www.harmonizedlabel.com
www.harmonizedlabel.com

Harmonized Label Solutions, in Medford, NJ, was founded in 2023 to reinvigorate the complex pressure sensitive label printing industry with the simple values of communication, quality, speed – and fun.

Co-owners Brian Boecklen and Dave Gotham were colleagues several years ago. Since then, Boecklen had become increasingly unhappy with the growing lack of control and customer connection he was experiencing throughout the label industry, which only intensified through the pandemic. He was ready for a change.

“Making labels wasn’t enjoyable anymore, and I needed to do something more rewarding,” Boecklen explains. “I wanted to make a difference for my customers again. Dave had been extremely successful in running digital label operations when we worked together before, helping us dramatically improve processes and lead times. I respect him deeply, and when I reached out to him about starting a label company, he was interested right away.”

With more than four decades of collective label manufacturing expertise, they teamed up to combine cutting-edge technology, a simplified and optimized workflow process, and a deep understanding of customers’ needs to deliver pressure sensitive labels for bottles, cans, jars, and other primary packaging applications.

Amidst the discord they had each experienced, they focused on collaborating with each other, their customers, their suppliers, and even their competitors, in purposeful, mutually beneficial harmony. That’s how the company name evolved. 

“I started to think about how people should work together to get things done and how that relationship can be beautiful,” Boecklen recalls. “I was trying to find a unique way to use ‘harmony’ in our name, and it was my 12-year-old daughter who came up with the idea for Harmonized Label.”

Even the technology is harmonized, with a CEI BossJet powered by Domino hybrid press featuring a 7-color (including white) digital print engine, plus three flexographic printing stations. It also supports coating, printing, laminating, foiling, diecutting, and stripping, all in one pass. The machine fit their vision of a lean, automated, swift operation that eliminates the number of steps and human touches required to get a job out the door and back into the customer’s hands.

“Dave and I reviewed the way we had seen things done in the past, took the good, and learned from the things we did not like,” Boecklen notes. “One of our main takeaways was that printing labels is complicated enough – we don’t need to be complicated people. Because we keep things simple, we can respond quickly. We are challenging traditional workflows to take our printing operations to the next level.”

Harmonized Label Solutions specializes in pressure sensitive labels with vibrant colors and interesting embellishments for multiple product lines. It’s proving to be an ideal match for the company’s customer base, which for now is primarily in the personal care and nutraceutical markets, where Boecklen and Gotham have the most experience. These customers tend to need fast turnaround on small- to medium-sized specialty runs, with excellence in variable data, various art designs, and unvarying color.

“One of our customers had a lot of challenges with consistency on a complex label that included variable data,” Boecklen says. “That customer had been using multiple printing companies and methods just to get product on the shelf coming out of the pandemic, but still with uneven results. We filtered the work through our process to deliver consistent colors across all SKUs, with faster lead times and less stress and aggravation. The combination of our streamlined front end and our high press speeds gives us an advantage with serialization, variable imaging, and sequential numbering, helping our customers deliver standardization, traceability, and unique interactive options for their brand.”  

Behind the scenes, the Harmonized Label team brings new meaning to the phrase “small but mighty.” In less than a year, the company’s employees have doubled – from two (Boecklen and Gotham) to four. The press operator didn’t respond to a classified ad – he’s a former customer who asked for the job during a tour of the facility, understands what’s required in a quality label, knows how to fix machinery, and was also searching for a career change that promised a lot more fun.

“We have something special here, and we’re grateful people want to be part of it,” Boecklen says. “Everyone is encouraged to make a difference, to be curious. There is almost always a better way to do something, and when one of us finds it, we make that change. We don’t micromanage. When we make mistakes, we don’t get angry or freak out – we learn and keep moving. We care about each other and want to make cool labels for people we care about. We take our customers and their work very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously, and we’re always quoting classics, everything from Seinfeld to Top Gun, making sure that it’s not just a job – it’s a place where people are happy and want to be.”

Boecklen’s career as a business owner goes back to his childhood. When he was 12, he started cutting grass. He turned that gig into a successful landscaping company that, as an adult, he eventually sold. Soon after, he joined a cousin who worked in label manufacturing and taught him about all aspects of the business. Nearly three decades later, he had built the network and the trust to return to his entrepreneurial roots.

“The packaging industry is filled with challenges, and people need help,” he says. “I love to learn and grow, build genuine relationships that last, and provide solutions that help my customers succeed and enjoy what they do, as well. If we work together, there is a very good chance that we are going to be friends. And that means we do more, all the time, for our customers and for each other, so that through our relationship, our customers’ lives are also a little bit better.”