Top Tag & Label Converters — Shrink Label Leader
Seal-It, Inc. is focused; its only business is heat shrinkable films. Under the entrepreneurial leadership of President and CEO Sharon Lobel, the company is celebrating 20 years of success and intends to stay at the forefront of the shrink label market for many years to come.
Lobel started her business in 1986 as a one-person operation, literally working out of a guest room in her house. Having worked previously with a contract packager that provided tamper-evident products for private label businesses, she understood the demands of this relatively new industry.
Lobel’s goal from the beginning was for Seal-It to manufacture its own labels and tamper-evident bands. However, the company got its start by importing film to supply to its customers. The first step toward reaching her goal came in 1990 when she took on a financial partner and moved into a 5,000-sq.-ft. facility. The following year, she bought her first press which “set Seal-It apart from the competition,” says Lobel, providing the company with the capability to offer tubing and seamed material.
Lobel’s vision and the products it supplied in the early years laid the foundation for strong growth. Today, Seal-It occupies 150,000 sq. ft. in two modern facilities in Farmingdale, N.Y. With 10 presses and more than 250 employees, Lobel’s company has come a long way since she opened up her guest room for guests.
Innovative product mix
Because of Seal-It’s singular focus on heat shrinkable films, the company offers an array of innovative shrink products. “We print full sleeve shrink labels, sleeves for multipacks, tamper-evident bands, and combination labels that combine a tamper-evident band and a shrink label in one, with a horizontal perforation that goes around the cap,” says Lobel.
These labels are printed on a variety of substrates. “We print shrink labels made from PVC, PETG, OPS, and the newest film, EarthFirst® PLA film,” she says. EarthFirst is a corn-based film supplied by Seal-It’s vendor, Plastic Suppliers. Since it is an environmentally friendly, compostable material that is not tied into the volatile petroleum supply chain, this material offers some distinct marketing advantages.
The heat-shrink process puts increased technical demands on the inks used with these products. With an array of different materials and shrinkage that can be up to 75 percent, Seal-It has to tailor its inks to meet the demanding parameters of the shrink process. To accomplish this, Lobel says the company uses “special formulations that we have developed over the years, specific to each type of film.”
Technical demands are a common parameter in shrink labeling and Lobel attributes much of the company’s success to its strong technical staff. In addition to ink development, Seal-It engineers make significant modifications to its presses, and about 15 graphic arts and prepress personnel provide customers with substantial technical support.
Seal-It offers its customers both modified flexographic and gravure printing. “All our presses are hand picked and have been modified to meet our needs,” says Lobel. “Each press that we use may have the body of one manufacturer and components of others. We, at Seal-It, are very self-sufficient and have input on the design of our machinery.”
Seal-It’s press technology is one factor that has made the company distinctive, states Lobel. “We have been a pioneer in the flexo industry [in heat-shrink labeling], creating both beautiful flexo and gravure labels,” she says. When most companies started out in the shrink business with gravure printing and then moved into flexo, Seal-It developed its flexo printing expertise and then added gravure printing to its arsenal.
“This offers our customers an option of two different ways of printing their job, which is determined by their artwork,” adds Lobel. “At Seal-It, we will examine the artwork and give our opinion on the best method of printing the job. Ultimately, it is their choice.”
Seal-It’s customers are in many diverse markets, including food, beverage, dairy, pharmaceutical, chemical, health and beauty, industrial, and household.
“The keys to success in these markets are good quality, a good working relationship with our customers, understanding the customer’s needs, and delivering a good product,” says Lobel. “We are always at the forefront of our industry, coming up with new and better ways of doing a label, such as scented, pearlescent, metallic, thermochromatic inks, holographic, and regular tear tapes.”
She says that Seal-It is distinctive in how it interacts and helps solve its customers’ needs. “We try to make the process as painless and easy as possible.”
Lobel is confident with where Seat-It is positioned in the shrink-label business. “Our capabilities allow us to pursue many new markets. The fact that we can offer a variety of print options, 10-color printing, 30 seamers, and a variety of films gives our customers many options. In addition, we have a national sales force, and a technical department that is available to all our customers.”
Along with many other experts in the packaging industry, she sees continued growth in shrink labeling.
“We are seeing more and more customers switching from paper to shrink labels. It’s the newer and more modern way to package a product. There are so many more options that can be done with a shrink label. It offers a 360-degree image area, it conforms to the shape of the product, and the bright and vivid colors make the product appetizing with more shelf appeal. There is no better way to ‘wow’ a customer then with a shrink label.” pP
- Companies:
- Plastic Suppliers