Inkjet suits Ample Industries

Ample Industries finds inkjet technology to be a great fit for the business, writes Danielle Jerschefske

A tradition of technology runs in the Menzies family, who launched Ample Industries in 1968 to produce labels. Ample Industries was one of North America’s first label converters to step into the digital printing world with the purchase of a free standing EFI Jetrion 4000 UV inkjet machine at Labelexpo Americas in 2008. Digital printing had long-been an area of interest, and DOD inkjet technology had  reached a new level of quality and reliability.

The converter was keen to bring economic short-run production in-house to capture new business, and also recognized a profitable opportunity for the excess butt rolls typically viewed as waste. Rather, Ample Industries took the view that the pre-paid material could be used to turn a profit on the Jetrion. Vice president Natalie Menzies-Spradlin says, ‘When we saw how the Jetrion worked we were impressed. Others looked overly complicated, or came with requirements to pre-coat and post-coat materials.’

Shortly after the press was installed, Ample was running sellable work with few hiccups. Still,the converter is happy to have its lead operator, Marissa Lipsey, who is fearless when it comes to adjusting print heads and fixing what is needed based on the OEM’s guidance.

Ample acquired the next generation Jetrion 4830 shortly after its launch at Labelexpo Europe 2009. The 4830 model is wider at 9” and comes standard with four heads for process color inks, plus a fifth head for opaque white ink to print on clear and silver materials. Menzies-Spradlin says, ‘it had such good opacity, we saw all the more opportunity.’ Both models use UV inks and have a print resolution up to 1080 dpi.

The capabilities of digital inkjet technology – short-run, cost-effective, on-demand, high-quality, and customization - have allowed Ample to reel in new business, especially in the wine market. Menzies-Spradlin, says ‘It opened the door to the wine label market that had previously been a hard industry to break into.’ Springfield, Missouri, where Ample Industries is located, is surrounded by established and new boutique wineries looking for labels that will effectively convey their story to buyers.

There are five designers on the Ample team, including Natalie, who enjoys playing with new materials and processes, figuring out how to make them work. Menzies-Spradlin explains, ‘every substrate distributes ink differently, depending on the face stock. You have to design the artwork with a specific texture or finish in mind.’

The converter has worked with a variety of materials on the Jetrion and has developed new techniques to bring value and added punch to its clients’ digital labels. One trick is flooding silver foil paper to make it appear as yellow stamped foil.

Private label barbeque sauce has been a popular market for Ample. It’s shifted some work from its flexo presses to the digital machine, but Menzies-Spradlin says it is a tricky process, and any switches that have been made, have been done so on shelf appeal alone.

Digital has helped to increase the overall profile of the company. With a majority of business in food and beverage, Menzies-Spradlin says, ‘many more companies that we had tried to get into before will talk to us now because of our digital capability.’ This includes small and larger brands. Now the converter quotes both processes when it goes to a customer to show the economics, that overall cost savings are possible with digital, and to prove that sometimes a particular job is easier to produce using digital.

The Shop

Ample Industries employees 53 people housed in a 40,000 sq ft facility, running two shifts with a night shift working four 10-hour days. Flexo plates are made using DuPont’s Cyrel Fast thermal system and the Esko CDI Spark 4835 system.

The majority of the shop is narrow-web with two 10” and four 7” Mark Andy presses, and one 17” machine. The most recent capital investment on the analog side has been in a Martin Automatic MBSC butt splicer combined with an STR rewinder. The MBSC has been specifically designed for narrower web-widths up to 13 inches (330mm), making it an ideal fit for any of the label presses that Ample has. The splicer has a patented rolling-shear splice unit and inertia-compensated festoon.  Ample estimates that it saves up to 200 feet of stock on each run. A second MBSC STR combo unit will be installed soon.  

Case Study: Kitchen to the Shelf

The Maui Girl Farms brand originated with a Hawaiian Style Macadamia Nut Pesto created in Roxanne Van Paing’s kitchen in a small community on Maui Island, Hawaii. The brand’s products use many organic ingredients sourced locally from family-owned farms and are GMO-free.

After regularly sharing jars with friends and at local swap meets, the recipe grew to be popular, and proper labels needed to be made. Roxanne’s first experience with ordering labels is priceless. With limited options on the Hawaiian Islands and minimal knowledge, she found herself with pricy labels at fifty-cents a piece with adhesive strong enough to remain on a car bumper for years.

It wasn’t until Roxanne met Natalie’s father, David Menzies, in a Maui diner that she was able to source the labels to suit her business and brand. The original design work started on the Islands. Roxanne says, ‘The Maui Girl label started with a sketch of a wholesome 1940s pin up girl with her iconic hair, bathing suit and smile.’ The background is a few shades of green and blue, some palm trees, water and a tropical flower. ‘We wanted her and the label to convey ‘all natural’ like the product. Her innocence and a strong green background are pushing the idea out there.’

Maui Girl Farms brand products now stretch to the mainland and can be found in a number of natural and specialty stores in Southern California. ‘The labels turned out beautifully, which speaks to buyers. People’s eyes are trained for quality and a quality label just adds to the appeal of the product.’

The entry cost for getting into the national market chains is high. A good price on the right amount of labels can reduce the initial investment cost, but also incubate the brand more quickly to earn cash to reinvest into long-term brand growth and equity. Maui Girl Farms recently re-launched its original pesto recipe and the newer Pineapple Macadamia Nut Pesto with a manufacturer in Los Angeles. Roxanne will continue to develop the brand eastward, using its label as a communication piece with both retailers and the consumer.

This article was published in L&L issue 2, 2011.

Pictured: Ample Industries' EFI Jetrion 4830 press