Welcome to the Label Tech Inc Blog.

Beer labels with "Dynamic Numbering" are flying off the shelves in New Hampshire! Local New Hampshire brewery White Birch Brewing has been brewing beer commercially since June of 2009. In a short time span the company has grown very well due to excellent micro brew beer and a unique approach to label design made possible by Digital Printing.

Not only is White Birch Brewing a great beer maker, but they also support local business when it comes to selecting vendors. With the addition of a new 7 barrel brewing system at their brewery in Hooksett, NH the company has been brewing close to 10,000 bottles of beer a month and sometimes more. 

Label design is important in an industry that is flooded; and with the gaining popularity of micro brew beer in America in recent years Brian Parda (Director of Marketing and Sales at WBB) and Bill Herlicka (Founder and Master Brewer) knew that they needed a unique label that would stand out in a crowd. Their approach was simple yet highly effective: use dynamic numbering on their labels. In the label biz we refer to this as variable data. 

Digital printing is a new technology that has allowed for short run multiple sku/lot printing to be cost effective and superior in quality. White Birch Brewing needed just that. Many of the beers that are made at WBB are limited in quantity and Brian and Bill wanted to convey that to the customer. If you look at the WBB label you notice almost immediately that the bottles are numbered dynamically. Want to buy a bottle of Bill's Belgian Style Pale Ale? Well, then you might appreciate knowing that you got bottle number 47 of 240, or 48 of 240, or possibly even bottle number 1 of 240. The WBB label itself will tell you.

Here is what Brian Parda had to say about Label Tech Inc:

When we designed our labels, we wanted to showcase all the information beer lovers want to know about their beer. We also wanted to feature the size of our small batch production by numbering each bottle. LabelTech's ability to provide us with high quality digital printing and sequential numbering allowed us to do just that.

So if you get a chance to pick up a bottle of White Birch Brewing company's beer any time soon make sure you take a look at the label, it could be a number worth holding on to.

What the heck is four-color process or what is commonly referred to as full color? Well, don’t feel bad about not knowing or having limited knowledge on the subject. In flexographic printing and digital printing it is good to have a brief understanding of what 4CP stands for and what it can do for your labels. CMYK and full color are both commonly referred to terms in label printing. Full color is not anything special so don't worry about your friends laughing at you for not understanding what it means. It is just a commonly referred to term for 4CP. CMYK is important. CMYK refers to the colors that are used in four-color process: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The true meaning of the K is for Key Plate, however to make things simple let's just refer to it as the black plate. Click here to find out about our prepress department. Printing in 4CP allows for the printer to construct any color in the Pantone (PMS) book from these four colors. In doing so it allows the graphic designer who is creating your labels to get way more creative in designing your labels.

Side note: if you want a "spot color" then you are referring to us picking an actual PMS number out of the pantone book. If you look in a "bridge" book then you can see the difference between making a color out of 4CP versus using the actual color itself. It is a subtle difference but good to take in to consideration when designing a label.

The CMYK process works by partially or entirely subtracting reflective light from whatever surface it is covering. In most cases the surface is white and often times when a Flexographic printer is printing on clear surfaces they will first lay down a coat of white to get a better color reflection, much like a painter laying down a base coat. 

Label Tech Inc has become an expert at four-color process printing. We run 4CP on many of our flexographic Mark Andy presses and we also run 4CP on our digital press. 

Printing a four-color process image and then laying down one or more spot colors can make for a label that has pop or more shelf appeal then your competitors. Stay tuned for more info from Label Tech Inc on labels and labeling. 

Label Tech, Inc has been manufacturing food labels for the food industry since 1985. We have assisted customers such as Dunkin Donuts, Pearl Meat, Stonewall Kitchen, Cabot Cheese and many others. Food labeling can be a simple process and at other times often complicated. Are you labeling a glass jar or a plastic bottle? Is your product “hot fill” or room temperature? Are you labeling your product in a freezer or in a warehouse? If you have a product that is going to be exposed to condensation have you considered protecting the inks? There are many more questions to take into consideration.

At Label Tech, Inc our customer service department is constantly being trained in the art of application. At Label Tech application is everything.  What I mean by that is the series of questions that we need to take in to consideration in order to make sure your label sticks to your product, and that your customer can still clearly see your branding from the first use of your product to the last.

Gringo Jack’s is a small business based in Vermont. They make salsas and hot sauces that are… well… delicious! Jack and Michele who run the day-to-day operations of the company wear many hats. Small business owners are often busy people, their time is valuable. For Jack and Michele, becoming label experts in between running a company and promoting a brand wasn’t an option. They needed a vendor who understood their needs fast and was able to produce in a timely manner. They turned to Label Tech Inc.

Having a wide variety of salsas and hot sauces we understood immediately that the products we would be filling would most likely be run in combination so as to save Gringo Jack’s money by getting the price per thousand down over larger quantities. Side note- if your label manufacturer isn’t offering you price breaks at higher order quantities then you need to talk to us. Running in combo we were also able to use as many common plates as possible to get the plate charges down.

The first questions we had for Jack and Michele were all about application. If you can get the application of the label accurate the first time around, you can save everyone a lot of time, money and headache. One of the sales representatives at Label Tech was able to assess the situation quickly and professionally. Gringo Jack’s uses a hot fill technology- that is to say; the salsas and hot sauces are going into the glass jars at a high temperature. If we used a regular permanent adhesive, the labels would of bubbled and peeled off almost immediately. By switching to a freezer grade adhesive we were able to prevent this issue from occurring. Another issue that we wanted to avoid was having the inks on the front of the label run or smear over time by condensation or sauce being wiped off the front of the jar. By placing a lamination over the label we easily avoided this issue. Jack and Michele have been very pleased by our work.

If you are experiencing label issues with a food label you don’t have to put up with it! There are vendors out there who can assist you in having a better presentation with your product. Stay tuned for more blogs from your label experts at Label Tech!

Virginia Chutney is a family owned company based in Rappahannock county, VA. The company has been making specialty chutney's ranging in flavors from Balsamic Fig to Spicy Plum, Rhubarb and many others since Clare and Neville Turner founded the company and settled in VA. 

As a manufacturer of specialty chutneys the company grew and eventually needed a line for filling jars. Once the line was set up to run it was time to order food labels. Filling jars that are hot fill can be tricky when it is time for labeling. When the product is filled in the jar, often times the jar remains hot for some time. Placing a label on a hot jar may sound simple, but if your flexographic label printer isn't adhesive savy, it can make for messy labels. Their label problems didn't end with poor adhesive selection. 

Virginia Chutney was also experiencing issues with consistent label color. If your label printer is sending you inconsistent labels with every shipment, chances are either one of two things is going on: one, he's not printing the labels for you and he's subbing out the work to other printers each time for to find the best margins to make money off of you. If you are buying from a print distributor instead of going direct to a label manufacturer you are most likely paying 15-30% more than you should be for your labels. Or two- he doesn't know what he's doing. If you combine the issues that Virginia Chutney was having with their labels, chances are that's enough for you to look at a new vendor. 

Label Tech Inc is also a family owned and operated business and they were ready to make a difference for Virginia Chutney. 

Solving color issues is something we are very familiar with. Virginia Chutney has many different products that are all run with the same size label. This allowed Label Tech Inc to switch them over to a digital press for superior four color process label printing and unmatched color consistency. Our HP Indigo Digital press sits in a climate controlled room and our press operators mark down all the color readings on the job ticket. This allowed our press operators to match color exactly on all future repeat orders for Virginia Chutney. 

Freezer grade adhesive allowed us to run hot fill labels for them with no bubbling or peeling of the label after it was applied to the hot jar. Simple solutions are easy once you've been down that road before. Here is what Clare Turner had to say about Label Tech Inc's most recent order for Virginia Chutney: 

Just wanted to thank you for doing such a wonderful job with the Cranfiggy labels - we asked for a rushed job on a small amount of labels and then sent you the wrong UPC and yet you still managed to get them to us well ahead of time.

Our experience with printers has always been complicated but working with Label Tech Inc is a joy and we will recommend you at every opportunity we get.  We will be at the Fancy Food Show (Booth 3026) next week and if you plan to attend please try and visit us.

Thanks very much

Clare

Clare Turner
The Virginia Chutney Company

Label Tech Inc has over 25 years of experience in the label manufacturing business. We have been ISO Certified since 1998 and have a quality control procedure in place for every thing that we do. Please allow us to fix your label problems or take a look at us as a new vendor.