Solving the Labelling Problems of the Sandwich Industry

Managing Director John Mayers established Positive ID Labelling in 1997 with the aim of providing bespoke printed labelling solutions to exceed customer expectations. Since then Positive ID have increased turnover and staff and now expanded to take up purpose built premises on the Castle Lane Industrial Estate in Melbourne, South Derbyshire.

John says, “With combined staff experience within the labelling industry exceeding 100 years, there is very little that we have not seen or solved when it comes to labelling and label solutions! We have recently invested in a six-colour Edale printing machine to increase our capacity and capabilities and an HP Indigo digital printing press. We look forward to delivering even more high quality labelling to our current and new customers.

The Food Sector

Positive ID can manufacture food labels suitable for food product labelling in small to medium volumes. These can be used in all kinds of food production and identification for manual or automated application. Food labels are produced on rolls and can be pre-printed in a range of colours with company or other bespoke detail.

Positive ID’s team of experienced printers uses the latest flexographic and digital print techniques and print finishing methods to produce high quality and durable food labels to meet customer needs. They can replicate or originate any product design the customer desires.
Existing labels include

pre-printed Price Labels, Address Labels and ‘Best Before’ Labels – a pre-requisite for food production where EC regulations require all consumable products to be given a best before date. Pre-Printed hand label gun labels are made to order depending upon your needs and can either be made for 1-line, 2-line or 3-line label guns.

Perhaps the most exciting development, however, has been the addition of a dedicated system for labelling sandwiches and other similar products. John says, “If you’re fed up of doing battle with expensive proprietary or complicated labelling solutions, Positive ID Labelling has the answer.” Positive ID is offering its most tailored and user-friendly labelling solution yet, with a complete off-the-shelf system including a Windows netbook, thermal printer, labelling software and labels for just £799 plus VAT.

For the first time, a company can be in complete control of its branded labels with this ingenious system that offers ease of use and low costs.”

The design’s the limit with a Positive ID Labelling solution and any idea you have can be turned into an attractive and eye-catching label with ease using Positive ID’s in-house graphic design team. Once the design has been agreed and set, there’s no additional cost for supplying your new personalised labels. Printing at a speedy two labels per second, the system uses a thermal printer to keep costs to a low £16.80 per 1,000 custom labels.

“Your profit margins are increased just as your sales go up thanks to your new eye-catching labelling. The system is currently even better value as you can get the software and the labelling machine absolutely free if you commit to purchasing 100,000 bespoke labels, over one or two deliveries,” John adds.

Positive ID Labelling offers a range of sandwich labelling solutions to suit different customer needs, including a “barebones” system, a barcode and handscanner system and a standalone SOLO keyboard system. They also provide a full after care service, offering remote desktop support for any problems you might encounter as well as a hardware and software installation service for a small additional cost if required.

Systems Available

The Starter Pack offers printing direct form your PC. It includes a desktop thermal printer and 3,000 generic labels to get you started.

The Scanner Pack is similar to the Starter Pack but also includes a hand-held laser scanner. Labels can be prepared in LabelDirect then uploaded to the printer. By scanning a barcode from an hygienic plasticised sheet, the operator can then print labels on demand without the need for programming or computer experience – ideal for busy kitchen environments.

The Standard Pack is again similar to the Starter Pack but includes a Windows 7 netbook that is fully loaded and ready to use with LabelDirect Pro and Open Office Suite software plus Microsoft Security Essentials; a complete plug and play solution, ready to go, out of the box.

Finally, the SOLO Solution has a SOLO Standalone printer keyboard wedge that links directly to the desktop thermal printer. The system is programmed using a windows PC with the SOLO Studio label design software and comes complete with 5,000 sandwich labels, free onsite installation, training and support for a competitive £1099 + VAT

Positive ID work hard to give you a solution to your problems and also offer printers ranging up to 8 inches wide with 12 inch per second print speeds and capable of producing labels in volumes of the order of tens of thousands per day. Additional attachments such as re-winders, guillotines and single dispensing peel off units are also available to meet specific needs.

John adds, “At Positive ID we pride ourselves on providing our customers with quality, bespoke printed labels. We have years of experience providing these kinds of label and are proud to have taken the product a step further with this labelling solution that has already been taken up by hundreds of new customers. We can tailor your labels to exact measurements and integrate your company logo or any other artwork you might require. Our staff will work closely with you to get everything just right.

The Labelling System

So how does the Positive ID system work for the production of sandwich labels? For many smaller sandwich producers, traditional methods have ranged from hand-written labels that look unprofessional and take an age to complete to labels produced in sheets on a computer printer that again can look poor and be variable in quality.

The Positive ID solution is easy-to–learn and is very user friendly, allowing sandwich makers to print sandwich labels on demand and add new product lines in seconds. Your layouts can also be readily adjusted and changed on demand, thereby eliminating the situation where thousands of pre-printed labels have to be ditched because one or more changes needed to be made.

The Positive ID system enables the end user to choose what information should go where on each label and allows the user to have complete control over the layout and font from start to finish. Using a simple table of the products on offer, you design and place the information you require on the image of the pre-printed labels that Positive ID provide. At all times, the user is in complete control of the look, feel and information on each label. All that is required is a Windows computer equipped with the labelling software and the specialist label printer. The system also offers dynamic time stamping, enabling the ‘Best Before’ date to be changed for each label in accordance with the date on which it is printed and the product being labelled; a truly ‘set and forget’ system.

If you have routine production schedules, the system also allows you to save label print runs in accordance with your production schedules. They can then be called up in a matter of seconds whenever they are next needed saving you time over and over again.

The labels are printed on cold-finished thermal paper that is impregnated with heat activated pigment. The system requires no printer or toner consumables so you running costs are far cheaper than other alternatives.

Positive ID prides itself on being able to deliver more than just a labelling system and a set of labels. Positive ID can configure your system for you, provide on-site installation and then can back this up with remote desktop support to help you if you get stuck at any point.

The Way Forward

John says, “Years of experience has proven that customers benefit from us monitoring label consumption. Using our order management system we can estimate your usage from previous orders and contact you in advance to ensure you never run out of labels. We can print in 6 colours with a reverse print if necessary (e.g. for ingredients), so are able to meet the needs of the majority of our customers.”
Positive ID currently has five salesmen covering the UK, responsible to designated regions:

• Scotland, Borders and North East
• The North West, Wales and West Midlands
• Central & East England
• Southern England
• London

For further information please telephone 01332 864895 or visit www.pid-labelling.co.uk.