Labeling Innovations from Weber

We understand how important your packaging design is for your brand. To make sure we're producing exactly the label you designed, we have the artwork reviewed by our team of graphic specialists.

I recently had a chance to learn more about the Graphics Department when I interviewed our new Graphics manager, Joe Lozano.

What does the Weber Graphics Department do?

The team is made up of six graphic design and pre-press specialists with collectively over 40 years of experience.

This group handles label design, art file preparation, proofing, color correction, and plate-making for flexographic print jobs. Every new label, including artwork, goes through this department. They also handle some re-orders and label artwork updates.

Weber's Graphics Department
(l to r) Annette Vanderwiel, Brent Mabe, Lee Butler, Annette Skwara, Kathy Puchalak and Joe Lozano

One of the hot trends we discovered at the Dairy Deli Bake trade show was many brands are offering multiple flavors for their products. This included:

• Limited Edition Flavors
• Seasonal Flavors
• Experimental Flavors

Let's say you have a business that specializes in jams and sauces. You might want a special holiday jam or to test a new flavor combination for your hot sauce line.

The more flavors you can offer, the bigger your potential customer base. But this can also lead to some packaging challenges.

If you want to use the same label size and label art for every flavor, you can simply have labels preprinted and then later imprint the variable information, such as ingredients or nutrition fact, on-site using a Zebra or Datamax thermal-transfer label printer.

Labels are the perfect medium for informing consumers about the nutrition and ingredients in packaged food but they can also be the best place to share your story and connect with a consumer.

Here are a couple of ways that you can share your story with consumers, from the farmer's market to grocery store shelves:

Reach out with QR Codes

QR codes work well on labels because consumers can connect with your brand at the store or even later after the purchase.

Scanning the code can direct the consumer to your company's website or a social media page where they can continue to connect with your brand by getting more information, coupons, special deals or other content that helps build a relationship.

Share your biography

Include a short story or summary on your prime label about the growers or producers of the food. Including a picture of the farmer or the farm also adds a personalized touch to the product's label.

In the example below, not only does the label include a picture of the farmer, but they also included a biography about their brand. This jar label will definitely sticks out at the farmer's market or the shelves of the grocery store.

This month we celebrated a significant employee anniversary. Our label manufacturing director, Joe Ibrahim, was awarded a service award for 35 years at Weber Packaging Solutions.

I recently sat down with Joe to get to know more about him and his experience working at Weber for 35 years.

I noticed you have a large collection of golf trinkets on your desk. I take it you enjoy golfing?

I love to play golf and one of the biggest things that happened to me while golfing was my hole in one in 2005. The funny thing about that was that usually people play their whole life without getting one, so it's exciting but when I called my wife to tell her, she said, "So?"

What's your favorite golf course to play at?

Highland Woods in Hoffman Estates. It's pretty open so you have to make a pretty bad shot to not do well there. I played my best game there a few months ago. I shot a 75.

How did you get your start here? And what positions have you held?

At 20, I came to America in 1975 as a refugee from Baghdad, Iraq, and started working in Detroit, Michigan at a radiator factory. In 1977, my brother had been working at Weber in Arlington Heights IL and called me about a job opening. I drove down here for an interview, got the job and started that night as a packer.

From 1977 to 1990 I held several positions including packer, press operator, group leader and supervisor. In 1990, I had the opportunity to move to Canada to lead our manufacturing facility near Toronto in Mississauga, Canada. After a few years, I returned to run night shift label production. When we upgraded our computer system to Oracle’s ERP system, I had the opportunity to head up a new department called Label Engineering where we coordinated our customers label specifications through the production process.

We opened up the February 2012 issue of Packaging World magazine to find a really nice article on Howard Products’ use of a Weber labeling system and prime labels to label its line of preeminent wood care products.

The combination of our Tronics 3 system and Weber digitally-printed, pressure-sensitive labels provides Howard Products with packages that have great shelf-appeal and an updated labeling operation that will pay for itself within 18 months.

Link to our website for in-depth information on the features, benefits and specifications of the Tronics Series 3 label application system from Weber. And while you’re at it, take a look at the videos available there, as well.

Thanks to Howard Products for letting us visit its facility in Paso Robles, CA, to document the Weber system and labels in action!

By Linda Roser
Weber Digital Label Coordinator