Packaging Solutions
Glasgow based Premier Labels has installed its first industrial digital label printing system, a Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 230 toner press, to serve its many high end clients with top quality labels and fast turnaround, as the company scales up its digital offering.
Founded in 1987, Premier Labels provides high quality labels to leading clients in a variety of markets from drinks, luxury fashion, gifts and cosmetics, to electronics and engineering. Servicing over 2000 accounts in the UK and beyond since its inception, the Scottish printing company offers a personalised service and has expanded considerably over the past few years. This was complemented by a complete rebrand in 2018 and investment in new equipment to better reflect its ethos and ambitions for growth.
The most recent investment in the 23 metres per minute, four colour, Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 230 press will significantly increase Premier Labels’ offering and is the first industrial digital label printing press, as the company takes a big step up in its digital printing capabilities. The new toner based press will complement the existing servo-driven foiling and finishing machines.
Managing director Gary Kerr said, ‘We had been looking for several years for the ideal solution to allow us to expand our offering. We wanted a digital press that would service our discerning clients but also came at the right price point. When we became aware of the AccurioLabel from Konica Minolta about a year ago, we soon realised that we had found the right machine.’
The Premier Labels team was immediately attracted to the high print quality that can be achieved on the AccurioLabel 230 press, which offers a resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi. They also wanted a machine that was easy to operate and had a small footprint.
The AccurioLabel is a simple solution, which requires no chillers or compressors and plugs straight into a normal single phase electricity supply. Using Konica Minolta’s long established toner technology, it can print on standard materials without pre-coating, which means there is no need to buy in special digital substrates or waste time in preparing media for the press. The press comes with Konica Minolta’s own Label Impose software, which automates jobs, such as impositioning and step and repeat, and also offers support for variable data printing.
Gary added, ‘This press will help us respond quicker to customer demand. We are also looking at some very exciting new technology that will combine our expertise in hotfoiling with digital print and more specifically with the capabilities of the AccurioLabel 230 press.’
