence to invest $20 million in Brazil over 2011 and  2012, doubling the size of our plant in São Paulo and adding  significant capacity to our sleeve operation in Criciúma in the  southern state of Santa Catarina. Last year, Brazil overtook the  United Kingdom as the sixth-largest economy in the world. In 2011, our Healthcare & Specialty sector posted solid results  in all regions of the world despite slower conditions in the  agricultural chemicals market in the United States that were  attributed by some customers to unusual weather patterns this  past year. Sales to Healthcare customers were solid overall  and enhanced in North America by the addition of Sertech, a  pharmaceutical label business located in Chicago, which we  acquired in April. Last summer, we also opened a new plant in  the Raleigh-Durham Triangle in North Carolina to service the  fastest-growing region of the United States for pharmaceutical  manufacturing. Results were solid in Europe despite the  region’s macroeconomic issues, and emerging markets grew  rapidly from a small base.  Russia remains an important market for customers, it became  the second-largest economy in Europe after Germany in 2011.  After a difficult start in the important vodka market, we had  another profitable year at our CCL-Kontur joint venture. In  September we completed our Pacman-CCL transaction, which  covers the oil-producing states of the Middle East from its  headquarters in Dubai. In 2012 the venture, currently with  three operations, will start up a new plant in Jeddah, Saudi  Arabia, and is evaluating options to enter India. CCL holds  a 50% economic interest in all of these investments and is  actively involved as the strategic partner. We continue to seek  out opportunities in new geographic markets. This past year,  we established licence agreements with Master Label, the  largest label converter in Indonesia, and DekoPak, a well- known producer of sleeve labels in Turkey. Both companies  trade under the CCL name in conjunction with their own and  use our corporate identity system.  CCL Label’s Food & Beverage sector continues to grow as  customers adopt new decorating concepts, using our sleeves  and pressure sensitive labels to replace traditional wet glue  systems or direct printing on a wide range of consumer brands.  Despite the soft European economy and raw material cost  inflation, our large operations in the region delivered stable  performance. Results in the small U.S. operations were mixed  but improved substantially in Brazil. Sales to Wine & Spirit  customers were also up – significantly from a low base as we  2 CCL Industries Inc. 2011 Annual Report