Tilting the Playing Field

His strategy was to be early.

For tech industry veteran and serial early adopter Josh Feller, adding an inkjet label press was a strategy for offering digital label printing ahead of other companies, keeping business in house, and bringing in more. And, he wanted to free up his larger equipment—EFI VUTEk flatbed printers—for work that better matched their size and capabilities.

Until the EFI Jetrion arrived, he was using a couple of large format printers to produce labels. So, the transition to a “regular” label press simply made sense. Feller’s choice was the Jetrion 4950 LX, fully equipped with white ink and CMYK capabilities, LED UV curing, laser cutter, a slitter, inline lamination, and more, with the entire machine taking up 38 linear feet of floor space.

“When I looked at what we wanted to do there was really no other choice,” says Feller, president of ColorZone in Benicia, CA (www.colorzone.com), about 15 minutes from downtown Napa, the epicenter of the California wine industry. “It is also a way to keep ahead of the competition, which is very important because we are a small shop.”

Now, in combination with the Jetrion, that small size has given ColorZone the agility to be more responsive to customer needs. “For instance, we recently had a customer that needed an additional label applied to a product in order to meet a particular government requirement. They just wanted enough labels—about 20,000—to get the product back on the shelves. But using the Jetrion, we delivered the entire order of 100,000 labels in a matter of hours.”

Several competitors have flexo presses and can handle very long runs, but as the industry shifts to more shorter runs Feller thinks having inkjet positions him well. “I have a client who wants to do a million labels a month, but with 30 to 40 SKUs: 10,000 of this, 17,000 of that, 8,000 of another, the biggest one is 30,000. Can those 30K be done cheaper on a flexo? Sure. But I’m 20 minutes away and can turn the job around faster. It’s easier for the client.”

Being surrounded by the California wine industry has kept Feller attuned to the sometimes unique needs of winemakers. While some prefer the elegance that can be achieved using flexographic presses, inkjet presses bring other advantages. “The UV curing can give labels a slightly embossed look that has a tactile appeal which some winemakers like,” says Feller. “Then there’s the speed with which we can deliver labels.”

Because wine is an alcoholic beverage, labels must pass muster with government agencies. This is usually a simple matter, but vintners have been known to print labels ahead of that approval only to find the labels lacked a certain requirement. “With the inkjet press, we just wait until approval and run the job without worrying about errors or waste,” recounts Feller.

The Jetrion has also worked as an extension to some work ColorZone was already doing. “We were already making prototype labels, but when larger volumes were required the customers would go elsewhere,” Feller says. “Now we can keep that customer. And some bigger label shops are coming to us for prototypes because they can’t handle them efficiently on their systems.”

Label Publishing

In nearly the opposite corner of the United States, Labels in Motion (www.labelsinmotion.com) does what it calls “label publishing,” producing labels that resonate with customers’ markets. This includes artwork, substrate selection, printing, and finishing. The company business philosophy is that people come first, and that meaningful business relationships can help companies have a greater impact on their industries.

Some of this approach stems from the thinking behind Xymogen, a leading producer of nutraceutical products and Labels in Motion’s parent company. Housed in an immaculate, glass-walled space just off the spacious lobby of Xymogen’s Orlando, FL headquarters, Labels in Motion works with a wide range of food and beverage firms, cosmetics, and personal care product companies. The press of choice is a Xeikon 3500, run in conjunction with a GM near-line coating, laminating, diecutting and inspection system. While the two machines can be connected when needed, having each as a standalone device offers greater flexibility.

According to Steve Kirchoff, vice president of sales for Labels in Motion, the Xeikon is ideal for the visually compelling labels Xymogen and other customers require, but the advantages go further. Lot numbers, expiration dates, QR codes, bar codes, and other data-driven information are required for every nutraceutical container, making data-driven print an imperative. Also, with run lengths often tied to varying demand and relentless product production schedules, the flexibility of the digital press makes it the best fit for the ever-changing mix of jobs. For example, even within the company’s minimum run length of 100 labels it’s not unusual for a job to consist of multiple versions of the same size label, with varying quantities of each, all requiring different graphics and copy.

Taking the digital advantage

Taking the digital advantage at A-Flex are Curtis Feipel, press operator (left), and Tom Carroll, president.

“If you don’t have a digital press you are at a disadvantage in the market,” affirms Tom Carroll, president of Labeltape Group in Caledonia, MI (www.labeltape-inc.com) and A-Flex Label Corporation in Willowbrook, IL (www.aflexlabel.com). The company runs a full range of labels on an impressive array of equipment but turns to its Epson SurePress inkjet press to keep pace with continually shifting customer demands. A-Flex began offering digital a few years ago using a small tabletop machine. It soon outgrew that device and acquired the Epson, which adds capacity and helps optimize how the company’s presses are used.

Like other shops with a mix of digital and flexo equipment, A-Flex generally uses the SurePress for shorter jobs, although this is dependent on the size of labels. “It’s really all over the place,” explains Carroll. “We might do up to 10,000 4 x 6-inch prime labels, but run 50,000 1 x 1 inch labels, or 10,000 each of multiple versions of a single label. The advantage is that the SurePress lets us handle these jobs even when the flexo presses are fully committed,” says Carroll. “Being able to avoid plate changes and use some standard dies lets us turn jobs much faster. And when we do need a die we can get a magnetic one overnight. Overall, it means we can meet the customer’s needs and let the flexo presses handle longer jobs with less interruption.”

Some jobs, though, may be run on either press, which can lead to certain challenges. “The digital press can produce a higher quality label than the flexo press,” he notes. “So, we have to make sure the flexo presses are set up to print the highest possible image quality.” In the interest of transparency, Carroll’s team makes a practice of always letting customers know which press will be used, even though the choice of press may not matter to the customer. The Epson SurePress at A-Flex is set up to use seven colors plus white, to provide the most flexibility for customer requirements.

And finally, the digital press also serves as an entry point for new business. Customers will start with short runs, shift to flexo as volume grows, then use both technologies depending on need.

Compelling cartons

While most digital presses are used for label printing, folding cartons are hardly being left out.  McBattas Packaging and Printing (see “Never say No,” February packagePRINTING), and other players are also seizing the opportunity. And showing just how much digital tilts the playing field, one company doesn’t actually think of printing as one of the services it offers.

That would be OTC Group (www.otcgc.com), a Canadian firm that describes itself as a high performance marketing and promotions company that uses packaging as a communications vehicle. OTC merges a group of software developers, database professionals and analytics experts with a team of designers and packaging production specialists. The company claims to be the first in North America to connect digital printing and packaging with advanced database segmentation analytics and development for increasing and tracking the ROI of marketing programs. “Brand owners,” says company president and COO Tim Graham, “are looking for ways to engage customers with emotion or a personal connection and variable print on cartons is one way to do that.

OTC uses a Xerox iGen 4 and an iGen 150 to print folding cartons that bear personalized messages, unique bar codes, serial numbers, and more as elements in marketing campaigns. Due to sheet width and length limitations (14.3˝ x 26˝) carton sizes can be limited, but a multiple-up run of 3.5˝ X 5.25˝ cartons might total 800,000 cartons.

“The iGens aren’t here to solve a short-run printing issue, but to let us use variable content in a way that enhances ROI,” says Graham. “The iGen produces the vehicle—the value is the data.” And to handle that an important element is the RIP.

The Xerox iGen evolved in a corner of the commercial printing world where constantly changing data was critical for direct marketing and transactional printing. That means the RIP behind the iGens at OTC can easily handle the heavy load of variable images, serial numbers, copy and other content used on OTC’s cartons. Being able to work with the data is the job of the company’s data experts, and then the iGens just print the jobs. Finishing, which can include coating, scoring, and trimming is all done offline.

Yet the big Xerox machines still address an issue familiar to any print provider—controlling waste. “In a traditional world you might need to run a thousand cartons to get the color right. You’d throw those away, then print the job, which would go to a co-packer for serialization using inkjet. With the iGen we run a few sheets to check color, then run the entire job, serialization and all.”

Mixing it up

Both the data handling and short-run abilities are in play at Mid-York Press in Sherburne, NY (www.midyorkpress.com) where a Xerox iGen 150 handles short-run and customized folding cartons that can’t be produced on the company’s offset presses. Digital packaging specialist Tom Revoir says the machine comfortably runs from 80-lb gloss text up to 18-point SBS with run lengths ranging up to 5,000 sheets. Beyond that volume and it’s usually more cost effective to use one of Mid-York’s offset presses.

Yet, having both technologies under one roof offers ‘big picture’ advantages for Mid-York. “Larger companies that normally ask for long runs on the offset presses are also using the iGen for short runs of new products and for test marketing. At the same time, we’re able to help out smaller companies that are starting up and those that don’t need large runs now, but who may turn to us for longer runs as their needs change.”

Mid-York is also seeing more and more variable data jobs, and Revoir thinks others are on the way as consumer products companies leverage the ability to customize and target messaging. In that respect he thinks digital printing is a marketing manager’s dream. “It’s the wave of the future.”

ColorZone’s Josh Feller agrees: “Banking on technology was the right thing to do. And it put me ahead of the competition!”