Mr Sticker is an Australian family-owned company established in 1980 to supply pressure-sensitive labels and specialised tags. It has grown from a single foil printing machine to a factory containing more than 10 printing machines plus ancillary equipment. Mr Sticker is a registered manufacturer of export labels for meat products for the Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service (AQIS). The company specialises in fast-turnaround jobs.
The challenge
With its existing equipment starting to age, Mr Sticker needed a new machine that could produce high quality, four-colour labels quickly. With the industry trending towards more short-run, high-quality labels, Mr Sticker was seeing profits erode because the analogue printer couldn’t turn jobs around fast enough. While Mr Sticker produces printing plates in-house, it doesn’t produce film to produce the plates. This created a two-day delay while the film is outsourced before the machine is ready to print.
Michael Williams, manager, Mr Sticker, said, “We knew Mr Sticker needed to move to digital equipment so we could produce the high-quality, short-run jobs customers were demanding. It was important to find a digital device that could use the same materials as our existing analogue devices so we wouldn’t have to buy specialised material.”
Mr Sticker also needed to be able to produce the machine in 250mm width, not wider. And the new printer needed to provide the capability to turn jobs around in a single day, which hadn’t been possible with the previous equipment unless it was a repeat job.
The solution
Knowing it needed a solution, Mr Sticker began casually researching the market five years ago. Each time a new printer would be released, the team would review it, then put the project on the backburner and continue to wait for the right solution.
Mr Sticker worked with local Konica Minolta dealer, TO Technology to find the right solution. TO Technology suggested Konica Minolta’s new C71cf label printer as the ideal solution for Mr Sticker. Although the machine is usually produced in a 330mm web width, Konica Minolta produced one in a 250mm web width to meet Mr Sticker’s requirements. This was the first machine to be produced in that width globally.
Michael Williams said, “The quality of the labels produced by the Konica Minolta C71cf label printer was excellent and the device represented good value for money. It was easy to use and we could run all the stocks we have through the press. Importantly, we knew the machine would be fully supported by TO Technology as a local provider. The parts were held locally so that, if they were required, the machine wouldn’t be down for too long, which would be costly to a small business like Mr Sticker. If there’s an issue with the printer, TO Technology can be here with parts within two hours and no other supplier could match that. That support is very important.”
Additionally, the five-year contract is fully-inclusive with no hidden costs, which lets Mr Sticker manage budgets carefully.
The benefits
Mr Sticker has always provided fast turnaround on jobs but now, using the C71cf label printer, the company can provide same-day turnaround even on full-colour, short-run jobs. This helps Mr Sticker target other markets, including high-end markets where it wasn’t able to print to specifications in the past.
Michael Williams said, “Some of the widths and lengths of labels we’re doing now, we couldn’t touch before. The machine we had was getting tired and we couldn’t trust that the output would deliver the required quality.
“Now, Mr Sticker can produce full-colour, wider labels. The quality is excellent and the customers are very happy. They’re getting a better product for the same price.”
Mr Sticker is also saving on inventory since it can use the same materials across all its presses with no need for specialised stocks for the digital device.
Michael Williams said, “The C71cf label printer is very easy to use and maintain, even more so than the analogue presses we have. We’ve also found it very reliable and haven’t needed to call on TO Technology for support. But it’s great to know that they’ll manage the maintenance and upkeep of the machine and we don’t have to worry about it. If something goes wrong, we know they’ll be there to fix it, so we can just concentrate on running the business.”