Improved brand targeting
During the busiest parts of the year, whether that’s your Spring sale or the classic Christmas rush, no one likes to be kept waiting. In-house label printing allows you to effectively skip the line, no waiting in line as outsourced suppliers drive up prices and lengthen production schedules to suit themselves.
From a financial perspective, short campaigns are expensive when you’re outsourcing label production. You have to overestimate the number of products you’ll sell, and since you’ll submit designs well in advance, you can’t make any last-minute changes to your offer – unless you’re willing to pay through the roof, of course.
It’s 2019: for a lot of local producers and small companies, outsourcing label production is simply more expensive than printing in-house. While there is an initial outlay, small businesses can expect a full return on investment after as early as 6 months, and most commonly within 2 years.
Let’s look at an example.
An artisanal brewery buys different label designs for each of its nine products. They order 400 of each, at a cost of $1.08 per label. They order labels 5 times per year. These are pretty standard numbers in today’s industry.
With an in-house label printer, the same quality labels can be printed for as little as $0.11 each.
Startup cost: An Afinia L801 label printing machine costing around $8,000.
Savings: $0.97 per label x 400 labels x 9 label designs $3,492 per order, or $17,460 per year.
Payback: Less than 6 months.
ROI in the first year: 145.8%
Note that this doesn’t look at your electricity bill or other possible minor charges. However, it also doesn’t consider that reduction to zero label waste and the costs of over-ordering stock.
Modern color label printer technology has changed the game for small businesses. It’s true that outsourcing printing to 3rd parties is still the answer for some bigger businesses with static, bulk purchases. However, when dealing with diverse product ranges and a dynamic print schedule, bringing your printing services in-house pays major dividends – not least your own peace of mind.
For our money, any investment that can reduce costs, save time, improve convenience, and enable more creative design is worth investigating.
