Omni Systems diversifies into prime labels

Omni Systems is one of the largest privately-owned thermal media companies in the US. Established in 1990 and owned by Adam DeFrancesco, Omni operates a 144,000 sqft production plant at Mayfield Village. The company built its business on simple one-, two- and three-color work, which in 2020 generated sales close to USD 95m and showed a five-year increase of 65 percent. Its customer portfolio includes major retail brands.

Renowned for its cost-effective production of secondary labels, it was only a matter of time before Omni’s customers began to pressure the company to move into prime labels and offer a single-source supply. Company President Mike Murton explained: “

‘We are experts at managing exponential growth without deviating from our commitment to high-quality and low prices,’ said Mike Murton, president of Omni Systems. ‘The opportunity to carry this over from our traditional work to the more complex and sophisticated world of prime labels, using trusted technology from Mark Andy and Martin, gave us a clear opening to develop our business in new areas, initially with the security of work from existing customers.’

The result was the installation of a Mark Andy Performance Series P7E press earlier this year, fitted with a Martin Automatic MBS unwind/splicer, and the order for a second identical configuration, due towards the end of 2022. 

The latest Mark Andy presses have the 20in (510mm) web width and are fitted with Vetaphone corona treaters for film label applications, 10-UV flexo print units and turn bars. The Martin MBS units offer non-stop operation with built-in roll loading for various substrates from film to laminate and paperboard, with a maximum roll diameter of 50 in (1270mm) and a top production speed of 300m/min.

Omni now operates 20 Mark Andy presses installed parallel to each other from 7in (180mm) to 20in (510mm), and all are fitted with Martin MBS systems.

‘By allowing us to run our presses non-stop at optimum speed, Martin Automatic technology has been a major factor in us achieving our cost and productivity goals, which would have been impossible otherwise. Each one of their systems here, now numbering 21 with another to come shortly, is a reliability model,’ said Chris Allen, maintenance and quality Manager at Omni.