Japanese craft beer brewer Hamamatsu Act Beer Corporation has used desktop digital label printing technology from OKI Data to help it move into retail sales of bottled beer.
This has seen OKI Data, OKI Group’s printer company, install a Pro1040 desktop colour LED label printer at Hamamatsu Act Beer to produce labels for its beer bottles.
Hamamatsu Act Beer operates the Mein Schloss craft beer restaurant in the city of Hamamatsu, Japan. In January 2019, Frisch Pils, a kind of craft beer on its menu, won second prize in the pilsner division of the Japan Brewers Cup craft beer exposition in Yokohama. Subsequently, the brewery took up the challenge of launching retail sales of bottled beers for the first time, based on the idea that highlighting this award-winning beer to draw more visitors to the local brewery in Hamamatsu would contribute to making the city more popular.
Hamamatsu Act Beer currently brews four kinds of craft beers besides Frisch Pils. Since the brewery wanted to produce a wide range of labels for its products based on customer demand – something it felt couldn’t be done by subcontracting – it considered purchasing a label printer to print the labels in-house. The labels produced by inkjet printers pose the issue of ink bleed due to the condensation generated when cooled bottles are subjected to room temperature, while labels produced by thermal printers tend to darken due to friction between bottles. Hamamatsu Act Beer adopted OKI Data’s Pro1040 desktop toner colour LED label printer to overcome both problems.
The Pro1040 applies a toner method that results in labels characterised by high weather, water and abrasion resistance. In addition, by allowing printing on a wide range of adhesive roll labels based on the media such as synthetic paper and transparent film (PET) used for labels, the Pro1040 permits printing without the heat-sensitive paper associated with darkening. Another major advantage of adopting this printer is noted as the ability to print specific quantities as needed, unlike the case of outsourcing to a printing company.
After installing the Pro1040, Hamamatsu Act Beer will take advantage of its benefits for small-lot printing to move on to new challenges, such as handling orders for bottled beers with original labels for specific occasions, including special Father’s Day and wedding ceremony beer labels.
OKI Data president Hatano said, ‘Using our unique LED printer technologies, we’ll continue to solve various real-world issues and support companies that take on new challenges.’
