Orbytel's Flexible Mix Keeps it Moving Forward

"There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction,"—Winston Churchill

Still on a roll that began a decade ago, Orbytel Print and Packaging has been evolving from a print brokerage to a bona fide packaging manufacturer.

Founded as Diagraph Bradley of Northern Ohio in 1964, the company cut its teeth on marking, coding and stenciling supplies that were the beginning of automated product identification on cartons, steel, plastics and wood. By the mid-1980s, Diagraph was generating labels and barcodes on-demand, using dot matrix printers and software, and by the early 90s, had entered the market for thermal transfer labeling, producing large quantity orders for corrugated boxes and non-prime labeling applications. At the same time, the company expanded its services to include sales and repairs of label applicators and automated equipment.

Watershed Moments

But company president Mark Uvlin saw opportunity in offering customers more. Much more. Orbytel bought its first piece of printing equipment—a one-color flexo press—in 2001 with plans to manufacture different-sized labels to customer specifications. Three years later, the company installed a roll-fed HP-Indigo press and began in-house digital label production with versioning, then added a second HP-Indigo in 2007. Most recently, Orbytel moved into wide-format digital packaging and the POP/POS display market, with complete digital contour cutting, scoring, creasing and routing capabilities.

The company has never looked back. The result is an entity relentlessly future-focused and wholly dedicated to helping its customers succeed by taking advantage of new technologies and efficient production methods. Digital printing and the ability to offer versioning was an obvious shift to help customers seeking to better target specific markets. The ability to provide larger-sized packaging options and display options, for instance, expanded the range of services Orbytel could provide, making the company a single source for some customers.

"Orbytel has always been intent on growth," says Uvlin indulging in something of an understatement, given that the company is a study in strategic differentiation. Over the years, Orbytel has sought to maximize new technologies and efficient production methods for the benefit of its customers. Orbytel's broad menu of products and services encompasses graphic design, CAD design and prototyping, digitally printed custom pressure-sensitive labels, flexible film packaging, retail displays and signage, as well as offset-printed rigid and folding cartons. Additional services run the gamut from security printing and asset management to contract manufacturing and product development. Customers include ad agencies and marketing firms serving clients in the food and beverage industry, plus cosmetic, pharmaceutical/nutraceutical, consumer products, and chemical industries throughout the U.S. and Canada.

More Than Just the Label

Orbytel's equipment lineup includes HP-Indigo ws4500 and ws6000 digital presses used for pressure-sensitive labels and flexible packaging, a HP-Scitex 7600 UV flatbed inkjet printer for short-run and on-demand corrugated display work, and most recently a 5-color Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 UV press, installed in 2012, to provide "more robust" paperboard folding carton production to its capabilities.

While it might seem counterintuitive for an all-digital printer to step into conventional package printing with the Speedmaster, Uvlin saw the move as a "natural fit" for a company like Orbytel with extensive label expertise. Future investments well could include additional sheetfed offset capacity, Uvlin noted. Post-press offerings include die-cutting, CAD cutting, laser cutting, and clamshell cutting, in addition to winding, slitting, folding and gluing. It comes back to being future-focused and dedicated to helping customers succeed.

"We're serving more and more people, including brokers, who want more than just the label," Uvlin says. "We know that many of our customers had channels of distribution for their products and needs across all of our product lines. So we bring a lot of differentiation to the table. There aren't more than a handful of independent packaging printers that offer our mix of products and services. Our appeal is direct to the end-user, in terms of establishing a level of comfort and trust that makes collaboration with customers easier and more convenient."

Defying Categorization

Rather than relying on its reputation of being a highly effective producer of precision labels and promotional packaging, Orbytel relishes new opportunities to demonstrate its versatility, such as with litho-laminated and e-flute cartons with digitally printed labels. The company's recent plunge into UV-offset printing is another case in point. Undertaking UV printing can be a tricky and costly proposition, even for companies with experience on the conventional offset side, but Orbytel's Uvlin appears to be taking all of it in stride, beginning with the basics.

"We are getting used to the offset workflow and shave time off our make-readies on the XL 75—which is one beast of a machine," relates Uvlin. "With the exception of flood-coating some digital products, UV is a new business for us." Even so, he points out that the company has been steadily improving its operating efficiency and bringing in different customers who need both offset and digital products.

"We have more arrows in our quiver," Uvlin affirms. "Our mix of equipment gives us a lot of flexibility, meaning many different jobs could go on different machines, based on run length, customers' quality expectations and finishing requirements. Quality is never less than top drawer. We have sufficiently diversified our processes, so that even if one segment is down temporarily, the others will be up. That kind of flexibility means we're getting work we wouldn't normally have had because of the equipment synergies we have to offer."

"That's the beauty of having diverse process and product offerings. Besides, we want to make it easier for our customers to do business with us as a one-stop shop that spans all of our product lines."

All this happens in a physical plant occupying just two acres of a six-acre parcel located in Garfield Heights, OH, a Cleveland suburb. With so much room to grow, what's next for "lean and hungry" Orbytel? Only time will tell. But in the meantime, Mark Uvlin and his team will continue distinguishing themselves by working hard to understand and execute on the needs of their customers, while researching the best digital and conventional technologies and efficient production methods that will drive the company's continued success. pP