The SurePress has enabled the company to cut output time and reduce production costs considerably.
Based in Leighton Buzzard, the company is an award-winning, UK leader in branded confectionery production for promotional campaigns, events and product launches.
Producing superior-quality products while keeping costs low is of particular importance to the business and its customers. Mandy Hastie, Director, says: “We researched high-quality products that we would be able to supply to our trade customers for about £1 each and they happened to be confectionery-based, so we decided to expand the range considerably.”
The creation of new products and the move into packaging required more sophisticated print technology, evolving over time until the need for faster, more cost-effective production led to the company to invest in an Epson SurePress L-4033AW digital label press. The press runs alongside an offline die-cutting machine that die-cuts, varnishes, strips and slices the labels.
Since installing the seven-colour SurePress L-4033AW digital label press with white ink, The Sweet People has found high-quality, short-run label printing very easy and efficient. It delivers exceptional print quality and accurate colour reproduction on a wide variety of standard label substrates, without the need for pre-treatments or coatings.
The press uses SurePress AQ inks which are low migration for PET, PP and PE and meet food regulation standards – an important component for a company producing confectionery labels and packaging.
The Sweet People can produce up to 100,000 labels per week at peak times, 50% of which goes through the SurePress. Previously, the company quoted a lead time of two weeks to its customers but this is now reduced to under a week.
Quality is key. Whether it’s a run of 250 or 10,000 labels, The Sweet People offers a completely bespoke and highly personalised service for each client. The company also works on themed events, printing everything from the invitation to giveaway items, goody bags, pillow gifts and much more.
Mandy says: “As we have complete control over production, we can create promotional items to suit the budget, from the largest blue chip company to the smallest client.
There are no limits on orders and we handle large volume runs with the same care and attention as we do small campaigns. Brands demand consistency when it comes to colour and quality which is something we take very seriously and is reflected in the amount of repeat business we secure. One product we have supplied to the same customer for over 10 years is on repeat order every three to four months.”
The Sweet People are very happy with the performance of the Epson SurePress and Mandy is confident that in time more projects will be produced on it: “The SurePress is wonderful and has been an excellent investment for the business. It’s introduced a whole new way of working for us and I can see that we are going to be able to utilise it for a number of new products in the future.”
