Label Express broadens capabilities with Bobst M4

Established in 1984, Label Express has been supplying high end paper and filmic PSA labels to a wide variety of market sectors that include beverage and food, health and personal care, retail and automotive. To achieve the quality and speed of turnaround, the company maintains full production capabilities at its Croydon site with studio, repro and platemaking, through to print and finishing.

After extensive research of the narrow web UV flexo press market, Mark Freestone, operations director at Label Express, identified the Bobst M4 as the press to fulfill its requirements. The press at Label Express is the first Bobst narrow web press installed in the UK.

Simon Williams, sales director at Label Express, explained: ‘We decided to extend the range of applications and services that we offer to our customers to include a full range of multi-ply constructions and non-adhesive films for wider packaging applications. With the various options on the market to produce these products, it was important that the machine we chose was versatile, efficient, provided great print quality and could produce all of these products cost effectively. The Bobst M4 delivers exactly that.’

Freestone worked with Keith Robson, of Global Print Services, the representative sales and support agency for Bobst narrow web machines in the UK, to ensure the press specification exactly met Label Express’ expectations.

The highly specified press includes a web turner bar with delam/relam and in-line cold foil. There are three die-cutting stations that are capable of converting and waste stripping complex shapes and multi-cut label constructions. The servo driven press has eight in-line UV flexo print stations that are equipped with digitally automated print register and die-cutting controls suitable for 7-color, extended color gamut production. In addition, Label Express is also able to offer single pass, multi-layer coupon labels in 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-layer formats of up to nine pages.

‘The machine hasn’t failed in both ours and our customers high expectations,’ continued Williams. ‘Being able to confidently go to our customers and new markets with a performance press such as the M4 has really been a huge boost for the business and we are enthusiastic for the future going from strength to strength.’