Business South November 2021

92 | Label & Litho MANUFACTURING Leading the way in quality labelling Karen Phelps The company’s award-winning labels have become a firm favourite for an ever increasing range of clients that span many industries. L abel & Litho (L&L) consistently delivers quality labels and service, backed by a team that has amassed over 500 years of printing experience. When combined with the latest technology, the company’s award-winning labels have become a firm favourite for an ever increasing range of clients that span industries includ- ing food and beverage, pharmaceutical and beauty products. As part of the Labelmakers Group, which purchased the company in 2018, L&L benefits from strong on-going capital investment so that customers have access to the best tech- nological advances the industry offers, says L&L general manager Thomas Kaffes. With two manufacturing and sales sites in New Zealand, Wellington and Hamilton, L&L can produce short to long runs of labels and has two key printing methods to achieve the desired outcome as efficiently and cost-effec- tively as possible. “At L&L we make significant investments into new presses and machinery with the re- sult that our plant is among the most modern and efficient in New Zealand,” he explains. “In addition to our four flexo printing press- es, we also have three reel-fed HP Indigo digi- tal presses. Our conventional flexo machines are capable of producing runs in the tens to hundreds of thousands. “Our digital presses don’t require plates to print labels. This means we can individu- alise labels quickly and easily, plus do small, bespoke print runs without the setup costs of a conventional printing machine. “The print quality is industry leading and we are able to print up to seven colours – in- cluding spot colours. “Changes to colours on the press can be made with just the click of a mouse. “We have the machine capacity for labels of up to nine colours, as well as hot-foiling, cold-foiling, screen-printing, perforating, print- ing on the reverse, laminating, and printing on the backing sheet.” The company’s Australasian backing is underpinned by the fact that L&L is still very much a New Zealand business with its own management team ensuring it delivers exactly what its kiwi customers require, says Thomas. He is proud that L&L has the capabilities to work with customers from the inception of their product to when they become an inter- national success. A good example is Antipodes skincare, which L&L has been working with since the beginning. The company’s links with Labelmakers also means that as customers’ businesses grow L&L can offer additional items that may be re- quired such as folding cartons, shrink sleeves and linerless labels. Sustainability is another key strength, once again enhanced by the backing of Labelmak- ers: “There has been a perception around printing of any kind in terms of its environ- mental credentials. Ironically it’s a percep- tion that’s not necessarily deserved but it’s encouraged the printing industry to become even more environmentally sensitive,” says L&L national sales manager Steven Crilly. “And at L&L we are certainly committed to maintaining an excellent standard of environ- mental sustainability. We’re not interested in just being middle-of-the road in our industry. We want to be exceptional.” In 2006 L&L joined Landcare’s environmen- tal programme, achieving certification in 2008. The programme, now called Toitū Envi- rocare, conducts annual audits to ensure it maintains its commitments to improve resource efficiency and reduce waste and the use of energy, water and raw materials. In addition Labelmakers has its own dedi- cated Environment & Sustainability Commit- tee, which Thomas says has a big drive on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and re- ducing process waste going to landfill. Current initiatives also include turning self-adhesive label liner offcuts into blown insulation prod- uct diverting thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill. But Thomas and Steven say that impor- tantly sustainability must start with working closely with key stakeholders – raw material suppliers, brand-owners, recycling companies, governments and the community – in order to provide environmentally optimised and sustainable closed loop solutions. With experience across most markets L&L can work with customers to ensure they have the best and most environmentally friendly solution. “Our focus is on price, quality, speed to market and shelf presence, ultimately helping our customers to stay ahead of their competitors,” says Thomas. “At L&L we’re nimble and creative enough to work with our customers to make the right label for practically every purpose. We create the labels our customers want, when they want them, with no compromise.” Tel: 0800 425-223 Email: info@label.co.nz www.label.co.nz At Label and Litho we have a passion for printing labels and this shines through in the quality of the broad range of labels that we produce Our world class printing presses (both conventional exographic and digital) and state of the art nishing lines mean that whatever the quantity, whatever the look, we have the best equipment for the job. Our nishing lines give us the ability to add the latest and the very greatest embellishments to the labels that we produce – hi build, foils, embossing, sculptured and foil embossing, texture coatings, security coding and more. We have just added a brand new state of the art 10 colour Flexographic press with full embellishment capabilities, this brings our press numbers to 4 X Flexo & 3 Digital. Along with our commitment to producing high quality labels we have a commitment to environmental sustainability and in 2008 became the rst label printers in NZ to achieve Enviro-mark Gold. To keep us true to our environmental commitments, an external auditor reviews us every year. We are proud to sight our customers’ labels on shelves everywhere, not just in New Zealand but internationally.