Gulf States Label, a label manufacturer in Houston, TX, has added short-run digital printing capability with an investment in Colordyne Technologies’ 3600 Series Retrofit platform. The installation was completed with help from experts at Styers Equipment Company.

“Exceeding our clients’ needs has always been one of the pillars supporting our company, and it became very obvious to us that entering the digital label printing marketplace before it arrived in full-force was in our best interest, especially if we were going to maintain this client-based foundation,” says Mike Williams, owner at Gulf States Label. “There’s a rapidly growing market of small business owners who are in desperate need of affordable, short run, highly customizable labels for their products. This market is too small for most label printers, resulting in heavy expenses, huge time investments with very little ROI, and more waste product than sellable product.”

Colordyne’s 3600 Series Retrofit platform is ideal for label converters looking to expand their client base by breaking into the growing short run digital label printing market. Colordyne touts 3600 Series Retrofit platform as having superior performance and price proposition, ease-of-use, self-maintainability and scalability for use in a variety of converting environments. By adding 4-color digital inkjet printing to their existing flexographic press, label converters can utilize the 3600 Series Retrofit to profitably augment and grow their current printing activities.

Featuring Memjet printhead technology, Colordyne’s 3600 Series Retrofit platform provides variable data integration, 4-color process with options for spot colors, a wide variety of printable substrates, and advanced color management software.

“Updating our Mark Andy 2200 10” 6-color flexographic press was an easy decision,” Williams adds. “The price point of the system is attractive, as well as avoiding setup expenses associated with normal and long runs. Short run jobs were just not profitable for us.” 

A major supplier of labels and tags for the oil field industry, Gulf States Label was looking to grow its business into areas of 4-color process work, but could not balance the costly challenges associated with traditional printing methods and short run work. Williams explains that this retrofit was the perfect transitional step into digital print because it adds full-color variable data to the traditional analog process while making short runs profitable. “A whole new client base is now open to us,” he says. “With the addition of Colordyne’s 3600 Series Retrofit, we were able to save money while increasing business on both sides of the coin.”

In addition to growing its client base, Gulf States has also started working with new businesses such as Spinnaker Coating, LLC, a manufacturer of pressure sensitive paper and film products for the printing industry. “We’ve begun working with Spinnaker, building a partnership that we are both very happy with,” says Williams.

Gulf States currently purchases three of Spinnaker’s materials on Colordyne’s approved media list – Satin Matte Ink Jet Paper, Gloss Ink Jet Paper, and 5.0 mil Matte White Ink Jet Polypropylene Film. Working closely to expand their product offerings further, the combined efforts of Colordyne, Spinnaker, and Gulf States are resulting in continual enhancements. By adding more of Spinnaker’s materials to Colordyne’s list of approved, compatible substrates, Colordyne is creating more opportunities for converters like Gulf States. Fostering cohesion across all aspects of digital printing is a part of Colordyne’s mission, the company says.