We have a customer that makes specialty chemicals. They have over 50 products. They produce chemicals that are filled in containers ranging from 16oz bottles to 5-gallon pails. The challenge is the labels are printed in four color process with quantities as small as 250 labels, and that they are all the different sizes. Yes, the labels are auto applied.
How do you keep set up costs on small quantities with variable sizes affordable?
Traditional label printing would have required 200 plus plates at an average cost of $60 per plate. That’s over $12,000 in plates. What about the tooling costs for die cutting 10 different sizes? Normal die costs for the tooling would be $3000 plus. By the way, we have a group of labels that are 19” long and yes they are four color process.
We use digital printing technology which requires no plates! For die cutting, we use laser technology which eliminates the cost of the tooling. What about the 19” long label? We use UV cured, inkjet, label printing technology, which has no limit on the repeat length of the label.