Cresta Labels is a busy, family owned label printing company, based in Nottinghamshire, UK and has been in business since 1975, - specializing in labels for:-
- Beauty products, cosmetics and healthcare
- DIY and chemical products
- Electronic and mechanical components
- Food and drink packaging
- Industrial packaging
- Petcare/veterinary products
- Security and barcodes
What Were The Challenges?
Having managed with some quite old flexo presses for many years, the management team at Cresta realised that they were steadily losing customers because they were no longer competitive and were not able to offer the print quality that customers were coming to expect as standard. Eventually, they decided to take the plunge and invest in a new flexo press, in order to try and retain their existing customers & hopefully gain some new ones.
A year or so later, we realised that if business continued to grow at the same rate, we would need another press. This time however, we decided to get rid of some of our older equipment, in order to make space for an in-line, modular press, which could be expanded in the future, if necessary. A few months later, we installed our second Focus press – a 6 colour Proflex 250 with the same high print quality, but even higher productivity. Since the print cylinders & rotary dies were interchangeable between our Centraflex & Proflex presses, we now had even greater flexibility – and therefore, greater efficiency. ‘
How Focus Equipment Helped
‘We took some time to assess which presses would meet our needs (& our budget) and decided to conduct some print trials with Focus Label Machinery, on their Centraflex press. Although quite compact & inexpensive, we were surprised at the level of sophistication offered and the print quality achievable. Another major consideration for us was space – or rather – lack of it. The Centraflex had a footprint of just 3m x 1.4m , but still gave us 6 colours plus the various converting features we needed - so was perfect for our requirements in every way.’
‘Focus installed our new press and provided thorough training for our operators. Within weeks, we were producing high quality labels and had more than doubled our production capacity. More importantly, we were able to win back business we had lost and bring our outsourced work back in house. We quickly became more confident in our capabilities and approached new potential customers, who would previously have been out of our reach. Not only had we safeguarded our existing customer base, but we had won new customers and secured new business.
Future Plans
‘The influx of all this new, high quality work presented us with a different problem. What about our mores simple, single colour jobs? It didn’t make sense to put these on our new presses, so we spoke to Focus in order to find a solution. They suggested their Reflex 250 single colour flexo press, which was available with a re-register facility. This meant that in addition to handling our blank & single colour jobs, we could also use the Reflex to die cut & finish our digitally printed labels, rather than having to use pre die-cut reels on our digital press. In addition, Focus pointed out that we could add a digital inkjet module to the Reflex press at a future date, if required. It was a ‘no-brainer’ decision, so we signed up for our third Focus press within 4 years!
During this period, we had also doubled our turnover and extended our premises in order to accommodate further expansion of the business.
‘As well as supplying our new equipment, Focus have also provided an excellent after sales service and been on hand to give technical advice & assistance whenever needed. We have been very pleased with their products & service.’
