Greg Hrinya, Associate Editor08.14.15
Great Lakes Label, a label manufacturer in Comstock Park, MI, USA, hosted the inaugural Labeling Innovation Summit on August 5 at its headquarters. The event’s exhibitors included Kodak, Mark Andy, Actega, Avery Dennison, Wilson Manufacturing, SPGPrints, among others. Customers were represented from companies like Amway, Anheuser-Busch and Bissell.
Over 70 guests and 10 exhibitors attended the first-time event, which did not require a fee to enter. The Summit provided customers, who might not have the chance to attend global events, the opportunity to receive the same kind of experience.
“A lot of businesses and our consumers, clients, are not able to attend label expos or conferences that are going to give them innovative idea strategies that are going to enhance their labeling projects,” explained Diane Umoh, marketing administrator at Great Lakes Label. “So, we wanted to bring the show to them in a way that was more one-on-one. Sometimes when you go to a larger show, it’s really overwhelming because of all that’s there, so we picked suppliers from every key aspect of the flexographic printing industry and brought it to them.”
The event offered a forum for multiple sides of the supply chain to collaborate and brainstorm. Customers were looking for ways to stand out on the shelves and create products that “wow the consumer.” Sustainability and label enhancements also were frequently discussed. When talking with an Anheuser-Busch representative, Great Lakes Label noted two developments. The first featured multiple color usage on foil, all with limited dot gain. The second included sustainable options for foil, including materials like Actega’s MiraFoil and various design options.
“One of our suppliers that I was having a conversation with said that he’s been in the industry 20 years, and he’s never seen an event like this, bringing customers and suppliers together,” said Todd Staskiewicz, sales director at Great Lakes Label. “He was excited as a supplier to be able to talk to an end user, a brand owner, so that was a positive.
In addition to networking and collaboration, Great Lakes Label offered numerous demonstrations to attendees. The company set up multiple printing presses to convey each step of the supply chain, from prepress to rewinding. The company’s presses used each of the exhibitors’ products to create the labels. The presses ran every 30 minutes for approximately five minutes, which allowed attendees to visit all of the stations.
All ten vendor booths came equipped with a 10 X 10 section, complete with products and informational brochures. Within the Great Lakes Label plant, there were 14 stations dedicated to each individual step of the process. “Every step of the flexographic printing process had a station,” added Umoh. “Starting from ink mixing, all the way through rewinding. Every person had their own internal employee who worked at that station, so they were able to speak about what that means in flexographic printing and what that means for their label.”
According to Great Lakes Label founder Tony Cook, the event gave attendees a different kind of experience and generated considerable feedback. “This was one of the first times that customers got to meet with their label supplier’s supply chain and see what was new beyond what that particular label company had just shown to them. Then, they could go look at it actually running on the press and talk to each department, from the plate mounting to on-press. For most of them, it was a one of a kind opportunity. It was a learning event for a lot of people.”
As part of the Labeling Innovation Summit, Greak Lakes Label provided an Innovation Center, an Exhibitor Zone where attendees could “Meet the Experts,” and a behind-the-scenes look at flexographic printing. “People got a chance to get up close and personal to the live press demonstrations and see what was running,” said Umoh. “They got to see a giant roll of stock and how that turned into a printed label. A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to see that kind of production environment.”
Great Lakes Label originated as a brokerage company working out of an apartment in 1994. Cook started the business with a Mark Andy tape press and ultimately purchased his first label press–a Webtron 750 5-color–in 1998. Cook subsequently merged his sales brokerage and manufacturing companies into Great Lakes Label in 2002.
The company is no stranger to flexographic presses. Upon expanding into Great Lakes Label, Cook added several more Webtron presses and a Mark Andy 4120 8-color press. Today, Cook is running Mark Andy’s Performance Series, which includes a P5 and P7. “We’ve added a lot of upgrades to those presses,” explained Cook. “Now we have a P5 press that has 11 ink stations, plus two independent rotary screen stations. It can also do hot stamp, so we can do a total of 14 colors on that press.”
The converter prints high-end labels in the horticulture, beer and wine, spirits, and health and beauty industries. “We’re very diversified,” said Cook. “No one market is more than 15% of our portfolio, and we are growing in all markets. We’re finding more and more of the markets are interested in the new tactile coatings, soft touch coatings, prismatic effects and oils, so we’re now a more innovative, creative company to all the markets we serve with the high-end techniques that are available in flexographic printing today. And that kind of led into the Labeling Innovation Summit.”
The company’s printing capabilities, including quick turnaround beta testing, inspired the event. “Because we have all of this equipment and we’ve done a lot of beta testing, we figured why not do a label summit that shows all of this off.”
Due to the event’s success, Cook looks forward to building upon the inaugural Labeling Innovation Summit. “We have agreed that it’s going to happen again next year,” he said. “From the supply side, it was of value for the customers to see, and maybe we’ll have some new techniques to share next year.”
For more coverage about the event, a podcast and slideshow are also available.
Over 70 guests and 10 exhibitors attended the first-time event, which did not require a fee to enter. The Summit provided customers, who might not have the chance to attend global events, the opportunity to receive the same kind of experience.
“A lot of businesses and our consumers, clients, are not able to attend label expos or conferences that are going to give them innovative idea strategies that are going to enhance their labeling projects,” explained Diane Umoh, marketing administrator at Great Lakes Label. “So, we wanted to bring the show to them in a way that was more one-on-one. Sometimes when you go to a larger show, it’s really overwhelming because of all that’s there, so we picked suppliers from every key aspect of the flexographic printing industry and brought it to them.”
The event offered a forum for multiple sides of the supply chain to collaborate and brainstorm. Customers were looking for ways to stand out on the shelves and create products that “wow the consumer.” Sustainability and label enhancements also were frequently discussed. When talking with an Anheuser-Busch representative, Great Lakes Label noted two developments. The first featured multiple color usage on foil, all with limited dot gain. The second included sustainable options for foil, including materials like Actega’s MiraFoil and various design options.
“One of our suppliers that I was having a conversation with said that he’s been in the industry 20 years, and he’s never seen an event like this, bringing customers and suppliers together,” said Todd Staskiewicz, sales director at Great Lakes Label. “He was excited as a supplier to be able to talk to an end user, a brand owner, so that was a positive.
In addition to networking and collaboration, Great Lakes Label offered numerous demonstrations to attendees. The company set up multiple printing presses to convey each step of the supply chain, from prepress to rewinding. The company’s presses used each of the exhibitors’ products to create the labels. The presses ran every 30 minutes for approximately five minutes, which allowed attendees to visit all of the stations.
All ten vendor booths came equipped with a 10 X 10 section, complete with products and informational brochures. Within the Great Lakes Label plant, there were 14 stations dedicated to each individual step of the process. “Every step of the flexographic printing process had a station,” added Umoh. “Starting from ink mixing, all the way through rewinding. Every person had their own internal employee who worked at that station, so they were able to speak about what that means in flexographic printing and what that means for their label.”
According to Great Lakes Label founder Tony Cook, the event gave attendees a different kind of experience and generated considerable feedback. “This was one of the first times that customers got to meet with their label supplier’s supply chain and see what was new beyond what that particular label company had just shown to them. Then, they could go look at it actually running on the press and talk to each department, from the plate mounting to on-press. For most of them, it was a one of a kind opportunity. It was a learning event for a lot of people.”
As part of the Labeling Innovation Summit, Greak Lakes Label provided an Innovation Center, an Exhibitor Zone where attendees could “Meet the Experts,” and a behind-the-scenes look at flexographic printing. “People got a chance to get up close and personal to the live press demonstrations and see what was running,” said Umoh. “They got to see a giant roll of stock and how that turned into a printed label. A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to see that kind of production environment.”
Great Lakes Label originated as a brokerage company working out of an apartment in 1994. Cook started the business with a Mark Andy tape press and ultimately purchased his first label press–a Webtron 750 5-color–in 1998. Cook subsequently merged his sales brokerage and manufacturing companies into Great Lakes Label in 2002.
The company is no stranger to flexographic presses. Upon expanding into Great Lakes Label, Cook added several more Webtron presses and a Mark Andy 4120 8-color press. Today, Cook is running Mark Andy’s Performance Series, which includes a P5 and P7. “We’ve added a lot of upgrades to those presses,” explained Cook. “Now we have a P5 press that has 11 ink stations, plus two independent rotary screen stations. It can also do hot stamp, so we can do a total of 14 colors on that press.”
The converter prints high-end labels in the horticulture, beer and wine, spirits, and health and beauty industries. “We’re very diversified,” said Cook. “No one market is more than 15% of our portfolio, and we are growing in all markets. We’re finding more and more of the markets are interested in the new tactile coatings, soft touch coatings, prismatic effects and oils, so we’re now a more innovative, creative company to all the markets we serve with the high-end techniques that are available in flexographic printing today. And that kind of led into the Labeling Innovation Summit.”
The company’s printing capabilities, including quick turnaround beta testing, inspired the event. “Because we have all of this equipment and we’ve done a lot of beta testing, we figured why not do a label summit that shows all of this off.”
Due to the event’s success, Cook looks forward to building upon the inaugural Labeling Innovation Summit. “We have agreed that it’s going to happen again next year,” he said. “From the supply side, it was of value for the customers to see, and maybe we’ll have some new techniques to share next year.”
For more coverage about the event, a podcast and slideshow are also available.