24 March 2014

Flexo labels win at Beau

Beau Label started in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood in 1967, shortly after the name for the trendy bohemian area South of Houston Street was first coined by urban planner Chester Rapkin. Vincent Melapioni and two partners established the label business at 141 Grand between Crosby and Lafayette Streets. In 1982 the business moved across the street to a landmark cast iron style building with more space to grow.

Stemming from Melapioni’s father’s offset printing company, initial work was primarily broker-based. At the time, there were a lot of label jobs to be found in lower Manhattan.

The third generation of the family, VJ Melapioni, son of Vincent Melapioni, became president in 1985. After he led a number of acquisitions through the 1990s, the 2005 purchase of Armstrong Label in Brooklyn and the move to its current location in 2008 pushed the company into prime label production. While ten percent of revenue was attributed to prime label at the time, today prime label accounts for seventy percent of the business.

President VJ Melapioni says, ‘We picked up end users as we moved out of the city. More bakery and meat companies were eager to direct their own purchasing; and there isn’t much room for a middle man.’