OVERVIEW:
From mashing soybeans to printing sophisticated labels? Certainly, not the usual journey for a narrow web label converter, but precisely the path undertaken by LabelTec, Inc. in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Randy Hargadine’s mother and father started up cottage-industry Western Brand Tofu in 1982. His father was a retired professor and his mother a volunteer at a local food coop who enjoyed natural foods. Although they liked the idea of owning their own business, cooking tofu became quite laborious involving big pans over hot stoves. When they needed labels for their tofu containers, Randy’s mother defied common wisdom and bought an early-generation Mac computer SE with an 8 inch screen and did her own designs. At the time, labels were created with camera distortion and Randy’s mother decided to distort the artwork mathematically for a better image. When a local grocery store chain liked the look of their labels and asked them to create more for other products the Hargardines bought a table top one color press. Soon, other small companies in the area began to see the labels in grocery stores and asked the Hargadines to make labels for their products as well in various die sizes and shapes.
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