Strategies for success at Consolidated Label

Since buying a fledgling 1,200sq ft business off a Florida dirt road, Joel Carmany, the president of Consolidated Label, has built his Sanford-based business into one of the most prominent and profitable narrow web packaging companies in North America.

Consolidated Label, with Carmany at the helm, has consistently won TLMI’s Eugene Singer Awards for best-managed companies. Seventeen, in fact (see boxout). Most recently, Carmany was named TLMI’s Converter of the Year, capping 34 years of achievements and recognition by his industry peers. 

History 
Unlike many in the label business today, Carmany wasn’t born with ink running through his veins and he didn’t grow up on the print shop floor. For Carmany, an engineer by training, the label life is one he chose.

He left a 15-year career with General Electric in 1984 when he purchased Consolidated Label, which at that time was a modest company on the outskirts of Orlando. When Carmany took over, Consolidated had ‘six employees and a couple thousand dollars in sales,’ he says. The company’s main application was hot stamped pressure-sensitive labels. 

‘What I liked about the company was the concept of labels,’ he continues. ‘It’s a flow business, meaning that the customer orders once and assuming they’re happy with the product, and they continue to sell their products, they have to keep ordering more labels. That business structure has allowed us to put in infrastructure. It’s what allowed us to build an employee base that we can count on, and the financial ability to predict where we’re going to be.

‘Success of any business is based upon the predictability of the business model.’

Consolidated Label has continued to expand as its sales volumes increased. First came a 7,000sq ft facility, which doubled a few years later. By 1995, Consolidated was ready to move to 32,000sq ft facility, which Carmany and crew again doubled a few years after that. 

Today, Consolidated Label is a $100m USD company with 320 employees and 170,000sq ft footprint that sits on 25 acres. Its sprawling shop floor is 70,000sq ft alone. 

Consolidated Label spent $13m USD to renovate its current plant, which is now a state-of-the art, bright, clean and inviting facility. It’s a shop that Carmany frequently opens to other label converters and TLMI members interested in absorbing his business acumen.

‘I’ve been around for a while, and I’m past the point of it all being about me and all that we’ve accomplished here,’ he explains. ‘I have the opportunity to give back to my employees, or other converters and share things that I think truly can help people.’

TLMI president Dan Muenzer said at the time of Carmany’s Converter of the Year honor: ‘Since joining TLMI, Joel has had an open-door policy, hosting other TLMI converter members at his company in Florida and allowing them to see his operation up close. The list of converters who have visited Joel and benefited from spending time with him is long. He is well known for his candid and rare openness, and for being a gifted mentor and friend to any converter in need. Consolidated Label has become one of our industry’s most-used synonyms for success, and I congratulate Joel for being awarded this well-deserved honor.’

Technology
As Consolidated Label expanded its physical footprint, the company added state-of-the-art label printing equipment and technology.

The shop floor at Consolidated Label features the latest label and packaging technology. Nilpeter can count the converter as one of its biggest US customers. Consolidated Label has 18 presses from the Danish press manufacturer, ranging from 10in wide machines to its latest installations: 22in and 16in width Nilpeter FA presses installed in 2018. The wider width machines will cater to Consolidated Label’s growing shrink sleeve and flexible packaging pouch, sachet and packet applications. 

‘Flexible packaging and shrink are the fastest growing segments of our business,’ Carmany says. ‘There’s a lot more added value for the customer. We’ve been in shrink about eight years now, but it’s continued to grow way above the label business.’

The latest conventional press installations are full UV LED, as Consolidated Label makes steps to change its ink system for all presses, except water-based, to UV LED inks from Flint Group. 

The decision to switch to LED curing came down to maintenance, Carmany explains: ‘UV bulbs are problematic: even when they’re still operating they can be giving off less UV light than is required to cure. It’s easy to be under-cured and that causes you problems down the road. That’s been our single most important decision from a maintenance standpoint and we’re committed to moving to LED curing as we install new equipment. We just get more press uptime.’

Two HP Indigo 6800 presses and an HP Indigo 8000 are the heart of the company’s digital label printing, with finishing completed near-line. 

‘At this stage, our most important piece of equipment is our digital press,’ Carmany says. ‘The market segmentation and SKU proliferation that has occurred over the last 10 to 15 years has made it very hard for flexo to make all those changeovers. Quite frankly it’s a lot easier with digital for your smaller runs.’

Consolidated Label has also prioritized quality control and has installed inspection systems from Baldwin Vision Systems (formerly PC Industries) and AVT on its presses and rewinding and finishing systems. 

‘From the customer side, the criticality has gone up quite a bit. They just do not want to deal with problems. They don’t want to deal with your problems; they have their own, and they’ll deal with those. The more error-free you can make production, the better off you are.’

The company relies on an MIS system developed in-house. Consolidated Label has set a precedent of IT investment, by building its IT staff and customer-facing systems. 

Strategy 
A key strategy for success at Consolidated Label has been continued investment in technology, IT infrastructure and employees. (A fitness facility and game room on site are just a few of the perks of working at Consolidated Label.) 

‘Our strategy has always been investing in people, investing in equipment, investing in customers and relationship building,’ Carmany says.

Consolidated Label focuses on small- to mid-sized brands with a heavy emphasis on food, beverage and health and beauty markets. 

‘I’ve always been focused on the big picture and having a vision for where we want to go and then trying to get the right people, the right technology and the right customer base, because whatever your customer base is, that will determine your success,’ he says.

The company was one of the earliest internet-based label providers. Joel and his son, David Carmany, who runs the company’s Online Labels division, had the foresight to know that bringing ordering capability online – at a time when very few other label converters in the country were positioning themselves that way – would be an innovative and winning approach.

‘We’re always trying to evaluate where we need to be five years from now and how do we get there now?’ Carmany says. ‘That’s why when you look at this facility and some of the equipment we have and some of the businesses that we’re in, we’re ahead of a lot of people. And that’s because we’ve outspent them. I think you have to continue to invest rather than try to put it in your pocket.’