Landmark Improves Labeling with Inkcups
Landmark Group is one of the largest retailers in the Middle East, Africa and India with over 2,300 outlets across 22 countries. Landmark prides themselves on the ability to L.E.A.D with integrity. They value listening, empowering, adapting and delivering with everything they do.
Landmark’s own clothing brand, Max, occupies over 300 retail outlets. Max is the largest value fashion retailer based on market presence and retail square footage in the Middle East. Standing by their motto “fashion for real people”, Max has retained Superbrand status since 2011 and has been recognized as “the most admired retailer of the year 2015” in affordable fashion. Annually, Max sells over 190 million units of apparel.
As with many brands, we decided to go with heat transfer labels and sewn-in labels as our vendors are familiar with those processes. As our business grew, so did the price of expensive heat labels. On average, heat transfer labels run about $0.02-$0.06 per piece, which at very high volumes, is very expensive. On top of the high cost, we found long lead times and difficulty with placing and managing orders. The quality of heat transfer label was also passing minimal wash tests.
After dealing with our heat transfer problem for several years, we decided to switch to pad printing. Pad Printing was something I was already familiar with, but I needed some time to educate others. This Tagless technology was not only right for us but it was right for our customers and our vendors. Pad printing ink is CPSIA approved, environmentally friendly, very durable, and cost effective. Overall, this new process would allow us to clearly communicate our brand message.
From a supplier, were looking for a single supplier and partner that would be able to efficiently support us in all our manufacturing regions with excellent support, local stock, technical service, and, of course, a better option for printing labels.
We found all our selling points in Inkcups. They are the pioneers in the industry and I have been familiar with them for a number of years. We also appreciated the fact that we not only had to go to one company to purchase all pad printing machines, ink cups, plates, plate-makers, inks, and other consumables but Inkcups was also consistent in the quality of their products.
Inkcups backed their excellent products with equally excellent service and support. They visited our Headquarters in Dubai frequently and reassured us that they would be able to support our large manufacturing capacity. What most impressed us was the efficient demos Inkcups setup in India, which is where most of our manufacturing occurs.
The transition from heat transfer and sewn-in labels to pad printing was very simple as we were prepared. I found a phased approach to be the best way to tackle this. We started with identifying product categories/vendors to working very closely by completing demos and trials. To further their education, I created FAQ docs with thorough videos and best practices to answer any outstanding questions the vendor may have. In total, it took about 3-6 months to get our vendors up and running.
Inkcups continues to impress us even post-purchase with their ongoing support and training. They have a great distributor network particularly in India, which continues to offer assistance whenever needed. It could be the right technology, but if the team is not right, it will fall apart. We are extremely happy with the outcome of our partnership and are looking forward to the future.
Inkcups is a nominated pad print technology partner for Landmark
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