www.sheetlabels.com
www.sheetlabels.com

The SheetLabels.com story is characterized by bold strategic moves, embracing innovative technologies, and above all else, the entrepreneurial spirit. Headquartered in the Adirondacks region of New York State – but known the world over on the internet – the future of this label supplier is shaping up to be just as impressive as its past.

Adam Gray is president and CEO of SheetLabels.com, which he launched while still in high school. Yes, you read that right. In 2002, at 15 years old, he bought the domain name and developed the SheetLabels.com website. Employing a stable of international programmers from all over the world, he launched what at the time was a label brokerage business that had immediate success using the internet, which at the time was rapidly developing and increasing in popularity.

Gray’s foresight to leverage a website with advanced label ordering software into a powerful e-commerce tool sparked the company’s incremental growth over nearly two decades. Recent investments in a new facility, equipment, personnel and branded product lines have the company well-positioned as it enters a new phase.

“Our goal at the start was to generate as much website traffic as we could, so we were constantly optimizing our site and software,” recalls Gray of his company’s formative years. 

The software he developed was instrumental to the company’s success – much as it is today. Designed specifically to provide an e-commerce solution to online label buyers, Gray’s mission was to make the process seamless and easy, and as the company grew, so too did the site’s functionality, becoming more intuitive and easier to use. And in addition to generating revenue, with each order came something else of great value – customer data.

“From the start, we would collect user data all day long, and then take that information and use it to improve the customer experience,” explains Gray. “And we used a number of different metrics – how many site visits turned into orders, the amount of time spent on the website, how deeply visitors penetrated the site – to name just a few. The focus was on collecting as much information as possible to make the experience better for the customer.”

One of SheetLabels.com’s significant, early milestones came in 2004, the year Gray was graduating from high school. The young entrepreneur was at a crossroads – go to college, or keep on going with his label business. Ultimately, he made the decision to go “all-in” on SheetLabels.com, and investments were made to bring printing and converting in-house. The decision proved to be a good one, and by 2009 the company had grown by 40%.

Recalls Gray, “It was around this time that I started to get a handle on understanding our customer base. We used all of the data we were able to gather to learn who our customers are, what they bought, how much they bought, what industries they were in and their buying behaviors – like how often they come back, their lifetime value, and cost per acquisition. All of this data helped me understand what we needed to do to improve.”

One of those improvements came with a move into an 18,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Glens Falls, NY. It was here, in the fall of 2015, when another major investment took place – the addition of a Domino N610i UV inkjet digital label press along with a Gonderflex Rotoworx finishing unit.

By leveraging the benefits of digital printing on the Domino press, the company outgrew its Glens Falls location, and in April 2019 moved into a brand new facility in Queensbury, NY. The new building increased the company’s footprint, both in square footage and height, to allow for nearly triple the capacity. Today, capacity is already being evaluated to consider another physical location.

A lot has happened since that move, and all signs point to more on the way. Among the latest additions are two new HP Indigo 6900 digital presses, a 12-color Mark Andy flexo press, three additional semi-rotary digital finishing machines equipped with cold foil, lamination and flexo spot color capabilities, three short-run digital diecutters and two additional blank sheet converting lines.

SheetLabels.com has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Revenue has nearly doubled since the move to Queensbury, and there are now almost 100 team members.

Alan Etheridge is one of the latest additions, as he joins the company in the newly-created senior vice president role. With more than 25 years of industry sales, marketing and management experience, Etheridge previously held leadership positions at Nashua Corporation, Infinite Packaging Group, RR Donnelley and Hyde Park Label/Century Label.

While SheetLabels.com’s focus has been on e-commerce, which is characterized as having a transactional approach to sales, the company today is experiencing a paradigm shift. Gray explains, “We’re now also a relationship-driven company. E-commerce is still a core focus, but a significant part of our business going forward will be centered around taking on large customers and narrowing our focus on the value we can provide for them. This is an exciting time for us. We’re bringing together transactional and relationship-based sales efforts, and it’s going to quickly take us to a whole new level.”

Etheridge stands to play a pivotal role in this endeavor. According to Gray, “Alan’s extensive experience in delivering value to clients, combined with his engaging leadership style, will immediately have a positive impact on the overall strategy of our company now and going forward. He will be a tremendous partner to the team, and he joins us at an exciting time as we continue on our rapid growth trajectory. Alan’s entrepreneurial vision, character, and dedication to putting clients first will certainly take both our clients and company to the next stage of growth.”

Gray adds, “As we increase our relationship-driven sales developments, we’ll be considering expansion initiatives through both acquisition, as well as adding facilities in new geographic locations in order to service our clients with faster turnaround times, on-site technical support issues and more manufacturing redundancy.”

Investments in more new people and machinery will also soon be forthcoming. “As we look to 2022, not including any potential acquisitions or new physical locations, we plan to invest at least $2 million in additional capital into our people and equipment to maintain the current pace of growth,” Gray says. “Digital will continue to be a large focus for us, as most of our clients require quick turn with a high degree of SKU proliferation. Flexo printing will still be part of our portfolio to service clients with a mixed set of needs.”

Expansion is taking place in more ways than one, with new brands being launched that cater to customers looking for pressure sensitive and printed products beyond product labels. Gray explains, “In addition to our flagship SheetLabels.com brand, we’ve launched HarpersHouse.com to provide an easy way to customize kids’ labels online, such labels to affix a child’s name on backpacks, school and daycare supplies and more. We’ve also launched BuyRightLabels.com, another sister brand specializing in shipping and warehouse labels. We’ve long offered these products, and we feel the time is now to increase their awareness.”

Finally, SheetLabels.com has formed a corporate brand, SLI, to service what Gray says are the larger and more sophisticated clients – those where in-person and face-to-face service is critical. He says, “These channels will allow us to remain nimble, providing dedicated resources within our current team to service each channel of clients and continue to rapidly scale our growth in coming years.”