Outlook Group, a labels, packaging and paperboard products manufacturer based in Neenah, WI, USA, has four business segments under one roof. The company is a printer of labels, flexible packaging, folding cartons and other paperboard products, and they bring it all together in a service model as a contract packager. Outlook Group serves a wide array of markets including personal care, consumer healthcare, food and beverage, and consumer products.

In its label printing segment, Outlook Group produces millions of labels per year on flexographic label presses, and recently added its first digital press – a Domino N610i digital UV inkjet press. 

“Initially when we brought the Domino unit in, we used it to take some of the short run business off of our long-run presses. Today, we’re using the Domino technology across multiple industries, really learning more and more about what we can do with the technology. One of the things that digital printing is allowing us to do is to address a broader group of clients. With shorter run equipment and the higher speeds that Domino provides, we are able to play in new markets and attract new customers…and we marry that up under a G7 Master Printer environment, so it all looks and feels the same. It also allowed us to address lead time issues with our customers. With the Domino we can just move over there quickly and print, and within hours have the product on its way to the customer. This Domino technology allows us to do a lot of things for our customers that we couldn’t do previously,” says Kevin Hayes, Executive Vice President – Outlook Group

And it’s not just the EVP that is excited about what the Domino N610i brings to their business. From the Plant Manager to Lean Manager to Market & Business Development Managers, the Domino digital technology is helping Outlook Group’s internal efficiencies while providing their customers what they want:

• “Behind me is the Domino N610i which we recently purchased to help drive efficiencies here at our plant. It saves us in manpower, improves quality, and reduces costs,” says Jim Zeman, Plant Manager.

• “A lot of our criteria for selecting a digital press was making sure that we were flexible enough that we could run our current substrates and current work with matching the look and feel of conventional flexo. We took a trip to Gurnee, IL to the Domino facility to see the demo presses run our own samples to make sure it was going to work for what we needed. Domino offers simple installation, training, and support, and it lets us give our customers what they need, when they need it, at a competitive price,” says Kevin Coenen, Lean Manager. 

• “We quickly realized that there were a lot of efficiencies to be gained within our operation. As we go after large volume accounts that have a lot of SKUs, we are able to best utilize our asset base to support those customers across the broad spectrum,” adds Joel Schmidt, Director of Market Development.

• “Customization I think is going to be the key and that’s where the Domino is just perfect. It allows us to address those unique needs that will be normal or common moving forward,” says Patrick Culver, Business Development Manager.

While this is Outlook Group’s first standalone digital label press, this is not their first experience with digital printing. Outlook Group and Domino have had a great business partnership for several years, most recently and currently with the Domino K600i digital UV inkjet printer integrated onto a flexo label press at Outlook Group, which adds variable data to flexo-printed labels. The K600i and N610i are based on the same technology (iTech features), so the N610i was a natural progression for Outlook Group in taking the next step in digital printing. Now, Outlook Group has the capability to choose which label jobs to print flexo, and which ones to print 100% digitally.

“At Outlook Group, our mission is to save our customers time by finding solutions that are efficient, innovative, and sustainable. Domino helps us with that, they’ve been helping us for 12 years and will continue to do so in the future,” adds Hayes.