Flexible Service Allows Spanish Label Diversity

Flexible and versatile service from Avery Dennison Roll Materials Europe has allowed a Spanish label converter to diversify in to niche business areas without compromising quality or lead times.

Flexible and versatile service from Avery Dennison Roll Materials Europe has allowed a Spanish label converter to diversify in to niche business areas without compromising its product quality or lead times.

According to Avery Dennison, a tough competitive environment has seen many label converters move away from offering standard self-adhesive labels exclusively and move in to alternatives like pouches, tags and flexible packaging.

Spanish company Relieves Egara of Terrassa, Catalunya with its advanced presses.

When it began to investigate the non-adhesives business in 1998 however, the company realised that purchasing raw materials to fulfil new orders was not as straight forward as it would have liked.

Francesc Alemany, head of purchasing at Egara, explained: "We saw a strong business case for offering non-label narrow-web products but, originally, we had to use a paper mill for board and a flexible packaging supplier and the service was anything but flexible.

They had lead times of weeks and minimum orders of two tonnes and in our business, we don't even think of weight." At the same time, Egara were expected to deliver to its customers in relatively small quantities - usually a few thousand square metres at a time.

The only way to meet those lead times was to hold large quantities of stock in advance.

Not only was that a significant cost, it rendered a good proportion of the factory space unproductive.

Mindful of the dilemma for converters, Avery Dennison Roll Materials Europe launched a business dedicated to non-adhesive products four years ago and called it Fasson Rapid-Roll.

Offered to Fasson self-adhesive labelstock customers as a parallel service, Fasson Rapid-Roll is a one-stop-shop for papers, cards, films and release liners that allows customers to place orders as low as 1,000 square metres and benefit from improved lead times.

Alemany commented: "When we heard about Rapid-Roll from our Fasson representative, we had little hesitation in signing up.

The service has made it viable for narrow-web industry players like us to explore numerous avenues of growing market niches and keep offering the highly flexible, responsive service that our label customers have always been accustomed to." Relieves Egara is using Fasson Rapid-Roll to order two essential raw materials on a regular basis - Fasson MC 300gsm solid board for conversion in to retail tags for sports brands, including Nike and Velcor.

The other is Fasson Metallised Polyart PET for pouches used to pack gardening and agricultural produce, such as plant seeds.

To support converters, many non-adhesive products from the standard range of Fasson self-adhesive laminate components are offered directly from Avery Dennison Roll Materials Europe's regional distribution centres.

That is the case with the MC solid board that Egara purchases.

It is delivered direct from the local Fasson distribution centre in Barcelona, with lead times of 48 hours.

Special products like Fasson Metallised Polyart Polyart are available from the Fasson Rapid-Roll production centre in Luxembourg, at about five days' notice.

Both of those delivery terms mean Egara can meet end users' order schedules, which are usually placed at 15 days' notice.

Avery Dennison said that since Egara began using Fasson Rapid-Roll, the company has benefited from high levels of service.

With the reassurance of reliable delivery times, Egara has been able to strengthen its relationship with its own customers.

Alemany added: "Avery Dennison understands the label converter's needs for exceptional service.

We only need to order materials for the job in question, so the only stocks we have are those for immediate use.

This saves us a great deal of space in the warehouse.

And if a customer places an order at short notice, we can rely on the short lead times that help keep our reputation for being responsive, which is so important to us." Above all, the service from Fasson Rapid-Roll has changed the nature of Egara's business.

Now, the company can be more versatile and inventive in its product offering and, if need be, provide a wider variety of products.

Alemany concluded: "Certainly we will explore the possibilities of sourcing more products from Fasson Rapid-Roll as the need arises.

Perhaps most importantly, the service enables us to adapt our business in a changing market and helps us to be seen as a supplier of packaging and narrow web products - a much broader product description than labels.".

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