Page 14 - Print 21 Sep-Oct 2019

Label Printing
On the path to digital
label fulfilment
Innovation is the driving philosophy and practice behind the success of Guru Labels. Investing in the latest technology is part of a strategy to create a better way of fulfilling the delivery promise of online digital labels. As founder Nick Lowe embarks on the next stage of his career with a brand new factory and a second Xeikon 3300, he talks with Patrick Howard about his vision for the future.
Ask Nick Lowe for the main dynamic behind the success of his label printing business
and he will repeat a simple mantra – “good quality and
honest service”. It constitutes the remarkably effective corporate mission of Guru Labels. The 19-year old web-based label fulfilment enterprise has just moved into a new, ultra-modern factory at Lisarow on NSW’s Central Coast, four times the size of the former facility. It houses the company’s second Xeikon 3300 digital press, along with a host
of sophisticated label converting equipment. For Lowe it’s the next logical step in developing his online brand offering unparalleled service, through the use of the latest web and print technology.
Powerhouse
production
The powerhouse production facility was well and truly on line when I made the trip up to Lisarow, north of Sydney. The two roll-to-roll Xeikons – the second sat in a crate for eight months awaiting its new home – are up and running, the converting
and despatch departments are functioning smoothly, the climate- controlled warehouse is well stocked. A nine-month transition, described by Lowe as “incredibly stressful”, caused minimal disruption in output. Despite the logistical challenges,
the only casualty is Australia’s first GM laser die cutter, sent back to Germany to be recalibrated.
For a technology enthusiast like Lowe, the original Guru Labels business model had surprisingly little in the way of production capabilities when he started out in 2001. Having
Below A well-stocked warehouse mixes hero stock with other more specialised substrates, ensuring there is never a delay.
facilitated the move into labels for his former printing employer, he was taken by the ambition of setting up on his own. It was a standing start with no customers, no staff and no equipment.
“I started off with the Yellow Pages and a set of blank cards. It began with the hard grind of making cold calls, which people don’t do these days. Then, after a couple of years we moved into a tiny little office with a staff of two. In the early days we outsourced pretty much everything. I used to say I’d never get into manufacturing – and that was the biggest lie ever. I couldn’t have got that more wrong,” he laughs at the memory.
“One day visiting a print expo
in Sydney I saw this little wide- format inkjet machine. I went ‘Wow. That’s amazing.’ It was a metre- wide Mimaki, almost a toy, but an
effective machine printing and cutting on the stand.
“My clients loved full-colour labels and I remember thinking that if you could do full-colour labels without dies, film and plates, well, it would be genius.
“The digital equipment was
never great for capacity, but it did
a beautiful job, and because we weren’t a mechanical business, it was something we could do. The people we had on board were sensational with art programs and, as we discovered,
if you can run art programs you could run a digital press.
“Plus, once set up and running, it didn’t need anyone there – it would just run and run. The printed labels would then be put through a digital plotter, and you’ve got a print job you can put straight into a box and send to your customer. It was really that easy.”
14 Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019
New York calling... now!
Action was required to deliver on an urgent label deadline for Australian hand-made soap manufacturer, Murphy and Daughters.
Breaking into the US market for an Australian company is hard work. For Sarah Murphy, creator of Bon Bon soap from Murphy and Daughters, it meant attracting visibility at the New York trade show for handmade products, NYNow. Only after the exhibit had been confirmed did she realise that the new range had everything going for it... apart from labels. A frantic call to Nick Lowe at Guru Labels was made more in hope than expectation. Time was short, she recalls.. “I needed an urgent run of labels to showcase my new range of bath salts at a trade show, NYNow in the US. I called Guru Label on the Monday morning, presuming it was unlikely – but Guru was incredible. They printed the labels that
day and I received them the very next day. They moved quickly and decisively, made alterations to artwork and nothing was a hassle. Guru Labels continue to do what the others cannot and I am so thankful for the incomparable service they deliver to me and my business time after time,” she said.
Lowe also had the metallic coated substrate on the Xeikon the day she called, which as a trade printer he carries.