Make it stick

Make it stick

Labels can make good packaging great. Huge flexibility for fresh branding, eye-catching design and product information means that labels are as loved by start-ups as they are by big brands. Emma-Jane Batey speaks to driving forces across the label value chain to learn more.

For start-up brands, buying off-the-shelf packaging and adding custom-made labels is a smart way to build without adding unnecessary costs. For established brands, labels give terrific flexibility with special offers and limited editions. What's not to like?

For Hannah May, co-founder and owner of The Cornish Seaweed Bath Company, designing and sourcing beautiful labels is a chance to illustrate the natural elements of the brand without compromising on its squeezed start-up budget. May says, “In the years before we launched The Cornish Seaweed Bath Company, we were always thinking of the products and their performance. Now we find that a lot of our time is taken up with the packaging; it's so integral to the brand. We are totally confident in the product – hand-picked Cornish seaweed used in highly effective skin care – that we want to make sure the packaging reflects our confidence in every way.”

May and her co-founder and partner Richard Doggett both currently do every element of the business themselves, from running the website to sticking the labels – made by digital online labels specialist Sticky Things – on the carefully-sourced blue glass bottles and recycled cardboard packaging. The fact that the brand has recently enjoyed a number of very positive influential reviews, including in The Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal, means that this is all set to change. May continues, “We realised that multinational companies often want to promote themselves with family values, or promote being local and ethical, [whereas] when you're a start-up you try to come across as bigger. So we've made sure we stay true to our values – being small, authentic, totally natural – while being ready to grow. The packaging is part of that. We designed it using the imagery of the Cornish coast and the famous blue and white stripes of Cornishware pottery. Our labels feature our illustrated seaweed logo and are a great way to effectively customise our packaging.”

 Go digital

Digital printing has clearly got an important role to play when it comes to offering highly responsive flexibility to customers. For Bristol Labels, establishing and maintaining a smart balance between heavy continued investment and a family-run business has allowed this flexographic and digital printing company to impress customers across the UK.

Bristol Labels managing director Paul Stokes explains how it stays responsive to its customers' needs: “Predominantly, we are a flexo house, but the past couple of years have seen us invest in some fabulous digital equipment, which has allowed us to grow by 28% since 2014. We were outsourcing our digital printing before, but after buying the digital inkjet Epsom Digital Short Press, we've realised that was madness! We are so excited to be able to produce exceptionally high-quality, second-to-none digital printing in-house now. It’s perfect for short runs as you just set it off and walk away. We can do mock-ups free of charge as we know that customers will always be impressed. It’s perfect for photoshoots too as it’s so crisp and quick.”

Stokes also tells Converting Today how Bristol Labels has recently upgraded its Nilpeter Flexo Press, installing an FP300, a 330-wide machine. He says, “We're a family-owned and managed business so we take investment seriously. We don't have any debt, all our employees are shareholders and we're dedicated to giving customers really excellent service, so we buy carefully. We're not about chasing massive volume work but we do promise a quick response – typically a digital job can be turned around in 5–8 days – and we always get repeat business! Labels are such a great way to boost a product, to have a special offer or to showcase a new formula; we work with our customers so we all get what we want. Our factory is also totally green as we're water-based and use no UV, and we've got our own in-house design studio too. We love what we do and our customers say that they can see it in our labels.”

Deliciously flexible

Bristol Labels customer Fussels Fine Foods certainly agrees. Growing British farm-to-table brand Fussels grows award-winning single cold-pressed extra-virgin rapeseed oil on its farm in Somerset, then turns it into a range of delicious oils, condiments and mayonnaise. Having recently relaunched its glass packaging with a fresh new label range, owner Andrew Fussells told Converting Today more about its importance. He says, “I knew I wanted to keep the caricature of me as it's become a fun part of our branding, but we wanted something more eye-catching, brighter, simpler...The boy on the label really personalises our product and highlights our family element, as well as helping our products stand out from the bigger brands. We worked with Bristol Labels to digitally print the new labels as we've been really happy with them before.

 “Everything we do is meant to reflect the quality of our product and the love we put into each and every jar. The new labels allowed us to keep using our glass jars and bottles but give them a fresh, affordable revamp. The labels are so flexible that it's great for new product launches too. For example, we're trying out a new truffle oil variety of our single cold pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil and we can piggyback all our existing packaging, distribution and so on and just commission a short run of new labels.”

For one of the world's largest label specialists NSD International, the importance of investment, flexibility and guaranteed quality is just as much of a focus as for independent providers. The largest of the Dutch giant’s three UK sites is based in Dalkeith and, thanks to recent investment in the latest digital press technology, the company's ongoing impressive export is showing that its capabilities are much appreciated. UK managing director Neil Mills says, “We've just invested in a new digital press that not only has the ability to produce increased speeds in terms of linear metres a minute, print on more substrates and increase our print capabilities with expanded colour ranges from our existing CYMK, plus one to seven-colour printing at offset quality. Our labels can be printed with added effects and finishes too, and our new digital investment gives us greater digital capacity.”

Focused on various forms of printing self-adhesive materials in all shapes and sizes and with over 150 years of experience, NSD International is pushing the boundaries of label manufacture. Mills added, “The decades of experience NSD has in roll-on-roll production started right at the dawn of pioneering production and we've continued to be innovative ever since. Even though we are large and international, we are still very much a partner to our customers and we pay great attention to detail and to their needs. Unique products in flexible media are our speciality; as one of the major players in this market, we work with multinational brands including PZCussons, Glenmorangie and Speyside Glenlivet, producing high-quality labels that perform exactly as needed, while being beautiful and completely reliable.”