The Label Makers gives luxury hand sanitiser the Steel River look

Packaging Solutions

The Label Makers has teamed up with Tees Valley based gin distillers, Steel River Drinks, to create an impactful, industrial looking label for a premium hand sanitiser gel product called Stainsby gel.

Made using gin ingredients and at 70% ABV spirit, the Public Health England compliant hand sanitiser was initially given away to charities and care homes amid shortages caused by Covid-19 coronavirus. The product is currently at retail and aimed at discerning consumers wanting a more upmarket hand anti-bacterial product for their homes and spaces. With £2 from the sale of each product going to local causes, over £1000 has been raised so far.

Steel River Drinks, the brainchild of Teeside entrepreneur and founder, Jay Byers, has been producing its range of colourful and innovative craft gins since 2018. As the pandemic reached the UK and sales of hand sanitiser increased by over 250%, Jay saw an opportunity to keep his workers busy by using his distillery and expertise to produce the gin based gel.

In packaging and labelling his hand sanitiser product like a mini gin bottle, Jay wanted the label to be on-brand and in keeping with his various gin editions, a metal label featuring the iconic Transporter Bridge in Middlesborough. On recommendation, he asked The Label Makers for a comparable embellishment solution to provide a similar look and feel.

To give the label an industrial look, The Label Makers used a heavy silver metallic base material and applied a fine tonal black print to make it look like a steel nameplate. The blue print was then flexo printed. To create the heavy embossing on the label, an ABG Big Foot hot foil and embossing stamping module was used to deliver 50 tonnes of pressure to heavy emboss the label. The finished design was produced in a single pass.

Commenting on the label, Jay said: ‘I asked The Label Makers to come up with a metallic looking, embossed finish, in keeping with our metal gin labels. I wasn’t sure that it could be done, but the label it produced is amazing, providing a tactile high end feel and very similar to our standard metal versions.

'The company’s customer service is excellent and it is happy to go the extra mile when required. This work has led to The Label Makers producing the bottom front and back labels for our complete gin range and there will be further projects in the offing. I have hundreds of suppliers and there are only a handful you can pick up the phone to get things sorted – and The Label Makers isone of those.’

The Label Makers’ Kevin Lyons said, ‘We are really glad that we could provide a result for Jay and his team on this job. Given the current situation, being in a position to diversify and provide support in this way has worked well for Steel River Drinks. We really like the industrial branding used by the distiller and are pleased that we could provide the required level of emboss to achieve the required metallic effect – even down to the rivets on the bridge!’