Check out our article about Flexible Packaging in this month's Packaging Technology magazine, which thoroughly examines this popular packaging format. Click here for more information about our flexible packaging capabilities.
At our core, we are not just printers; we provide components for crucial products, including life-saving drug therapies.
Every day, our employees come to work knowing they impact the health and wellness of people worldwide and that the products our clients produce could one day save the life of someone they love.
So, when the Label Control Manager at a global biotechnology company informed us of a dire situation, our team sprang into action.
Our global biotechnology client approached us to develop a new wrap label for one of their critical clinical trial cancer drugs. This label was crucial for the trial's progress, so we needed to swiftly source raw materials and develop a production process compatible with personalization by the clinical packager. Although this was a new label that required non-standard materials, we managed to turn around this project in 3 weeks.
Unfortunately, the client's transportation company had an issue, and the labels were not delivered and could not be located. This packaging delay would have impacted cancer patients around the world who depend on this crucial medication. Compounding the situation was that the medication was part of a clinical trial, so missing the scheduled dose could effect the study and create a huge delay in the FDA drug validation.
Emergency turnaround in one day. Fortunately, we had extra raw materials in stock, so we pulled together a group of key production people to work over the weekend to redo the job. Then, we hand-delivered the labels directly to our client on Monday at 9:30 am.
This situation reinforces why people work with PLPS. Our clients get the best of both worlds: the personal touch of a small business and the infrastructure of a large organization.
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Most importantly, the drug's production wasn't held up because of missing packaging components, so there was no delay in the patients receiving their medication or invalidating the trial.
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A very happy client stated in a thank you note, "Simply Amazing! … I can't thank you guys enough and your priceless value to our operations."
Deer Park, New York, April 22, 2024 -- Premium Label & Packaging Solutions (PLPS) announced today that it won first place at the 31st Annual Gold Leaf Awards for Best Use of Cold Foil (Label or Carton). The winning shrink sleeve label was produced for longtime client OL Products for its Infatuated Tanning Lotion and was printed at Overnight Labels, the company’s Deer Park, NY plant.
At first glance, the label's black background with red inverted triangles design looks simple, but the visual reveals a spectacular 3D kaleidoscope effect when it hits the light. PLPS used multiple processes to achieve the look. First, the black and red ink was laid down, followed by a holographic Pillars of Light cold foil and a second coat of black and white ink. Finally, the web was turned to apply a silk screen UV to the red triangles to amp up the dimension.
Renowned for its expertise in both specialty finishes and shrink sleeves, the company has garnered numerous industry awards. This latest accolade further cements their position as an industry leader. Leslie Gurland, VP of Sales and Marketing at PLPS, expressed the company's enthusiasm, stating, "We are always driven to maintain a level of excellence in everything we print, particularly when a job demands intricate details. This win is a testament to our unwavering commitment to quality and the artistry of label printing.”
The Gold Leaf Awards, a globally renowned competition, serves as a beacon for the best in the industry. It evaluates submissions that showcase a wide range of specialty finishing techniques, from foil stamping and embossing to specialty coating, film laminating, laser cutting, die-cutting, and cold-foil applications. The competition is a tribute to the industry's innovation and excellence.
“We had a record number of entries in our 31st annual FSEA Gold Leaf Awards, which highlighted a variety of print embellishment technologies,” stated FSEA Executive Director Jeff Peterson. “The creativity and new uses for labels, cartons, direct mail, and other applications continue to amaze me.”
Premium Label & Packaging Solutions was formed in 2021 to bring together a group of award-winning converters with decades of experience in the Pharmaceutical, Nutraceutical, Beauty, Food & Beverage, and Household Product industries. Forming one company with redundant capabilities, a large fleet of state-of-the-art equipment, and market proficiency offers the personal touch of a small business with the infrastructure of a large organization and a unique quick-turn model that puts exceptional quality, speed, and customer service first. They supply best-in-class pressure sensitive labels, shrink sleeves, extended content labels, and flexible packaging to companies nationwide.
Check out our article in this month's Contract Pharma magazine, which discusses how next-gen biotherapeutics and direct-to-patient (DTP) trials are disrupting traditional clinical trial supply models, including the need for quick-turn/small-batch labels. Click here for more information about our clinical trial capabilities.
Label & Narrow Web magazine, the premier resource for label professionals and those in the branding and packaging fields chose PLPS for this month’s “Company to Watch.” The piece showcases how we started and where we are going. https://www.labelandnarrowweb.com/issues/2023-10-01/view_features/companies-to-watch-premium-label-packaging-solutions-plps/
Acquisitions of mid-size companies by large groups result in powerhouses with combined technologies in commercial hubs around the world. Conglomerates form to cover markets in strong nations and continental regions, and smaller groups emerge everywhere. Many are powered by private equity, and all compete regardless of size.
PE firms are finance organizations with profit the primary goal. They target industries with health and growth in the short term, possibly long term. One essential to financial goals is experienced leadership on the ground.
Over the past two years, family-funded Dunes Point Capital (DPC) acquired four well-established label and packaging converters in the Northeast US. The small PE company created Premium Label & Packaging Solutions and now has seasoned industry leaders, from within the operations and from outside, honing a dynamic group with high performance in several strong packaging markets.
In 2021 and 2022, Premium Label & Packaging Solutions (PLPS) acquired Overnight Labels, Label Graphics Manufacturing, HP Mile, and Luminer Converting. PLPS now comprises eight plants in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, and employs 225 people. Its customers range from small to very large manufacturers with global reach in healthcare, wellness, personal care, and industrial segments.
In the late 1980s, Luminer was launched in southern New Jersey; at the same time Overnight was being built in Long Island, NY, into a regional contender. “They were not really competitors,” says Leslie Gurland, vice president of sales at PLPS. “Overnight was in prime labels and Luminer was mostly pharmaceutical. As time went on both founders were looking to move their businesses to the next stage and found an acquirer in PLPS.”
Over the years, HP Mile in Syracuse, NY, had been busy with acquisitions of its own: Privateer and Label One, both in Old Saybrook, CT. Label Graphics, in Little Falls, NJ, was the most mature company in the group with 44 years in business. Quite a few specialists remain on the ground in all four companies. They are involved in sales, product development and general management of their facilities.
“This is Dunes Point’s first foray into packaging,” Gurland says. “They wanted to be in the beauty, personal care and wellness markets. First they targeted Overnight, which produces high end, sophisticated graphics and labels.” Overnight’s specialties are vitamin supplements, nutraceuticals, sports nutrition, food and beverage, health and beauty, and household products. But the acquirer gained much more as it expanded its reach.
Luminer focuses on the pharmaceutical business and makes extended content labels for clinical trial work and other pharmaceutical applications. HP Mile’s expertise is in pharmaceutical and medical labels, as well as specialty tapes. Label Graphics is known for its range of packaging products, like plough folds, multi-page booklets, peelbacks, tube laminate decorating, and hot stamping.
Yet each knows something about the other shops’ expertise. “Every business PLPS acquired has an overlap, additional expertise that the next company does,” says Gurland. “We are always expanding our breadth and our depth.”
One example is a project with a large customer who wants to move to 100% recyclability, with new materials, new inks, new adhesives. “It’s a huge undertaking,” Gurland adds. “Combining the technical expertise and unique capabilities of each location allows us to bring the same solutions as the bigger players in the industry with the passion and speed to market of a smaller organization. This is what is resonating with our customers.”
“We’re now making stand-up pouches. We have an entire factory doing those,” says Gurland. “It’s a big investment, the kind most people aren’t going to make. We needed a bigger press, so we just took delivery of a new Lombardi, giving us a larger ROI.”
Sales teams from the four companies are now one. Gurland, former executive VP at Lux Global Label and an industry presence for decades, heads a sales force that represents the spectrum of processes, capabilities and enhancements offered by the expanded business.
“The companies that formed PLPS were entrepreneurs, and we are keeping that entrepreneurial spirit,” Gurland says. “We are available 24/7. We have to try harder. It’s in our DNA. Our customers want that.
“Our slogan is ‘Changing the Packaging Paradigm.’ We are branding our group. We’re not just focusing on our bottom line, but also our culture, who we are. It’s about our customers, our people, our community. Our mission is whatever the customer’s need is. We make the customer’s reality.”
PLPS runs 51 presses in a wide variety of print processes. Nilpeter and Mark Andy equipment are dominant, and four HP Indigo digital presses. In addition to the new Lombardi, two older units operate in the Little Falls plant, each 24" wide with a 36" repeat. All are flexo with LED curing.
Rewind equipment is from CEI and Rotoflex, and Karlville has supplied most of the flexible packaging converting machinery to handle seaming, pouching and inspection.
PLPS pays attention to manufacturing protocols. Its Farmingdale, NY, plant has Platinum GMI certification (Graphic Measure International), which ensures that color standards are met at the facility to provide control and uniformity. Plants producing pharmaceutical and OTC labels are ISO certified and cGMP compliant.
This year the company is particularly pleased to have received Safe Quality Food Certification (SQF), also at Farmingdale. SQF will let the company expand its food, beverage, and nutraceutical label work. The certification addresses food safety and quality management in a dozen food related categories, including food package manufacturing and consumer products packaging.
Increasing the value of a business is accomplished by acquisition and organic growth. Some companies focus on one more than the other, but PLPS works on both. “Everybody targets 10% growth per year, but we’d like to see 10% organically,” Gurland notes. “Additional growth comes from acquisition.
“What appealed to me, and a big reason I joined PLPS, is DPC’s commitment not just in increasing the financial value of the group but on making the businesses a better place for their employees. In an age when cost cutting is a given, PLPS improved the health benefits of the employees of three of the companies to match the excellent benefits Luminer was offering.
“DPC doesn’t just state its values, I feel they live them: honesty, humility, curiosity, impact, and team first,” she says. “To work alongside the industry greats – the four founders of Luminer, Overnight Label, HP Mile, and Label Graphics, people I have admired for years – is such an honor and privilege.”
Premium Label & Packaging Solutions Award News
Deer Park, NY, May 16, 2023 -- Premium Label & Packaging Solutions announced today that Overnight Labels, its facility located in Farmingdale, New York, has received the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Certification. This location is focused on digital printing and, in particular, conventional and sustainable flexible packaging. SQF certification will allow the company to expand its growing food and beverage business.
Recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), the SQF certification and quality standards are designed to meet industry, customer, and regulatory requirements for all sectors of the food supply chain, including packaging. It is recognized worldwide by retailers, brand owners, and food service providers as a rigorous and credible food safety and quality program.
“Even prior to our SQF Certification, we employed a strict QA protocol to ensure that every production facility in our group and every label we print meets our high standards,” said Overnight Labels’ General Manager Tom Spina. “This new accreditation, combined with our Platinum-level GMI certification, demonstrates the company’s commitment to the craft of label and package printing and adherence to the strict protocols required by certain industries. We are excited to work with new food brands and co-packers that share our quality, safety, and overall product excellence philosophy.” Premium Label & Packaging Solutions was formed in 2021 to bring together a group of award-winning converters with decades of experience in the Pharmaceutical, Nutraceutical, Beauty, Food & Beverage, and Household Product industries. Forming one company with redundant capabilities, a large fleet of state-of-the-art equipment, and market proficiency offers the personal touch of a small business with the infrastructure of a large organization and a unique quick-turn model that puts exceptional quality, speed, and customer service first. They supply pressure sensitive labels, shrink sleeves, extended content labels, and flexible packaging to CPG companies nationwide.