For a tight-knit group of label-converting professionals at Prestige Label, the purchase of an HP Indigo Omnius Webstream digital label press was just the latest step in an aggressive corporate plan to both push the limits of label printing technology and give label customers the utmost in customer service.

"About a year and a half ago, we noticed that our customer base for short runs of complex labels was growing," says Elisha Tropper, president of the New York City based converter. "We even looked at buying a typical short-run label house. At the same time, however, we were in the process of establishing a relationship with Indigo, and eventually we decided to buy the equipment and bring digital printing capabilities in-house."

As preparations were made for the installation of the new digital press, Tropper and Tim Keegan, V.P. of Plant Operations, searched for multitalented individuals with prepress, graphics, and press operation skills. Prestige interviewed individuals from across the country, and succeeded in landing two highly skilled digital press operators from New York and Connecticut to run what quickly became a two-shift operation at the Burgaw, NC facility.

Several months later, as the company's flexographic business rapidly grew alongside the digital operation, Keegan and Tropper succeeded in persuading Terie Syme to relocate from her Pennsylvania home to join Prestige as its Operations Manager. According to Keegan, Syme's extensive experience in flexographic and digital prepress management, and strong interest in digital printing, were the exact skillset Prestige needed. Tropper points out that the addition of Syme to the core team enables Keegan "to continue his hands-on management of the flexographic production, while overseeing the digital division and the rest of the plant operation."

Keegan and Syme lead an experienced team hand-picked from all over the country, including key employees from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Connecticut, Ohio, New York, Tennessee, Washington, and Florida. Tropper is a strong believer in "finding the right person for the job, regardless of where they happen to be located at the moment." Together, this diverse group of skilled industry veterans goes about the day-to-day business of making Prestige's substantial capital-equipment investment pay off.

Completing the digital printing process is a Rotoflex custom-built finishing station that re-registers the digitally printed rolls and performs a wide variety of finishing steps such as additional printing, diecutting, laminating, varnishing and slitting. In addition to short runs of prime labels and marketing samples or prototypes, the digital press handles runs of all sizes requiring one to four-color, variable-information printing.

Tropper estimates that jobs outsourced to Prestige by other designers and label converters account for about 40 percent of the digital press' output. "We've become a valuable partner for many flexo converters, for whom we provide not only digital printing, but also label design and platemaking services," he says.

In the flexo pressroom, two Nilpeter USA (formerly Rotopress Intl.) 13.75-in. UV-flexo combination presses feature 10-color capability, plus inline rotary screen, hot-stamping, cold-foil stamping, varnishing, laminating, diecutting, and rewinding. They've been outfitted to facilitate two-sided printing, including one of the company's specialties, adhesive-side printing. A 10-in., nine-color Mark Andy flexo system with in-line finishing completes the press lineup. Prime labels are flexo-printed here, slit, inspected, and rewound.

"This mix of printing methods enables us to produce complex labels using multiple processes to achieve specific desired results," says Tropper.

Graphics and prepress departments at Prestige have all the latest software, including Workflow Manager and FlexoCal Generation II from Artwork Systems. A Kelleigh photopolymer platemaker contains exposure, washout, drying and finishing. These capabilities, plus an in-house creative design department, have proven essential in enabling Prestige to offer high-level label design services to both smaller customers who don't have designers of their own, as well as larger companies who prefer the single-source simplicity. Again, it's a customer service Tropper is intent on providing to customers of all sizes.

"We want to be ready to help our small clients to grow into large clients," he says. "Because we offer both digital and flexographic printing, small clients can grow, and their labels will remain consistent in appearance, not to mention efficiently produced." Prestige manages the entire graphics programs for some customers—even for products they don't print.

Tropper readily acknowledges that digital printing brings with it a learning curve that can be steep, including a sizable investment in prepress equipment and software, and the exacting maintenance, parts replacement, and constant cleaning need to keep the digital press in top shape. Tropper estimates that the maintenance alone on the digital press approaches $100,000 a year.

The past year has also taught him and his team that much of the digital game is customer education and hand-holding, project management, learning how to price jobs accurately, and managing expectations of customers who may be entirely unfamiliar with the digital label printing process. Some of these customers need a great deal of assistance in understanding and coordinating the process which can include label design, artwork manipulation, and either digital or flexographic printing—or both.

As the proprietor of a growing label house with capabilities in both flexo and digital printing, Tropper is in a position to observe the state of both types of label converting, while having plenty of opinions about the future.

"Every year, the gap between flexo and digital printing shrinks, in terms of the run length when digital printing is the cost-effective option," he says. "It will be interesting to see how things shake out, as the digital presses gain speed and the flexo presses add digital capabilities."

"Digital PMS inks must go down in price, in my opinion, for digital printing to grow to its potential. Prestige processes 6-10 jobs per week that we would prefer to run digitally, but are forced to print flexographically because of the current expense of digital PMS inks," he says. However, Tropper does point out that Indigo is currently working on bringing PMS inks to market at more competitive prices.

So what's next for this $5 million converter? Tropper's aggressive outlook ranges from wanting to purchase niche supplementary equipment at Labelexpo Americas, to looking at acquisitions of other companies with a strategic fit in capabilities or markets. Does he dream of a $50 million label company? "Ask me about $50 million when we get to $20 million," he says with a smile.