Nosco adds HP Indigo V12 to further its digital journey

Nosco, a full-service pharmaceutical label and packaging company, is located on a sprawling 2,400-acre facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, between the Chicago and Milwaukee metro areas.

From the outside, the 271,000sqft building looks like many of the other businesses in the manufacturing park where it’s located. But inside, something entirely different is happening.

Inside its headquarters and innovation center, Nosco operates more like a Silicon Valley tech company. The facility houses a fully integrated customer innovation hub and a ‘Maker Space’ for customer R&D and packaging design. The company’s state-of-the-art equipment produces what Nosco describes in a promise to its customers as ‘printed packaging that helps our customers save lives, promote health and encourage happiness’.

That brand promise is a tall order for any business, but Nosco lives and breathes it. During the pandemic, it printed labels for the Covid-19 vaccine; it is involved in major pharmaceutical launches nearly every week for prescription drugs that remedy everything from obesity to over-the-counter medications.

“This press reflects our commitment to leading in the packaging industry, offering advanced capabilities that help our customers achieve their goals efficiently and creatively”

Nosco’s brand promise translates to a business model that allows the company to continue investing in new equipment and technology – particularly if it fosters greater automation and cost-effectiveness.

This includes its latest investment in an HP Indigo V12 installed in May 2024.

‘Our HP Indigo V12 digital press has been a game-changer in delivering high-quality digital labels with unmatched speed and precision,’ says Nosco president Craig Curran. ‘This press reflects our commitment to leading in the packaging industry, offering advanced capabilities that help our customers achieve their goals efficiently and creatively.’

Digital journey

Nosco services more than 450 customers across various industries, but its primary focus is in the pharmaceutical, natural health and consumer markets. It is one of only about seven US companies specializing in pharmaceutical packaging and is unique in that it can offer its customers a full suite of printed products. The company manufactures in four core markets: labels, flexible packaging, folding cartons and pharmaceutical inserts.

In addition to the HP Indigo V12, Nosco has a slew of equipment from HP Indigo, including nine other machines for labels, cartons and flexible packaging. Nosco has cultivated a close relationship with HP since beginning its digital journey in 2005 and has recently hosted an open house to showcase its V12 to HP customers.

‘We’re quite vested in the digital print platform,’ Curran says. ‘I preach the Gospel all the time about why we use digital. The first and foremost reason is that we’re minimizing the support infrastructure flexo takes,’ like platemaking, plate mounting, ink mixing and other consumables involved with setting up a flexo job.

‘And if you think about it,’ Curran continues, ‘that’s where many problems and mistakes happen in the business. For me, getting rid of that support structure was important.’

It’s not to say Nosco’s flexo assets ended up in the trash heap. The company relies on Mark Andy and MPS equipment to print its flexo jobs. But it’s the ‘digital first’ mentality where both Nosco and HP Indigo align.

‘The labels industry, the way I see it, is the first one to go all the way into the digital revolution,’ says Noam Zilbersthain, VP and general manager at HP. ‘The V12, powered by the new LEPx technology, will help us on the pathway to a digital revolution.

‘We call it the digital-first mindset right now. When you go to print, the mindset is whether the job will be produced on flexo or analog equipment. Let’s consider digital if it’s a small volume, if it’s low volume or short runs. But now, the HP Indigo V12 enables us to go to unprecedented speeds with productivity and efficiencies that we have never experienced before.’

Nosco says its HP Indigo V12 is running label jobs over 15,000ft. Nosco’s press can run up to 400ft/min in six colors. Jobs shorter than 15,000ft will be run on other HP Indigo equipment at Nosco sites. ‘That’s a pretty broad window there, but that’s the impact of speed of 400ft/min that creates that window. The machine has been productive for us. It produces what two to three HP Indigo 6Ks can produce in a day. We’re excited to take our medium to long runs and move them over to the HP Indigo V12,’ Curran says.

Finishing on the HP Indigo V12 occurs nearline on A B Graphic and Grafotronic equipment.

Nosco is a subsidiary of Holden Industries, which has been employee-owned since 2007 and has more than 650 employees. Nosco moved to its Wisconsin, location in 2021, and also has facilities in Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania.

Click here to find out more about Nosco.