Cool Pak makes those "clamshell" packages that hold berries, mixed salads and other produce items at retail. They also offer a labeling service for those clamshells. That was a very pricey process until Cool Pak brought label printing in-house.
Dive Summary:
- Cool Pak had been buying some 600 million "variable trace" labels a year -- the specialized labels used to fund the source of foodborne illness or to faciltate recalls.
- In total, Cool Pak used more than 3 billion labels a year.
- At any given time, Cool Pak purchased labels from three to four different printer -- creating a logistical nightmare.
Dive Insight:
Cool Pak estimates that printing labels in-house has cut costs by roughly half. The key appears to be that in the produce industry estimating the size of a crop, and thus the size of a printing job, can be quite difficult. From the article: "...produce harvests are often unpredictable, driven by weather conditions. So having the label printing technology in-house allows us to create labels on a more efficient, just-in-time basis. We don’t need to keep a lot of preprinted inventory. We don’t have to pre-run a bunch of labels and then end up with wasted labels if harvesting plans go off schedule or off estimate."
