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Paul Williams is Les Goode’s “best mate,” as he says, since they were kids, and Williams has been Goode’s right hand man at Limpet since the beginning. Williams runs production at the company, and his input was a driving force in the Xeikon acquisition.
The Limpet Labels pressroom
“We were subcontracting work out to another digital label printer, and we got to the point where Paul said, ‘If we’re going to keep doing this, then I want us to buy a digital machine – so it’s in my control. So it’s me who’s going to solve our customer’s problems.’ And I said, ‘Let’s go for it’,” Goode recalls. He and Williams took a long look at the Xeikon press. They conducted several tests, determined that the machine was the right fit for them, made the purchase and haven’t looked back.
Les Goode believes in the future of digital. “For those that made investments in the technology, and didn’t give it 100 percent and then sold the machine, I say to them, ‘You will have to go back into digital at some time.’ It’s like saying you don’t like electric
One of Limpet Label’s Mark Andy 3000 flexo presses
cars. Over the next several years, you’ll have to like it – because you’ll have no choice.
“Digital printing is something you have to embrace, and you have to make it work. It’s not going anywhere. I believe that in 10 years time, we’ll have digital presses running at 35 to 40 meters per minute. That’s where we’re going – and maybe even higher speeds. You can see it progressing,” Goode says.
Limpet used to get its customers the “traditional” way, via sales reps and mailings, but not so much these days. “In the last two or three years, we’ve gotten most of our business through the internet,” Goode says, crediting search engine success. “If people want to find something now, they don’t pick up the yellow pages, and customers don’t have time to see 20 sales reps a day.
“If someone says they need a chemical label, and they type in ‘chemical label printing company in the UK,’ we’ll be in the top four or five,” says Goode.
Limpet still has internal salespeople, but none on the road anymore. “It’s a very expensive beast to keep going,” he says, “and it generally doesn’t generate the money we want it to.”
Limpet’s reputation is another thing the company has going for it, when it comes to generating business. Goode says, “Within the industries we deal with, we have a very good name. And a person might leave one company and go to another, and when the need for labels comes up, they remember us.
“We’re not a company that will print just anything. We find that we’re better off targeting these certain markets, using specific technology and machinery,” Goode adds, explaining that it’s also a means of keeping quality high, and prices cost-effective. “Our competitors might say, ‘I don’t know how Limpet can do a certain job at that price. They must be losing a lot of money.’ Well, we produce huge volumes of certain products. And we don’t swap materials so much. If you’re constantly swapping materials throughout the day, it can eat away at your time. In our game, we focus on the market we’re looking at, and we don’t do anything else.”
So Limpet’s runs are both long and short, and while most of the customers are local to the UK, there’s some export business as well. For example, for a customer in Gambia, Limpet prints fertilizer labels – almost three million units. Jobs like this, Goode says, take up to two weeks, running on a flexo press.
Many of the longer runs, naturally, get printed flexo, but not all of them. “Some of the longer runs we’ll print digitally, because it’s easier, because it gives you such nice tones and beautiful vignettes. To achieve the same effect on a flexo machine, it’s quite hard work. You have to get really good plates. If you’ve got a bit of a duff plate, and you have to remake it – you just lost two hours,” he says.
Turnover is vanity
One might not associate of the durable and chemicals label markets with the most compelling graphics, but according to Goode, the demands of Limpet’s customers have changed over the years. “Brands have realized they can improve the selling of their products with some really nice artwork, and it doesn’t cost a huge amount more to produce them. So their markets are growing and so are their sales. You can go to a store to buy an item with an ordinary looking label, and then see a really nice one, and the consumer will think, that’s got to be a better product. So the guys that have a really good product, I convince to spend £5,000 more a year on their labels, and they’ll sell £100,000 more of product.
With an open mind, Limpet is expanding into other markets. For example, the recycling industry is one of its latest. Goode explains: “In the UK, you have to recycle. It’s very strict here. We have separate bins for glass and plastic, and each one of them has to have a label that tells what day it’s going to be collected, and every year it changes, as the calendar does.
“The recycling people tried labels from other printers, and they didn’t work. But we use specialist inks, not standard ink, inks designed specifically for the outdoors. And we use special, approved materials with a special laminate film that will last for two years. So we got into this, and now we have about 25 percent of the market within the UK.”
The Limpet team is constantly thinking about where else their labels fit. “We’re not going to start to producing bread or milk labels, we just don’t get involved. But, hmm, batteries – there’s a fit. We do very well in the battery label market. Our turnover won’t be as big as other people, but we’re not in it to do £100 million turnover. We’re in it to make a profit,” Goode says.
When Goode got started in business, he got some advice that through the years has helped shape the Limpet business model. He explains:
“First, you’re in business to make your life and your family’s life better. The second thing is – turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king.
“We make good profits, because we do a good job for our customers. We have customers that have been with us for 20 years – month in and month out. They grow, and we grow.”