BESPOKE LABELS

What happens if you want a label that isn’t displayed on the pages of this website?  VIP Labels produces a wide variety of labels for customers with specific requirements.  Here are some of the things I tell people when they are ordering bespoke labels.

 We are sometimes asked whether there is a minimum order.  The answer is ‘no’ there isn’t - but there is a minimum cost!  When we are producing any sort of label the cost is all in the setting up of the job - there’s the artwork and there may be films and plates and there's the general administration of the job; there’s machine time to allocate also.  There’s material to order (which can’t always be ordered in very small quantities).  Then even when the job has commenced there’s the ‘make-ready,’ the preliminary production that has to be discarded because at that point you are changing the machine settings to make sure everything is printing smoothly.  So by the time you get to print one finished label a good deal of expense has already been incurred.  And then, after a run, the printing machine has to be cleaned down and prepared for the next job which will probably be using different inks.

 What this means is that that there is a heavy fixed cost element.  Once everything is set up then the ‘run-on’ cost is fairly small - we are just talking about paper and ink and a little machine and operator time.  The more labels you have the cheaper each individual label becomes.

 While labels do not take that long to print when everything is to hand, printing cannot start until the right material has been ordered and delivered, the artwork has been prepared and approved and if necessary films and plates made.  All this has to be fitted in to a production sequence.  We usually say therefore that bespoke labels will take about a fortnight to produce from the time that a proof is approved but sometimes timescales are not always in our hands.  People fall sick, a machine breaks down, a supplier doesn’t deliver.  If we say we try to deliver in two weeks it doesn’t mean that always, come rain or shine, we can deliver in this timescale.

Therefore what is important is not to leave matters until the last minute to order more labels or to request a new label with a changed address or telephone number.  We frequently see occasions when a process is strung out with no urgency at all on the part of the customer - quoting, acceptance of order, signing off a proof - all are conducted in a leisurely fashion and then the customer suddenly wants to have the labels printed in just a few days.  We always try to meet customer deadlines where at all possible, but customers can sometimes do more to help themselves.  If we rush through a job it means that other jobs, other customers, have to wait.




The golden rule is to order in good time.