Digital decision

Nigel Painton, founder of Commercial Label Products

“Using the digital press, we completed the job within three hours. On a conventional press, this would have taken two days, with each version requiring three passes"

Nigel Painton started Commercial Label Products Ltd, Congleton, Cheshire, on his own 27 years ago. Since then, it has grown into a thriving printing business, specialising in short- to medium-run-length label production with many blue chip clients.

The company runs a battery of conventional presses, the last of which was an 8-colour Lintec UV letterpress machine purchased in 1999.

`In this time, we have gone from a mail order label printer to a busy and expanding trade label supplier. There was a growing market for short-run, high-quality labels from the larger flexo houses and the printing industry in general. They realized such work could be profitably subcontracted to a smaller and more flexible company like us, who were set up for such specialist work,' recalls Painton.

By 2005, Commercial Label Products was prospering with a workforce of 20, but faced a common dilemma: `We needed to expand, but were running out of space. We wanted to open further doors which would only be possible with a migration to digital and the loss of one of the older letter press machines, to make way for the new technology. It was clear the market was moving towards digital production and if we were to remain competitive, it was the move we needed to make.'

Painton eventually decided on the purchase of an HP Indigo ws4050 digital press with an AB Graphics Digicon finishing machine, and sealed the deal at Labelexpo Brussels last year.

“The difference in technology was challenging at first,' says Ian Bresolin, Commercial Label Products production manager. ‘However, once the training started, we soon realized that we would learn how to operate the press quickly and enjoyed seeing the high-quality results that could be produced.'

The transition to digital printing can be a daunting decision for many traditional printers, but Nigel Painton has integrated the HP Indigo press ws4050 to work alongside his other conventional presses.

`We have retained our UV letterpress machines, and the two processes dovetail together well. We run the simple 1, 2 or 3 color mid length runs on the smaller letterpress machines, the longer run multi-color jobs on the larger 8 colour press and the short to medium-run length jobs and those requiring variable data very cost-effectively on the digital press. We are now printing a wide variety of work for blue-chip companies across the oil, automotive, chemical, food and toiletry industries, and the HP Indigo press has opened doors for many more opportunities, such as producing sachets and shrink sleeves for the packaging market.'

Painton recalls a particularly demanding job for a client who produces tracking devices for the automotive industry. The 5-color (including white) labels on silver paper comprised a series of three variable data options, in a run-length of 5,000. `Using the digital press, we completed the job within three hours. On a conventional press, this would have taken two days, with each version requiring three passes.'

This new capability is enabling Commercial Labels to explore avenues such as offering customers a re-issuing service where they can simply update the information on existing labels as and when the data changes. Since platemaking is not required, this is a cost-effective process and the company can also offer free printed proofs, the same day in some instances.

Labels and Labeling June/July 2006 Issue 3 Volume 28 Page 34