Czech mates

S&K Label has been providing high quality self-adhesive label print to customers in the Czech Republic and further afield since the early 1990s, and is a long term user of Avery Dennison’s Fasson brand self-adhesive labelstocks. The Brno based company has built up a strong customer base in primary product labels for foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, consumer durables and many other speciality markets - markets where Fasson products are also strongly established. It is also active in converting self-adhesive label sheets for office use, fanfolded labels, and direct thermal and thermal transfer label blanks.

Located originally in rented accommodation in central Brno, S&K took the decision to build its own production plant in 2006, to meet the needs of growing business and an expanding customer base. At the end of 2007, the new facility opened in Kurim‘s industrial zone - a completely self-contained production and administration centre.

Today, S&K has some 150 employees, and the company’s focus in recent months has been to achieve leading edge status for its presses, prepress services, testing laboratories, stock control system and logistics operations. A specialist in flexo print, it currently runs 13 water based and UV flexo presses, now equipped with advanced CTP prepress and finishing capabilities - including an off-line, pre-production scanner based quality inspection unit and finishing equipment.

New premises and new equipment demand highly effective workflow, so S&K controls the movement of every item through the production process using an internal bar code system that tracks a job’s process from order entry to shipment of the finished labels. High quality standards are the company‘s all-round aim and it is currently working for ISO9001 certification.

Central to the success of the new operation is the continuing partnership with Avery Dennison - not just as a labelstock supplier, but as a valued expert in the field of self-adhesive labelling. The broad range of S&K’s label portfolio means that it uses both standard Fasson paper and film labelstocks, as well as specialities - Fasson Void laminates for security labelling, thermal transfer and direct thermal qualities - and in a busy converting company it can be difficult to keep abreast of material characteristics.

A continuing, open dialogue with label suppliers is essential. As in all good partnerships, collaboration is a two-way process: the S&K Label company helps Avery Dennison by trialling new materials.

Says managing director Milan Kramarik: “Special labelling solutions are often a requirement of our customers and Avery Dennison is always willing to help develop one for a particular project. Avery Dennison’s local technical support team also organises on-going training for us in various aspects of self-adhesive label conversion, and how to make the most appropriate material selection for a particular challenge.”

This aspect of the two companies’ collaboration is particularly relevant as S&K Label takes on the new challenge of printing unsupported films for flexible packaging applications on its new Nilpeter FA-4 10-colour UV flexo narrow web press - an initiative Avery Dennison is happy to support.

“We are hoping to extend our relationship with Avery into the realms of the Fasson Rapid Roll portfolio, which offers such unsupported films,” adds Milan Kramarik.

One market where S&K has recently become active is the provision of functional labels for durable goods, in support of the Czech Republic’s growing manufacturing base for ‘white goods’, electronic items and automotive components. This is certainly a speciality field: such labels must conform to international safety specifications and stay, legibly, in place throughout the life of the product.

Milan Kramarik says: “This is an area where we definitely plan to grow our business and we are working with Avery Dennison in Prague to do so. One area where we are currently benefiting from its technical support is printing durable labels on Fasson labelstock on the new HP Indigo ws4500 digital press we have just installed.”