Labelisten cuts lead times with Cellcoat laminators

Labelisten, a German converter of roll labels and stand-up pouches based in Bavaria, has installed two Cellcoat thermal laminators, cutting lead times by 20 percent, reducing waste roll stock by 5-10 percent and lowering labor costs by 40 percent by combining lamination and slitting into a single process.

Founded by Frank Plechschmidt as a print brokerage in a prefabricated garage, Labelisten has grown steadily through a series of digital press investments, including an HP Indigo 6900 in 2018 and an HP Indigo V12 in 2025. The company now employs more than 100 people, handles more than 300 jobs per day and produced 130 million labels in 2025.

The first Cellcoat installation, a T14 reel-to-reel laminator, arrived in 2025 and addressed the challenge of lamination and slitting being performed as two separate processes. The unit features a short web path to reduce waste, a web tension device for extensible materials and a footprint of just 2 sqm, a critical factor in Labelisten's tightly packed production area.

The second unit, a T30 model for flexible packaging, followed with the arrival of the HP Indigo V12, targeting bottlenecks caused by wet lamination's extended drying and curing times. Where production speeds previously ran at around 25/min, Labelisten now achieves 60-75m/min, a near threefold increase with no additional labor cost.

'The Cellcoat machine solved the problem of laminating and slitting as two separate processes,' said Nicolai Erhart of Labelisten. 'This saves time, labor and waste, and the whole unit has a small footprint, which is important in our tightly-packed production area.'

'The issue with the wet lamination process is the long turnaround times required for each job,' noted Jonathan Smith, owner of Cellcoat. 'Whilst thermal lamination costs a little more, the job is ready now. As soon as the web is rewound, it can be further processed thanks to Cellcoat's unique chill roll arrangement.'

The investment has also opened new commercial opportunities. 'Installing the Cellcoat thermal laminator has opened new opportunities that were previously impossible or simply not feasible,' added Erhart. 'We can now manufacture reliably in-house, without risking bottlenecks or having to outsource parts of the workflow.'