The Mercian Labels Group are exhibiting at the Packaging Innovations Show - NEC 29 Feb- 1 March 2012

We are delighted that all the divisions of The Mercian Labels Group are exhibiting in the Ecopack zone of  The Packaging Innovations Show at the NEC near Birmingham on 29 February – 1 March 2012.

Our digital labelling process uses FDA food safe toners and is fuly deinkable for recycling

• Mercian Labels will be showing its latest digital labelling capabilities from the new Xeikon 3300 with FDA approved food safe inks and fully deinkable and recyclable digital label print.

AC Labels specialise in variable barcode labelling

• AC Labels will be exhibiting its high quality variable data labelling capabilities with 100% barcode verification

Label lock tamper proof security tape

• Security Labels International will be exhibiting its range of Label Lock tamper evident security labels and our latest innovation, tamper proof tape

Give our sales team a call and arrange a meeting or just pop up to see us.   You will find us on stand E22. Tickets are free and it is going to be one of the main UK packaging and labelling shows of 2012.

See you there!

On 1st December 2011 we decommissioned our Xeikon 330 digital label printing machine after many years of great service and upgraded to the latest Xeikon 3300 version.  Whilst the retiring machine was destined for recycling, we could not let the occasion pass without a celebration of its achievements over many years.  So we got our thinking caps on, and our sales team suggested we organise some celebratory dancing in a quintessentially English style…

Enter The Jockey Morris Men of Birmingham, who performed a series of traditional English “farewell” dances to see off our old machine into the sunset….

Among the dances performed were:

• Vandals of Hammerwich – a stick dance from the Lichfield tradition. The title comes from some inhabitants of Hammerwich (near Mercian Labels in Cannock) who set fire to a wood in Staffordshire in the Middle Ages – hence the placename of Burntwood.
• Lads a Buncham – a traditional fighting dance from the village of Adderbury in Oxfordshire. Danced with long sticks (quarterstaffs)
• Laudnum Bunches – a handkerchief dance from the village of Headington Quarry – now a suburb of Oxford. The title comes from Laudanum – a popular opiate!
• Highland Mary – a handkerchief dance from the village of Bampton in Oxfordshire. It is sometimes danced to the tune of ‘Norton New Bell Wake’ which comes from a poem in St Nicolas Church, Kings Norton which celebrates the installation of new bells in 1783.

We recorded some of it and have uploaded it to Youtube.

Enjoy!

the basic frame of a Xeikon digital label printing machine, showing the locations of the 5 print station stack

Last week I presented a case study on the adoption of digital label printing at an event organised by Xeikon in Lier, Belgium, and enjoyed a tour around their factory where our new digital label printing machine is being made.

Half way to being built, with most of the imaging technology assembled. This machine has a sheeter unit built in on the left hand side

It was really interesting to see how the 100+ machines a year are build and tested to such high standards, and the fantastic technology that is able to create the highest resolution in the market using its 1200dpi imaging technology manufactured in the factory clean room.

Our new machine is being installed in 2 weeks and we are looking forward to offering our customers the benefits of much higher resolution, better productivity and FDA approved, foodsafe and  deinkable toner.  Our team cannt wait!

We will be upgrading to the superb quality Xeikon 3300 in the first week of December 2011

At Label Expo 2011 we announced the exciting news that we are upgrading our digital labelling capability to include the new Xeikon 3300 – the fastest, highest quality, most environmentally friendly digital labelling solution available with fantastic lightfastness, no origination charges and brilliant colour resolution.

The installation will take place during the first week of December, so we ask and advise our customers to place orders wherever possible ahead of this time please to ensure we meet your delivery expectations we we expect to have limited digital label production during that week. All other processes will not be affected!

The upgrade will increase our capacity, improve lead times still further and give us even higher 1200dpi quality and more vibrant colours.  We cannt wait!

‘Trade’ customers are welcome to approach us about our special trade only service (as covered by Printweek) which will be further enhanced with the new installation.

Since I potted out all of my 80 chilli plants in May from the original batch, we have had a pretty cool summer, and it has not been a good year for chilli growing.  After a first small crop, the indian summer produced a second and final crop that I cut today before the frosts set in – its pictured above.  Compared to previous years, its been rubbish considering that I started off with 10x as many plants!  However, I am going to preserve what I have by drying on top of the boiler ready for some serious winter curries.  Better luck next year!

Do you want to earn £1000?

We are seeking to make a strategic appointment for our Cannock Operation by appointing a talented rising star in the labels/packaging industry to a new post of Operations Manager.

If you know of a suitable candidate who we should talk to through your network, then please email adrian.steele@mercianlabels.com with their name and we will do the rest.

If you are the first person to nominate them (judged by the time of your email to me) and we end up hiring them at any point in the next 12 months then we will send you £1000 after they have worked for us for 1 month as a thank you for the introduction.  This offer does not apply to agencies where we will have to pay an additional fee – it is intended for private individuals only, and you can donate the money to a charity of your choice  if you wish.

Celebrating the deal at LabelExpo (L-R) -- Paul Briggs - Industrial Sales Manager Xeikon UK, Adrian Steele - MD The Mercian Labels Group, and Wim Maes - CEO Xeikon

We were delighted to announce at last week that we have invested in the latest and fastest Xeikon 3300 digital labelling press to further bolster our digital labelling capabilities for our 9000 UK business customers.

This new press is fast, productive, fantastic 1200dpi quality, has excellent colour matching, it is solvent free & environmentally friendly as it can be recycled, and uses FDA approved food safe and lightfast toner.   It is simply the best current digital label printing technology you can buy.

The news  was covered by Label & Labelling, Printweek & The Labelling Blog amongst others.  This latest investment is on top of the £1M we announced earlier in 2011 and confirms our commitment to grow our digital labelling market.  The new press will be installed later this year and we will of course be looking for new business to fill its hungry capacity next year.

So if you are looking for a genuinely fast supplier of the very best digital labels from the UK market leader in short run label printing, then you know where to come!

(Are you a trade buyer or print management business with a significant digital labelling spend for your clients? If so, please contact our trade desk for details of our special MeTra deal)

Digital Printing for labels Seminar

We will be attending the digital label printing technical workshop run by BPIF Labels in Daventry, UK, on 2 November 2011.  It looks like a really good day for those in the UK labels industry to meet up and discuss a really important trend towards increased digital labelling, and one that we have just again invested into.

Speakers include Xeikon, Xaar, HP, LabelTrax, UPM Raflatac, AB Graphics & Esko Artwork, with a  keynote from labels industry legend Mike Fairley. The agenda is here and booking form here

If you are a labels user interested in digital labels, or otherwise involved in the industry, then it would be good to see you there.

(Ps – I suggest we use Twitter hashtag #bpiflabels)

Last week I was at the biggest Labelling show in the world, Label expo in Brusells, Belgium.  It was a fantastic event, certainly the best of the 6 Label Expos I have been too.  This is a review of my thoughts on the show and developments relevant to our customers and marketplaces in the same manner in which I did for the last show in 2009.

Its bulletted for my convenience and speed.  Please quickly add your thoughts to the comments once you’ve read it – no registration needed, just type and press!

General

• It was a great show with a lot of buzz about the place. Everyone seemed to be pleased with attendee numbers that were up 18.6^ on last year (28k in total!) and the quality of interest.
• The venue was as good as ever – I hope it doesn’t move as its a really good venue for the show
• Twitter was big this year with a lot of visitors, major brands and journalists commenting on the show as it happened using the #lablexpo hashtag . I certainly found some new technology by visiting stands mentioned on twitter that I would not otherwise have gone to.  I can only see Twitter usage exploding (try 137 tweets 831,151 impressions, reaching 80,940 followers using #labelexpo).  It was surprising the number of people who knew my tweets before I arrived on their stand this year!

Digital

The Label Technology Workshops were very good

• The head to head EFI v HP v Xeikon digital print workshops were great, a real showcase to watch the latest developments.  To me, the digital hall had the biggest and best buzz of all!  The displays of packaging/carton printed were also pretty good.  The best bit – watching Filip from Xeikon eating the toner to demonstrate its FDA food safe properties for direct food contact!

Xeikon remains our preferred platform so we bought another one at the show - part of the £30m+ spent on digital machines at the show itself!

• Xeikon introduced their varilane software enabling multiple variable jobs to be stacked up across the web, and optimised to use the least amount of material.  This seemed very clever and I am looking forward to seeing the final version when its ready in the coming months.  Xeikon also showed a great comparison of the effect of sunlight fading on the same image printed using UV inkjet, Xeikon Toner and HP liquid toner.  I will be posting abut this separately in the coming days.  Xeikon also introduced some new toner colours for the chemical markets (red and orange) and a new dry toner printable PE was also announced from Mactac (and a direct thermal material as well, although I did not see it).  Although limited, it does now mean that most substrates can be Xeikon printed, which has always been a major benefit of the HP platform over Xeikon.

HP Indigo WS6600 with inline coating

• The big news from HP was the launch of their WS4600 and WS6600 machines, with the main 2 differences I could tell from the existing very successful 4500 and 6000 models were
  • there was an “enhanced productivity mode” using 3 colour process (no black) rather than 4 colour, with a consequential improvement in speed and drop in click charge.  However, there didn’t seem to be any comparable samples on the stand of the same job done 3 and 4 colour, and no-one who I spoke to (and I spoke to a few…) had seem a comparison either, despite asking for them, nor seen it working on the stand.  So, I can not say if it was actually available, or if it works without a significant drop in quality – judge for yourself.
  • There was an addition brand protection package with invisible UV inks that was good if you need that facility.

There was also the launch of an inline primer coater for the WS6600- however it was apparently not seen working to coat any synthetic substrates, and I overheard talk of an patent related issue possibly being the cause.

HP also told me that they are now the world’s biggest label press manufacturer, having installed more presses in the past 2 years than any other manufacturer.  WOW – thats a really big statement, taking it away from the likes of Gallus, Nilpeter, Mark Andy etc.  It just shows how the world has gone digital, with the 2 powerhouses of HP and Xeikon rumoured to have sold a combined total of over £30m of machines in the first 2 days at the show!

• Durst had a really impressive 8 colour UV inkjet system on show, perhaps the best quality UV inkjet for the labels market we have seen to date;  the replacement Xaar 1001 head cost still scare me though!

Jetrion 4900 with inline laser converting

• EFI Jetrion had the new 4900 printer with inline laser die cutting  – again pretty good, just not the print quality of Xeikon and HP, or HD flexo really IMHO.
• The ultra slow but very high quality Epson Surepress machine was attracting a lot of interest, especially from the guys wanting to digitally print onto highly textured wine labels.  Watch this space with Epson, as I can see a major new platform coming out for label printing at DRUPA 2012. The substrates are unprimed, the ink water based, the quality very good – its now all about a synthetic substrate to work with and SPEED!
• Stork / SPG had their machine on the show again, which was IMHO on a par with the Durst unit in terms of quality.  In common with almost everyone apart from Xeikon however, there was no inline converting on show, but as a reel to reel solution with 8 inkjet colours, it was a pretty impressive use of Xaar print heads. Maybe 8 colours is the way to go to generate prime quality labels print from an inket platform?  Even so, there were still some noticeable blocked nozzle lines on the samples on display, but certainly a lot better than we have seen from SPG at the last show.  From the UV inkjet platforms, SPG and Durst appear to be battling it out for the highest quality.
• the CSAT Heidleburg launch product was again pretty good using (LED I think?) UV lamps, but again the running costs presented on the stand didnt make themselves competitive against HP and Xeikon, even with a much faster web speed. The price of inkjet heads really needs to be costed in a different manner (inclusive with ink costs?) to make them viable, as occasional consumable bill of £50k is too risky to incorporate into the running costs.  Inkjet manufacturers to note IMHO!
• The water based memjet technology was present from OWN-X from Hungary and Rapid Machinery from Australia.  On the right substrates the quality is pretty good most of the time, but the platforms were not really geared up for full industrial use and running many KMs of digital label material a day.  The requirement to stop the machine and break the web for an inkjet head clean every few hundred meters was a significant limitation on some platforms from what I saw.
• There were a lot of entry level desktop laser machines too like the Primera machines that seemed to get a lot of interest, and seemed ideal as a first step towards digital label production for a small labelling business, or an in house solution for small label user customers.
• There was a huge number of digital converting lines on show from businesses that I have rarely come across, or never heard off.  Traditionally this market has been dominated by AB Graphics and GM, but it is clear that there are many other solutions out there with the obvious semi rotary/varnish/laminating features, but also the odd multiple die station, foiling and screen printed units.  Its clear than many of the slitter rewinder manufactuers are eyeing this market up very keenly a lot of the premium priced work moves to digital from flexo, and the converting needs are different from conventional slitter rewinders.
• Laser die converting was again on display with a number of different solutions from different manufacturers including one for the Xeikon from GM.  At the moment it doesn’t seem to be economic to run with only 1 laser (too slow line speed) or 2 lasers (much faster but too expensive to install), and the inevitable white line problem is still there, but it is looking more attractive than ever.

Flexo+ converting

• This year Flexo didnt seem to show very many big developments, with HD now well established.  However I did speak to some people I thoguht would be highly focussed on digital, but in fact were shopping for flexo presses!  Flexo is still the major print process by far as far as I can tell.  All the focus was on quick changeover with the new FL350 platform from Edale, and Mark Andy demonstrating 32 second changeovers of a flexo print station.  Its very impressive… and combined with the move towards even smaller repeat cylinders with smaller plate costs iut is very clear that pure flexo manufacturers are competing now not on quality and max speed, but how efficient they can be when matched against digital, which is getting faster and wider.  The middle ground of flexo / digital changeover is getting to be a VERY crowded space.

Rotometrics adjustable anvil roller

• Rotometric had a great new device – an adjustable Accustrike Anvil roller so that you can really adjust to e tolerance between the blade and anvil without a new cutter everytime – clever.

spot the frozen die station on this Gallus machine!

• Gallus and Fasson combined to lauch a frozen “Cold Die Unit”  with Fasson Thinstream technology that allowed the use of a 12 micron PET liner!  It really was impressive, delaminating the web, die cutting the label with tiny retaining tags on a frozen anvil and then relaminating again before stripping – again very clever.
• I had a great conversational comment from one of the journalists there that I reported on Twitter “At #labelexpo 2009 digital competed with flexo. This year its all change; flexo is trying to compete with digital.” By @juan_diaz_diaz

Other developments

• There were a few new substrate coaters present which was good to see, clearly targeting the emerging markets growth.
• Herma’s dual layer coating technology caught my eye, it sounds useful and clever.

at the Xeikon community event on Thursday night the CEO Wim Maes announced that Xeikon's digital labelling business had doubled since 2008!

• The socials were excellent too with the Global Labels awards on Wednesday evening and the Xeikon community event on Thursday really enjoyable and a great opportunity to swap ideas and thought with others.

Conclusion

A fantastic show with such a good vibe to it.  It made me feel that the labels industry in actually very resilient to the recession, provided that we continually reinvent ourselves.

Xeikon and HP continue to battle for the top spot as industrial digital labelling powerhouses, and although it gets better and better, I think we are still a way from inkjet becoming a serious rival in the mass market to these 2 players.

I’m looking forward to DRUPA where there must be some more really exciting new developments!

Disclosure

I am the MD of a UK label printing company (Mercian Labels), we are are a Xeikon user, and these views are from the perspective of a label printer with interests in digital, flexo, variable data and security label printing – it is not an all encompassing independent review – if you want one, go to a journalist!)

Please now comment!

A reminder to please quickly add your thoughts to the comments once you’ve got this far – no registration needed, just type and press – opinions about anything very welcome, and unless your post is offensive I will publish it and share your views and get some debate going.

a digitally printed trainer on display at the PPMA show today

Whilst visiting the PPMA and TCT Rapid prototyping show at the NEC today I came across this from Clarks Shoes – 3D printed shoes, I kid you not!  They even have a version that is flexible like a real trainer.

This is quite fantastic!  Actually they use 3D printing or “additive manufacturing” to design shoes in the UK, and email the design to China where the shoe is printed out (takes 6 hours) and all prototypes using actual shoe making materials have to match the printed version.  Apparently it cuts down on lots of mistakes where you cannt get the detail of shoes form a CAD drawing.

Fantastic innovation from Clarks!

Newfoil 5000mkII Label printing machine for sale

Its time to free up some space in our short run labelling division factory, so we have for sale one of our most reliable presses.

Specification

• Newfoil 5000 MKII hotfoil label printing machine in full working order, serviced and maintained exclusively by Newfoil since new.
• Serial Number 1479, manufactured Nov 1993
• Electrical supply 240volt AC, frequency 50-60Hz external fuse 20amp min. 30amp max
• Foot print 2600mm x 1120mm x 2000mm high
• Weight 1350kg
• 76mm mandrel unwind and 44.5mm rewind mandrel.
• 2 print heads 1 die cutting head lamination unit to accommodate self wound and lined laminate from 76mm core.
• Also has 2 removable ancillary devices – sprocket punch and sheet cutter units (rarely used, we believe they work ok, but ‘sold as seen’).
• Max print area 220mm x 15mm0 X2
• Max Die cutting area 220mm x 150mm
• Speed 2000 – 8000 cycle/hour
• Max web width 228mm
• Max web roll diameter 350mm
• Max lamination roll diameter 210mm

Video

The full video is here

Photos:

A ZIP of Photos is here.

Inquiries to adrian.steele@mercianlabels.com – I am at Labelexpo so am happy to discuss any inquiries there.

We are hiring for 4 posts

Business is looking up, and we are hiring 4 posts:

• New Product Development Manager
• A Procurement Contractor (Temporary)
• Consultant in UK Field Label Sales
• Label Printing Factory Apprentice

Should you be interested in any of the above positions please click on the respective link for more details.

Mercian Labels is attending the Cannock Job Fayre

As a employer of many local people in Cannock, we will be supporting the first Cannock Jobs fair and look forwad to meeting people there.  Details below:

“As the local MP, many employers tell me they are looking to take on new people, either right now or in the near future, but that they do not know how best to meet those in search of a job.

“Yet at the same time many local people who are out of work tell me how desperate they are to get a job, to get back into the workplace, but that they do not know which employers are looking to recruit.

“That’s why I am organising these
Jobs Fayres – it is my attempt to put those two needs together, by getting employers and potential employees in the same room so that they can meet each other, network and discuss what opportunities may be available.”

Aidan Burley MP

Member of Parliament for Cannock Chase

All welcome at Aidan Burley MP’s Cannock and Rugeley Jobs Fayres

Aidan Burley MP has announced he is organising two Jobs Fayre’s in Cannock and Rugeley in order to help the unemployed back into work.

The Cannock Jobs Fayre is to be held on Friday 23^rd September 2011 at the Cannock Campus of South Staffordshire College, The Green, Cannock, Staffs, WS11 1UE (top map) and will be open to all local people (for free!) in Cannock Chase, from 10am-4pm.

The Rugeley Jobs Fayre will be held on Friday 30^th September 2011 at the Rugeley Rose Theatre, Taylors Lane, Rugeley, Staffordshire, WS15 2AA (bottom map) and will also be open to all local people (for free!) in Rugeley, from 10am-4pm.

In organising the events, Aidan has personally written to over 100 local businesses, organisations and charities, inviting them to the Jobs Fayres. He is also publicly calling on businesses to get behind the events and has requested all interested companies with job vacancies to get in touch and reserve a stall.  You can read Aidan’s letter to local businesses here.

Employers from a wide range of sectors are attending. Business that have already confirmed include:

There will also be speakers throughout the day on CVs, interview techniques and managing your business.

Top Tips

If you are going to attend one of Aidan’s two Jobs Fayres, here are some top tips to help you make the most out of the events:

• Bring a copy of your CV with you if possible.

• Look smart! First impressions count.

• Try to secure a follow-up with potential employers – an interview or phone call.

• Remember: this is YOUR opportunity to impress and get that job!

What does a Managing Director actually do?

A lot of professional positions have a very clear technical role that is clear to everybody who they interface with on a day to day basis.  The role of the Managing Director is however extremely varied, it can be everything the organisation does, and equally nothing, depending on how you look at it.

My job description lists my 4 principle roles as to Plan, Organise, Direct and Control the Mercian Labels Group.  However, over a recent 6 week period I ran a timesheet in 15 minute slots describing what it is that I actually spend time on.  The results are published above.  Overall its fairly representative of what I think I do, and clearly identified areas of time effectiveness I can improve on.  Ideally I want to reduce the travelling time, or travel more on the train to work rather than drive, increase by time on NPD and planning, and cut back on emails, like everyone else!

So, if you have ever wondered by an MD of a growing manufacturing business does, here it is!

If you have any comments, I would like to hear them, please post below.

We are proud to have been mentioned in Parliament!  On Tuesday 21st June 2011 Hansard recorded a tribute to the success of The Mercian Labels Group from Mr Aidan Burley, MP for Cannock Chase and Rt Hon George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons, the UK Parliament.  You can read about it on our new corporate website under “Articles about us”.

Regular readers will want to know that we are “calling time” on certain types of content on this blog.  We will continue to post more informal content here on the same range of labelling, open source and company content, but official company news, press releases, jobs and announcements are now hosted on our new Group Corporate website at www.mercianlabels.com , particularly in the “Media” section of the site.  If you use an RSS feed, the new feed is at http://www.mercianlabels.com/feed/rss/

Pictured at my High Peak FAW First Aid course, doing a primary survey of a staged motorcycle crash victim

Businesses in the UK are obliged to have a satisfactory level of First Aid training based on a risk assessment of the activities undertaken.  Having done these courses for over 30 years now, they can get a little boring at times, so this time when renewing my basic first aid qualification I went on a 2 day course run in the Derbyshire Peak District by Nicola of High Peak First Aid.  Badged as a Wilderness First Aid course, it reinforces the basics plus a lot of additional material related to difficult casulaty assessment and treatments in the outdoors environment.  It was an excellent course, that I thoroughly recommend, with example scenarios from suspended injured  hang glider pilots to crashed bikers (pictured above), and major trauma to anaphylactic shock.  It certainly made what can be somewhat routine but important industrial training a lot more engaging!

7 June 2011

Cannock, UK

Mercian Labels Group MD named as a leading entrepreneur

Dr Adrian Steele, MD of the Mercian Labels Group has been awarded a coverted place as one of the ’42 under 42′ most promising Midlands entrepreneurs of 2011 by the prestigious Midlands Insider business magazine.  The awards, which have been running for over 10 years, seek to identify the most promising future business talent in the Midlands region.

The awards originated when Midlands Insider identified the average age of its Power List of business leaders was 52, and it wanted to identify the next generation of influential prospects that would bring economic prosperity to the region via the ’42 under 42′ list.

Steele commented “I am really pleased to be recognised as one of the 42s this year along with a host of exciting business people in our region, all with a story to tell. Its an exciting but challenging time to be growing a business in the Midlands, and the Mercian Labels Group is doing really well with an excellent team manufacturing innovative labelling products for both domestic and export markets.”

-end-

Notes to Editors:

Contact: Lynne Hathaway at +44 1543 431095, lynne.hathaway@mercianlabels.com

27 May 2011

Cannock, UK

Gammatex™ gamma radiation indicator labels growth supported with new website launch

Global demand for radiation indicator products has led to the launch of a new website to support Gammatex™, a brand of the Mercian Labels Group.

The new website at www.gammatex.co.uk showcases the product for both users and international distributors.  Launched in 2010, Gammatex labels are used in the medical and pharmaceuticals industries as verification that products have been subjected to the required dosage of radiation to ensure correct sterilisation.

Hugo Gell, Sales Director of The Mercian Labels Group said  ”Gammatex labels have been around for several years under a different name – Detex. Since the re-launch, we have been widening our net to a global market of gamma irradiation users and suppliers, and the response has been remarkable. Currently the biggest customers are from the pharma industry, but recent experience is telling us that there are many other user groups, including food and beverage, who are using gamma sterilisation, and the list is growing. The Web is the obvious way in which we can engage with diverse market sectors and distributors all over the world, and the new website will grow as our market increases.”

The website – www.gammatex.co.uk – allows potential users to familiarise themselves with the product and end user pricing, as well as having a password protected area for distributors to download marketing materials and other resources.

Gammatex is a brand of specialist labelling business  The Mercian Labels Group of Staffordshire, UK

I'm growing all of this year's chilli crop outside, and its all planted out together with tomatoes, rasberrys, leeks, lettuce, spinich, opinions and sprouts

Just a quick update on this year’s chilli growing fest, as today I planed all 80 potted seedlings out ready for a super growing season.  If you arent aware of the history of this, you can see the 2011 seedlings post here, previous years crops here and here, and my inspiration from Alan at The Open Sourcerer blog here.  OK, its nothing to do with Mercian Labels business, but its a great source of homemade xmas presents come the autumn and keeps me out in the garden!