Print-Leeds hired to print Black Sheep Brewery’s wet-glue labels

Print-Leeds has been appointed by Black Sheep Brewery to print all its wet-glue labels for its flock of bottled beers. Eight of the lines have already been produced and can be found in the shops.

The labels are printed on high quality coated and uncoated papers with the majority of the designs being foil blocked. The Milk Stout label is slightly different and includes a drip-off varnish. All the labels are designed using an array of innovative, high quality finishes.

Black Sheep Brewery was established in 1992, when Paul Theakston took a leap of faith and as a fifth generation brewer of his family company, he chose to leave T&R Theakstons following its sale to a national brewery. He decided to champion independent brewing in Yorkshire and built his own brewery from reclaimed equipment in the same town, Masham. 

Jo Theakston, Paul’s son and sales and marketing director, said: ‘A quality product is very important to us and that doesn’t stop with the beer – it’s everything and that includes the labels we put on our bottles. Print-Leeds have shown us that quality means everything to them too and we have developed a Yorkshire partnership on this premise. Our bottle labels are the best in the market and have stand out shelf appeal.’

Print-Leeds moved premises two years ago to a larger 30,000 sq ft factory, which has now been fully refurbished. At the same time the company invested in a new 2.5m GBP Heidelberg XL106 7-color press with coater which is running alongside its existing Heidelberg 7-color UV litho press. This was part of a planned 5m GBP investment to double the company’s production capacity, streamline production, provide greater flexibility and bring the all-important contingency option in-house for the production of wet-glue labels, composite tube wraps, litho box laminates and UV litho work.

Rod Fisher, managing director of Print-Leeds, said: ‘Black Sheep Brewery is a great brand to add to our existing portfolio of household name food and drinks brands. We are proud to be working with this independent, innovative brewery that is producing an exciting product for beer drinkers.’

Print-Leeds acquired a wet-glue label converter six years ago which trebled its turnover.

In 2008 Print-Leeds acquired a digital printing company and now houses a wide format digital printing division producing visual graphics suitable for any sector.

Rod Fisher said that the company would like to move into the self-adhesive label market.  This would be a further evolution for Print-Leeds which started life as a repro house, moving into printing in 2001 and into labels in 2013.