Labeling Innovations from Weber

“It’s all about the community and how we bring people together through beer,” said co-founder and Master Brewer Deb Loch.

Celebrating their fourth anniversary in business, Deb and co-founder Jill Pavlak have been slowly building their brewery through quality products and local participation. Urban Growler (www.urbangrowlerbrewing.com) was opened in July 2014 when Deb and Jill combined their talents and passion to create outstanding beer, food and a welcoming space for the community.

And their brand tag line says it all: “We’re Beer For You!”

As Minnesota’s first female-owned brewery, they had many challenges getting their vision in place. But with the help of friends, family and even total strangers, Urban Growler became a reality. Their patrons believed in the founders vision and their support helped get one of the hottest new breweries off the ground. Now that spirit is being repaid with a company that is there for the community.

The brewery, located at 2325 Endicott St. in St. Paul, Minnesota, features a warm, welcoming taproom, on-location kitchen and an outdoor beer garden. There are also indoor retail spaces that can be rented for hosting meetings, weddings, and local social gatherings.

But one of the most interesting things about Urban Growler is the building itself. This century-old brick and timber space was once home to the St. Paul Police horse stables back in the late 1800’s. After that tenure, it became a manufacturing facility for wooden skis and hockey sticks (after all, this IS Minnesota) as well as other warehousing in later years. The designers for Urban Growler did an awesome job of resurrecting the true character of the old building while adding a few modern updates for comfort and accessibility.

The brewery is looking to output 2000 barrels this year, up from about 1250 last year. Their flagship brews include traditional beers like their CowBell Cream Ale, Midwest IPA and their De-Lovely Porter. They also brew an interesting Kentucky Uncommon Ale and a “West-Coast-hops-meets-East-Coast-maltiness” Golden Hammer IPA. All Urban Growler flagship beers are lovingly handcrafted in 10-barrel batches under the close supervision of Master Brewer Deb.

But one of the best things about being a small brewery is that you can brew small batches and experiment with limited releases. Last year, Urban Growler brewed over 40 different beers, some as small as half-barrel experiments! Most of these end up in the taproom where their popularity is voted on by their customers’ consumption. The more popular winners then might end up as a seasonal or limited release for distribution in cans.

Lately much of their focus has been on a concept that they call “Plow to Pint®”. They have found that people would rather drink locally and that they appreciate locally sourced products. For this endeavor, Urban Growler uses ingredients harvested from farmers in the area to create unique beers with a distinct twist. Some of the recent favorites include Blueberry Wheat featuring blueberries harvested from a family-owned farm in Princeton, MN, and an Oak Aged Imperial Ale with Frontenac Grapes that used classic oak barrels and Frontenac grapes gown outside Red Wing, MN. They are currently working with the Rainforest Alliance in Guatemala and the University of Minnesota to create a collaboration brew using the sustainable ramon nut. Not your ordinary Stout.

While most of the flagship beers at Urban Growler are filled by a Wild Goose system into preprinted cans bought in bulk, these new small batch creations are getting canned and labeled using pressure-sensitive custom-designed labels. This allows the brewery to be more flexibile while doing a small batch economically and using eye-catching designs for their new brews.

Urban Growler has been canning approximately 150 cases of their small batch seasonals every few months. But because of their success, they are now looking to ramp things up to 250-case batches of their special beers once a month. To do this, the brewery had to invest in a new automated labeling system.

After much research and a few false starts, they happened to find Weber Packaging Solutions online. They contacted Weber whose local rep came out to see what the best solution would be for Urban Growler. The brewery was growing and would need to be able to scale up to the larger brew runs at higher speeds in the future. Reliability was key to a new system and it had to be easy for the staff to operate.

You see them everywhere. Small labels attached to your products at the grocery store, Walmart or big box store that allow you to peel them off and save money at check out.

Weber prints many of these type of labels and in this blog we will feature two examples of "Point of Purchase Coupon" labels.

These labels are perfect for adding to packages like boxes, clamshells, bottles, and bags to give your customer a discount or rebate buying incentive. It's a good way to get your product noticed or to entice a potential buyer into trying your brand for the first time.

Two of the most common types of coupon labels are the  extended-content, multi-panel construction label that works best for mail in rebates that requires more space for text and the  simple peel off coupon with deadened adhesive on the back. The peel-off coupons are usually collected at check out and the savings are immediate. 

How to Apply Coupon Labels

There are two basic ways to apply your new coupon labels. The method you use is dependent on whether your products are on the manufacturing line or already offline or in-store. 

• Towa Hand-Held Labeler

When your products are already at the store or at the warehouse, you can apply the labels by hand (labor-intensive!) using an affordable hand-held labeling tool. We would recommend something like the Towa hand-held labeler. Available in six different sizes, the Towa is perfect for small labeling jobs and on-demand labeling.

If you plan to use a hand-held labeler to apply your coupon labels, remember that your labels need to be wound on a 1" core and the roll has to be no more than about 5" in diameter.

This method is labor intensive because you have to swipe the labeler on each product, one at a time. If you have a lot of items to label, this could take a while!

•  Automated Label Applicators

If you plan ahead and can label your products while still being manufactured on a conveyor line, you can use one of the many labeling systems on the market.

We would recommend either a PackLeader labeling system or a Weber Alpha Compact label applicator. Automated labeling methods like this are meant for high-volume labeling that also requires close accuracy (like your coupon label).

Depending on the shape of your product and the speed of the line, you can choose from a range of systems including the PackLeader 501 for round containers like beverages or the Weber Alpha Compact which is perfect for applying labels to the top or sides of a product.

Both systems are economical yet full of advanced features like rugged die-cast aluminum construction, single-key calibration, automatic recognition of missing labels, in-production speed adjustment, and more.

An example of a tricky application is this coupon label applied to a clamshell plastic container filled with trail mix. The clamshell lid is recessed so the label needs to be blow onto the top of the clamshell using a Alpha Tamp-Blow labeling system. The label is brought to within a 1/4" of the product (clearing the lip) and is then blown onto the lid. 

I can honestly say that, in more than 35  years in the packaging industry, I have never seen such a diverse and rapidly growing market as the current surge in cannabis sales.

As more and more states legalize the sale of both medical and recreational marijuana, the marketplace has exploded with  new products covering just about every vertical market. There are cannabis beverages, edibles of all sorts, oils, lotions, candles, clothing, and, of course, the dried flowers for smoking.

The cannabis industry is exponentially growing with a forecast of $24.5 billion in sales by 2020. That's just a year and half away. As an example of state income, Colorado sales for combined recreational and medical for April 2018 was $124 million dollars. Just a one month total in a state of 5.6 million people.

The packaging requirements are varied by state and often can conflict with each other. Child-proof packaging is required in most states, for example, and Colorado allows child-proof resealable zipper bags but Washington state does not. Some states require single-use packaging even for large quantity items. And edible food products that might be mistaken for non-cannabis products need to have the THC symbol coded onto the product with edible ink in Colorado. These are just a few examples of the range of hoops that manufacturers have to jump through.

Branding has become a focus of the cannabis packaging, especially with products that are trying to attract more affluent buyers willing to pay a premium for products. Up-scale packaging designs are appearing to improve the reputation of cannabis products.  But the US Trademark Office (federal government) denies trademark protection to cannabis brands making it difficult to clearly protect your identity. 

No two packaging lines are the same these days, with many companies demanding more flexibility for new automated labeling equipment to fit their existing production lines.

So Weber has come up with a solution – a new label applicator that can be configured to fit just about any packaging line.

The Alpha HSM (High-Speed-Modular) label applicator is our new modular design that is based on various components that can be combined into the right system to meet your requirements. 

The modules consist of a drive module, a label detection module, a dispensing module, an unwinder module, a rewinder module and an adapter module. These can be assembled according to a customers specifications using our configurator to create the perfect label applicator for their product line.

With the packaging industry asking for higher labeling speeds and more flexibility,  the Alpha HSM high-speed labeling systems can be configured in a variety of models that can handle multiple speeds and label sizes.

Weber engineered the modular Alpha HSM so that it can be ordered in ten different versions to fit just about any labeling application. Available in right- or left-hand versions, the Alpha HSM can be built with 5.3” (135mm), 7.8” (200mm), 9.8” (250mm) and 12.6” (320mm) label widths.

The system can keep up with line speeds up to 500 feet/minute with a labeling accuracy of ±0.01" (with controlled product handling). 

The Alpha HSM is IP65 rated for wash down applications.

Digital printing is quickly becoming a popular choice for printing product labels and stickers.  And there are plenty of good reasons for this including reduced cost, high-quality, quick turn-around and small batch capabilities.

At Weber Packaging, we have been using HP Indigo digital presses to produce stunning product labels for food packaging, lotion bottles, chemical warning labels and so much more. As you plan your new label designs, you should consider all the advantages of digitally printed pressure-sensitive labels.  

What is digital printing?

Digital label printing takes a digital file of your design and prints the image directly on to a selected label material on press. Unlike flexographic printing, all colors and images are produced in one step. These presses run slower than flexographic presses so they are ideal for smaller order quantities. Because of the superior printing technology of the HP Indigo press, colorful product packaging labels are produced beautifully. 

Common Features of a Digital Label Project

Decorative or Prime Label Printing 

Digital printing is ideal for labels that require at least 4 colors. If you want your label to help sell your product and speak for your brand, the print quality is key. Color consistency, image registration and color vibrancy are all addressed with digital labels. Most of the labels we print on our HP Indigo presses are the primary product label. For instance, beverage labels, food pouch labels, and private label brands are frequently running in our digital room. If your label will be used for branding then chances are it'll be a good fit for digital. 

Short Run Orders

Digital printing allows for a much lower minimum than flexographic printing. If you'll need 500-25,000 colorful labels per product then there's a good chance digital labels are a good fit for your product. With short runs you won't need to hold on to inventory you don't need. 

 Variable Print On Press

Variable data printing is a form of digital printing, including on-demand printing, in which elements such as text, graphics and images may be changed from one printed to piece to the next without stopping or slowing down the printing process.  VDP uses information from a database or external file.

Flexo printing requires plates for each unique image and color so variable printing on on a flexographic press is impossible. Digital presses can print consecutive numbers, variable data and almost any other label-to-label difference.