GURNEE, IL—Abbott Label was established in the year 2000 under the leadership of longtime label industry veteran John Abbott. Today, the company has multiple manufacturing facilities, and one of the broadest product offerings of any wholesale label manufacturer in the country. The key to Abbott Label’s success has been an adherence to the philosophy of putting the customer first in everything they do. Their simple motto evokes the urgency with which they respond to every customer request: “WE’RE ON IT!”
Recently in February 2020, Abbott Label added the Domino N610i digital UV inkjet press to its label printing arsenal, expanding its capabilities and taking its business to the next level. Here, Abbott Label President John Abbott talks about his business and why he chose Domino.
Tell us about Abbott Label.
Abbott Label is a 20-year, family run trade-only label manufacturing company. We strictly sell for resale; we do not have a direct sales force. Although the company was founded in 2000, the Abbott family has been in the printing industry for over 40 years, dating back to the late 70s. My father Jerry bought a failing printing company called Metro Label in 1978, and by the time he sold it two decades later 1998 it was one of the top label manufacturers in the United States. He took the company from barely surviving to strongly thriving.
Abbott Label’s excellent employees and years of experience have propelled our phenomenal growth. Our organization is comprised of four strategically located manufacturing facilities across the United States in Texas, Georgia, California and Illinois. Our capabilities include running flexo up to 20-in. wide and up to 8 colors, and in our Dallas facility we have digital printing with an HP Indigo, and most recently we have installed the Domino N610i.
Abbott Label prides itself in selecting only the best vendors to partner with. From paper to presses, we carefully select each vendor to ensure the best quality product. Our hand-selected vendors are key proponents to help us supply the high level of service our customers have come to expect when partnering with Abbott Label.
Tell us about your objectives for the company.
My objective is to make sure that everything within the business is running as efficiently as possible, and I encourage our team to find ways to help us grow into the future. Our goal at Abbott is to be a one-stop shop, and our focus is custom labels for decorative packaging. However, since we are trade-only, it really depends on what our customers need.
Tell us about your customers and their needs, requirements and expectations.
Our customers are normally packaging companies. So, labels are just a segment of what they offer. With that in mind we prioritize service at the top of our requirements, and high expectations in our employees, because that is what our customers need. Our entire model is based on getting information and products to our customer base faster and smoother than our competition.
Let’s discuss digital. Tell us about your journey.
Digital is a necessity in today’s market. We learned about Domino in 2013, which is when we first started seriously investigating digital printing. We were very impressed with the technology, but a little unsure as there were not many units installed in the US at that time. We have had an HP Indigo WS6600 in production since 2014, and we have been completely satisfied with the HP, but we wanted to jump into the inkjet market as we believe it better serves the markets we sell into. We are presented with many consecutive bar code opportunities. In some instances we are unable to capture those with the HP. Our costing models with the Domino have led us to believe we can be extremely competitive on consecutive bar code work.
Do you anticipate changes in the types of label jobs you run or projects you pursue?
We expect that the Domino will make us better equipped to respond to our customers’ needs. We will be going after numbering jobs and high color long runs without needing plates.
Tell us about the cost justification process for acquiring the Domino N610i.
Since we have been selling into the digital market for some time we have a good deal of work we can immediately transfer to the Domino, maintain current pricing, and achieve a higher margin. With our distributor network, we feel we can load the Domino up with work in a short period of time, giving us a quick ROI.
What has been your level of satisfaction with Domino as a company, and what do you foresee moving forward?
Great so far. Domino will keep us at the top level of competition and adapting with the improved printing technology.
Thanks, John. Anything else you would like to add?
Yes, I would like to send a message to our industry friends…our fellow label manufacturers…who like everyone else across the country and around the world are dealing with extraordinary situations in this unprecedented time. The team at Abbott Label are experts at assisting label manufacturing companies with their job challenges. These challenges may include a press being down, not having enough press capacity for the current workload, or simply struggling to produce a particular product. Abbott Label strives to provide the industry’s best capabilities and speed of turnaround. During this stressful time, if label printer converters need any manufacturing assistance, they can contact me toll-free at 866-228-0100 or via email at [email protected]. They can also contact our marketing and sales director, Hayden Wier, at [email protected]. Please stay safe and be well.