Combination Offset Adds Customer Convenience

By Patrick Henry

Do you operate your label or packaging company like a Wawa, the popular chain of gas stations and convenience stores that dot the Mid-Atlantic?

Brad C. Brown, CEO of All American Label, runs his company along those lines, and it’s one of the reasons why the business has become a preferred supplier to brands all over the world.

Wawa shoppers, Brown explains, can get everything they want in a single visit: snacks, beverages, and nutritious foods for their appetites; fuel for their cars. All American Label offers buyers of labels, shrink sleeves, flexible packaging and folding cartons the same one-stop convenience by being equipped to handle whatever their projects call for.

Production resources at the company’s main plant in Dublin, Calif., include flexographic, full-size offset and digital printing, as well as grand-format output. There’s additional flexo capacity at the All American Label facility in Memphis, Tenn. In Dublin, customers get creative support from the company’s in-house design and photography studios.

The newest addition to this rich mix of capability is combination offset printing in the form of the Nilpeter MO-4 press that went into full operation at the Dublin plant in February. Brown says the MO-4 — a 16.5˝-wide, 575 fpm platform with quick-change sleeves for offset and flexo production — was designed with the high-end requirements of wine and spirits producers in mind.

Napa Valley is just 45 minutes away, and Brown’s customers there want attention-getting embellishments and consistent print quality in label runs both large and small. He says the MO-4’s modularity should be a “huge benefit” for meeting those demands.

The multi-function, six-station press consists of five offset units and one for flexo varnish. These are complemented by modules for embossing and debossing, foil stamping and silkscreen effects.

Brown notes that because some of his customers know the MO-4 from their dealings with other label houses, the machine’s reputation for production quality precedes it. He expects to acquire a second MO-4 by the end of the year.

Established in 1995, All American Label employs about 110 people at its Dublin and Memphis locations. Its customer base, says Brown, spans six continents. One of those customers happens to be Wawa, for which All American Label produces 70 packaging SKUs.