Oregon Craft Beer – Billion Barrels and Growing!


Oregon Craft Beer is still moving forward!  The Oregon economy continues to grow and benefit from the Craft Beer industry.  Senator Ron Wyden was in town last week for a private lunch with the beer industry – he is proud of the good work our brewers and suppliers are doing to grow this robust sector of the Oregon economy.  Our quality, passion, and willingness to work together as an industry were all keys to our success, according to Wyden.

The Portland Business Journal recently published data from the Brewers Association – it is very interesting:

  • Oregon Craft Beer production exceeded 1 BILLION Barrels in 2015 for the first time ever
  • Production growth was 18% last year, following 2 years of 15% growth
  • The economic impact of this industry is $449 per capita – making Oregon the highest in the nation
  • Oregon Craft Brewery count is up to 216, up from 124 in 2011

All of this data points to one thing- Oregon Beer is ON FIRE!  We are proud to supply many of these growing producers and we work hard to support them every day.

Please contact us today if we can help you.  We look forward to serving you again in 2016.  Cheers!

 

Brewing Industry sets Record with 4,144 US Breweries

Brewing Industry sets Record with 4,144 US Breweries

2015 Craft Beer in Review from the Brewers Association Reveals Historic Number of Breweries in U.S.; Most Since 1800’s. As of the end of November, there are now 4,144 breweries in the country, topping the historic high of 4,131 breweries in 1873.

Charles Barr gives an excellent recap of this article on Linked In – click here to read the full article

 

  • Brewery openings now exceed two a day.

  • Fifteen states are now home to more than 100 breweries: California, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Indiana.

  • IPA remained the top style sold by independent craft brewers, and continues to grow faster than the overall craft category.

Over the coming year, nobody sees the Craft Beer train slowing down.  In fact, the quality and quantity of Craft Beer should continue to grow, even in (or especially in) craft-dominated cities like Portland.  Quality will continue to be important as more and more consumers know the difference between good and great beer.  That doesn’t seem to slow people down – opening a brewery is a passion project and a great business idea when you do your homework.

We look forward to supporting more and more breweries in the coming years.  Thanks to the 75 breweries that trust Rose City Label with their label needs – we take this responsibility seriously and we appreciate all the referrals you send our way.

Cheers!

 

 

New Bling! Awesome Foil Stamp Printing

New Bling! Awesome Foil Stamp Printing

We have some new toys to share this Christmas season!  The technology updates and modernization continue throughout our shop with an upgraded Foil Stamp Printing machine.  This beautiful new machine is being installed next week with factory training for our two operators.  This machine will provide very efficient, accurate foil stamp printing for our customers.

  • Deep, sculptured embossing for POP on the shelf
  • Outstanding quality on fine logos, borders, and details
  • Smaller foil text printing than ever before
  • Precise registration and accuracy
  • Excellent coverage for large patches of foil

Foil Stamp Printing adds a touch of class and elegance to your product that no other process can provide.

Selling your product is all about grabbing attention as soon as possible on the retail shelf.  Foil stamping is the technique to grab the shopper’s eye.

Embossing enhances this feature even more.

Now we can do both with this state of the art, servo driven machine.

Foil stamp printing can be used to create an entire label for gourmet foods, gift baskets, and specialty seals.  It can also be added to another preprinted label.  With this second option, you have all the power of our production team working for you on one label – digital or flexo – to create the ideal label for your product.

Check this post to see all our production options.

Click here to see examples of the beautiful labels we can create with this machine.

Still have questions?  Please call us today – we can help.

NEW-Trition Facts Update – Latest news for Food Labels

NEW-Trition Facts Update – Latest news for Food Labels

Changes are coming to the Nutrition Facts panel.  We serve many different industries at Rose City Label and we are always trying to keep up with the latest trends in labels – both regulatory and design.

The FDA remains on track to update its nutritional labeling for individual food and beverage packaging.  We anticipate the final version will be issued the first quarter of 2016, and that industry will need to come into compliance by January 1, 2018.

The most current version of the new label is here – please take note of these changes.  They will affect all food label customers that are required to show Nutrition Facts on their labels.

Rose City Label, Nutrition Label Experts, Food Labels

What does this mean for you?

  • Partnering with a knowledgeable, experience printer is more important that ever

  • Many people will be changing their labels, so responsive service will be key

  • Plan for the change – there will be costs associated with this change, so please plan accordingly

  • Take the opportunity to review your graphics at the same time – does your label need a face lift?

  • Don’t know where to begin?  Call us today – we can help.

Thank you for trusting Rose City Label with your label projects – we appreciate the faith and confidence you place in our team every day.

Read Our Family Business Article

Read Our Family Business Article

We are humbled and proud of this award write up in the Oregonian newspaper here in Portland, November 11, 2015.  Thanks to our customer, Jim Kennedy at CBM for the nomination and to all the friends and customers that have reached out to congratulate us.  We should have a video to post after next week’s formal awards dinner, but for now here is the text of the article.

We couldn’t have done any of it without the amazing customers that trust us with their labels every day.  Thank you!

 


Scott and Whitney Pillsbury had already worn the label of business owner for a decade – of, appropriately enough, a label printing company – when a cratering economy forced the brother and sister to raise their management game in a hurry.

“We really were just kind of minding the ship we’d been given,” said Scott, who along with Whitney had taken over Rose City Label upon the sudden death of their father, Mike, in 1998. “Then in 2008, the phone stopped ringing. A lot of our customers went out of business. We had to tighten our belt and really look at expenses like we never had before. We said we’re going to take this business and make it better, invest in it.”

Adhering to the plan as solidly as its labels stick to a bottle of microbrew – the company is a major player in the craft beer sector, and also makes labels for any type of product that comes in a bottle, box or bag – Rose City made a series of capital investments. New machinery has expanded production capacity, improved efficiency and demonstrated both to customers and staff that the company is committed to competing for years to come.

First, Rose City bought a small-format digital printer. Then the company upgraded its traditional, long-run press operation with a high-definition, direct-to-plate system that converts designs on a computer screen into the plates that go on the press — eliminating the costly and time-consuming step of first converting designs to photographic negatives.

Next came digital die-cutting, and then in 2014, what Scott calls the company’s “capstone” purchase: a longer-run digital press.

“Each one built on the other,” said Scott, the company president. “Each investment we made that turned out to be successful gave us more confidence to do more.”

“Digital printing had always been a dream of ours,” said Whitney, whose title is vice-president. “It’s really exciting to be able to achieve that.”

Whitney and Scott describe themselves as the “fourth generation, second family” in Rose City Label history. George Frie founded the business in 1928, and 30 years later his son, Wayne, took over. Mike Pillsbury, who’d been a paper salesman for Crown Zellerbach, bought the company in 1974.

“He was a very strong, clear-minded, nice person,” Whitney said. “He believed in hard work, honesty and treating people the way he want to be treated,” Whitney said.

“He didn’t complicate things,” Scott added. “He used to say, ‘The two most important things we do here are sell labels and make labels, anything that distracts you from that is superfluous.’”

Whitney and Scott, who were 29 and 31, respectively, when their father died, both had worked at Rose City while in high school, then “went to college, went away and did other things,” Scott said, before returning to the family business – Whitney coming back in 1993, Scott a year later.

“We’re going to die here,” Whitney said with a laugh. “I hope we do have our children and grandchildren take over.”

Scott has four children ranging from 18 to 12, and Whitney has a 31-year-old daughter and 8-year-old granddaughter.

“Renewing the business has been really important to us,” Scott said. “Hard work and good luck enabled it all to keep moving forward, and it’s fantastic to see where we are now.”

With an emphasis on innovation and green business practices, Rose City has the buy-in of a loyal staff of 18 whose average tenure is 13 years, including a core who stayed on at 30 hours a week during the leanest of times.

“We are so lucky we have the employees we have,” Whitney said.

Scott and Whitney handle decision making jointly, and they’re also in agreement about what they learned during the downturn, and that the Business Renewal award traces directly back to their father.

“I really appreciate being acknowledged – it’s for Rose City Label and also for him and what he left us,” Whitney said. “We treat our employees like a family, and we’re brother and sister first and business partners second.”

“It’s nice recognition and confirmation that what we are doing is working,” Scott said. “We’ve learned not to take the future for granted. We’re going to celebrate when we’re doing well, recognize what we’re doing right, and be happy and proud.”