Creative Labels of Vermont (CLOV) has chosen the HP Indigo 6900 digital press platform to expand its production capacity, creating further flexibility and added-value for its customers in the food and beverage industries.
Two new HP Indigo 6900 presses installed this summer are up and running in the printer’s digital business, launched over five years ago and today delivering 60 percent of all label production at the family-owned converter. The new presses support CLOV’s growing business in pet foods and pet nutraceuticals, an industry that has an ‘immense quantity’ of SKUs.
The recent upgrade has seen CLOV move to the HP Indigo 6900 digital front end, Production Pro, for faster RIP power delivered by a new generation server. The Indigo presses typically run two shifts per day and can each process up to 40 job tickets, as jobs are streamlined across digital and flexo depending on urgency and run lengths. CLOV also plans to add new value features such as Spot Master to reach brand colours within minutes. CLOV is using the HP PrintOS Print Beat Cloud-based management system to keep press uptime to a maximum.
Vermont is home to a multitude of craft and microbrands. Many CLOV customers that started out in the state as small brands have grown into big businesses with dozens and hundreds of SKUs. These include Cabot Cheese, Magic Hat Beer, Four Quarters Brewery, Beth’s Farm Kitchen, Harney & Sons Teas and Jasper Hill farms.
Dwane Wall, CLOV president, commented, ‘[We have] always been a short-run, ‘Ma & Pa’ jam and jelly printer catering to entrepreneurial brands and small artisan food manufacturers. By partnering and pushing ‘all-in’ with the HP Indigo solution during these unprecedented times, we are in a position to better serve our customers.
‘HP Indigo digital printing offers high-quality on-demand, in cost-effective quantities, making the solution more profitable for both us and our customers.’
Mr Wall continued, ‘Indigo design technology and colour possibilities are embraced by our brand designers who are infusing new creativity and appeal into artisan labels.’
CLOV has now decommissioned a flexo press following the investment, now running three from a historical high of six flexo presses.
