Grace Label grows with Domino N730i

Midwest converter expands its capabilities and grows its business with Domino installation.

Grace Labels team: Steve Grace, president; sons Kyle Grace, operations manager and Ethan Grace, digital press operator; as well as Lou Thurston, account executive; Mark Brooks, account executive; Amy Bogle, customer service representative; and John Watsabaugh, digital press operator.

Grace Label was the first label converter in North America to add the new Domino N730i digital UV inkjet label press to its business. A year after the installation the team has been praising its capabilities and impact it had on the company’s growth.

Installed in 2023, the N730i provides 1,200 DPI printing at 230 ft/min, 7-color CMYKOV+W covering 92 percent of the Pantone range, and white prints 76 percent opacity at speed.

Already a Domino customer with the 600 DPI N610i installed in 2019, Grace Label’s business grew tremendously the next few years and it needed to add additional capacity.

Steve Grace, president of Grace Label, said: ‘We’re located in Des Moines, Iowa. We’re a medium-sized flexo and digital label printer started by my father in 1974. It started with 11 employees. Now, three generations later, we continue to grow. Being in the Midwest, we work a lot in the food and beverage industries and we're proud to remain independent after all these years.’

During the visit to Labelexpo Americas 2022 the team has its first glimpse of the N730i, and decided at the trade show they wanted that press.  Now, having both the N610i and N730i in its arsenal, the company calls it its ‘Field of Dreams’ with these two presses, and their business continues to grow.

Ethan Grace, digital press operator added: ‘For me personally, what’s exciting about having one of the first N730i presses in the world, is we get to watch the development and evolution of digital printing technology in real time.’

According to Lou Thurston, account executive at Grace Label the new press upped the company’s game: ‘Being in the digital game on our Domino N610i, we really had a solid workhorse delivering super results. It just made it a lot easier when Steve (Grace) went looking for that second press to go right back to Domino. And with the N730i, we've got something that nobody else is delivering today and we couldn't be more excited to take that to the marketplace.’

‘From a sales perspective, Grace Label has the ability to make sure we've got our customers covered in any way, shape, or form,’ added Mark Brooks, account executive at Grace Labels. ‘With Domino's partnership, we've already had a great press. With the addition of the N730i, we're able to enter the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical market. On top of that, we've got even quicker turnarounds and higher press speeds.’

‘Domino is a great partner, and it's nice to have somebody that's got the technology and the service and the people that you can rely on to help you get through the next phase. With the additional capabilities of the N730i, there was really no other choice to be made,’ concluded Steve Grace.