by Scott Pillsbury | Sep 5, 2018 | Customers/Examples, Technical
Keeping Consumers Safe with a Prop 65 Label
There is a huge new burden on manufacturers that sell products to consumers in California – and it may require a label update:
All manufacturers, producers, packagers, importers, suppliers, and distributors, regardless of whether they are located in California or out of state, must provide a warning if their products cause exposures to any listed chemical to individuals in California.
If you are selling anything with ingredients on the prohibited list, you may need to update the language on your labels. The NFIB has an excellent summary of the newly updated law on their website. According to NFIB,
More specifically, a warning label is required if the chemical included has either a 1 in 100,000 chance of causing cancer over a 70 year period, or unless it may be said that exposure to 1000 times the amount of the chemical within the product has no observable effect on reproductive health
The update effective in August 2018 is actually just a more strict interpretation of the law passed in 1986 – Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act This law requires disclosures if any of 900 listed chemicals are present in your product. Read the full NFIB article by clicking here.
California even has a specific website dedicated to the new law. Check more on that site by clicking www.p65warnings.ca.gov
We are All About Full Disclosure
This law seems onerous, but it is no more so than the mandate 20+ years ago to provide nutrition facts on all food packaging. Now, this consumer information seems standard, but at one time, it was a big change for all food producers. This will be the same. Besides marketing and branding, your labels need to give consumers clear and complete information.
Easy Redesign
We aren’t a graphic design company, but we can help with basic layout changes. Editing your label to be compliant and still be attractive – we can do that. We are experts at fitting lots of information onto a small label. The cost for this redesign is very affordable in most cases. And, if you need a full rebranding, we can refer you to some excellent design agencies. Adding a separate Prop 65 label to your packaging is another option – we can help with that too.
Other Label Questions? We can help
As always, we are here to help with any and all label questions. We can help with technical, aesthetic and financial questions related to your label project. Please call us today. We would be happy to help.
This article is intended to provide Oregon and Washington businesses with general information and is not intended to serve as legal advice regarding any specific matter; information should not be acted upon without legal advice.
by Scott Pillsbury | Aug 22, 2018 | Environmental Green
Rose City Label Sustainability – Part 2
We love being a GREEN company. Our customers can feel good about partnering with a leader in this area. Rose City Label Sustainability is woven into each part of our business and we live this out on a daily basis. Call us if you have any questions. We love helping others with their sustainability journey.
Free Pallets – Upcycling for Good
We generate excess pallets each month. Typically we buy material in large bulk rolls and sell small, custom label orders shipped via courier or UPS. Even with our staff projects, we can’t use up all these pallets internally. We shared this on social media, and now all our pallets are given away to neighbors for reuse. Read more by clicking here.
Reuse Trash as Shipment Padding
Waxed paper sheets separate rolls of adhesive label stock. This ‘slip sheet’ prevents rolls from sticking together. Wax coating makes these hard to recycle, so we use the sheets to pack our boxes going out to customers. The label rolls are clean and protected. Our customers are happy we can reuse this packaging to save money and the earth. Read more by clicking here.
Local Vendors and Courier Service
Whenever possible, we use small, local vendors for parts and supplies. This personal touch helps us stay up and running with responsive service for customers. And, we are supporting the local economy. Read more by clicking here. We also use a local delivery service for most shipments in the Portland area. Again, we are supporting a local company, but we also get faster deliveries to our customers. And, having our labels delivered by small, private auto is always better than a large industrial truck taking the labels back to a central hub to sort and deliver the following day. Our local courier partner is Direct Transport – learn more about them by clicking here.
Rose City Label Sustainability Summary – A Way of Life and Business
This is only part ONE! Hopefully this commitment is as important to you and your company as it is to us. If you have questions, please contact us. We are happy to help our customers and friends on their green journey. Rose City Label Sustainability matters. We work hard to make our company better in many ways. Balancing people, profit and planet – that is how we roll!
by Scott Pillsbury | Jul 20, 2018 | Customers/Examples, Food Beverage
We Label The Winners
Two of our favorite customers were recently honored in their respective industries for the best product in the nation! In national food competitions and blind beer tasting, Great Notion and The Bitter Housewife both came out on top. We are proud to call these companies great customers, but also friends of Rose City Label. We label the winners!
Great Notion Ripe IPA
Great Notion has been very, very popular recently. They have won numerous national and international awards. Their small batch beer releases sell out quickly when shared on social media. This award is further proof of their success. Paste Magazine recently spent 17 days doing blind tasting on the best 324 IPAs in the country – 17 days of beer tasting! The results are summarized here, but the punchline is that out Great Notion was voted #1 out of all these beers! Among other things, the reviewers said:
it’s the beer that everyone can agree on. It’s the beer that everyone wants to drink more of. And in these 324, that was Great Notion’s Ripe, hands down. … Ripe is simply everything that you want in a NE-IPA. Loaded up with Citra, it presents a hugely tropical hop nose, with notes of mango, papaya, pineapple and more musky, exotic fruit notes that are difficult to put your finger on.
Way to go Great Notion – we are proud to have you as part of the Rose City Label family. Cheers!
The Bitter Housewife Cardamom Bitters
The next big winners were Genevieve and Dan Brazelton founders of Improper Goods – The Bitter Housewife. Their Cardamom Bitters not only won their individual category in the Specialty Foods Association national competition, they were actually picked as PRODUCT OF THE YEAR in all categories! Read the full story by clicking here. This is a huge accomplishment for a relatively small company that is competing with all types and sizes of business around the United States. Way to go!
Call Us Today
Do you want to be labelled by the company that labels big winners like this? We label winners and we want to label you, too. Call us today for a free consultation to see how we can help your product stand out in a crowded market.
by Scott Pillsbury | Jun 28, 2018 | Beer Wine Spirits
Beer Can Labels Give Great Options
Beer can labels allow brewers to experiment, collaborate, and bring new products faster. Small batch sizes, quick delivery, and great quality make can labels a good option for specialty products. Beer can labels add cost, but with premium, small batch products commanding a higher price, the can label pays for itself. And, not having to order 200,000+ of each SKU saves money and space.
12oz or 16oz – We CAN Help
We have the standard sizes for 6-pack (12oz) and 4-pack (16oz) labels. And, we can do them on both our traditional press (long run) format and the short-mid run digital press. Whatever the beer can label need – we CAN help!
RCL Can Labels Run Well
Beer can label customers rave about how well the labels stick to wet, cold cans and how durable they are in the retail environment. Because cans don’t have a protective panel like glass bottles, can labels need a laminate to protect the ink. We learned this the hard way on early runs, but now we have the system dialed in.
Design Options and Special Inks
Because you aren’t committing to 200,000 printed cans, your designs can be flexible and fun. Also consider adding metallic or fluorescent inks to make your designs pop off the retail shelf. Printed cans are great, but they just don’t have the graphic options that a beer can label offers.
Small or Large Quantities
Because of our flexible press options, we can print 500 to 100,000 can labels in a fast, high quality, cost effective manner. Some can labels cost as little as 7.5c per label.
Thank You
We appreciate all the great beer customers that have trusted us as the moved from glass to beer can labels. Please call us today for all your beer can label needs.
by Scott Pillsbury | Jun 11, 2018 | Business Tips, Company News, Customers/Examples
Extra Mile Service – Whatever it takes!
When we determined that a critical shipment wasn’t going to make it for an important trade show, we reran the order and boarded a plane. We flew the labels (in 
suitcases) to the venue in Chicago so the customer could have them for the show. The customer loved the labels. The stickers were a big hit at the event. Whatever it takes, we are here to provide extra mile service. Here’s the full story:
Friday Night
At about 10pm Friday night, we figured out that this shipment would be delivered Monday, not Saturday as requested. We contacted UPS and tracked the packages, but with no luck. The packages were stuck in Louisville, KY and nobody would get to them in time.
Saturday at Noon
By noon saturday we had an emergency crew in the shop to re-run the job. While the job was running, we explored DHL, FedEx Freight, and continued to look for ways 
to retrieve the job from the UPS facility in KY. The customer was willing to drive from Chicago (297 miles) to pick up if this would be an option. Unfortunately, the only viable option was to buy an airline ticket and fill suitcases with labels. Saturday afternoon we were out buying suitcases to make this happen.
Saturday Night at PDX
The gate agent checked the overweight bags onto the United Airlines direct flight to Chicago. The staff was very cordial and helpful – it isn’t very often that a person only checks their bags one way! The passenger was just there to escort the bags, but it was faster and less expensive to have a human getting a free ride to Chicago.
Sunday 5am in Chicago
After a nice relaxing night on the airplane, I was in Chicago by 5am and ready to hand off the bags to my customer contact. Labels aren’t always sexy or exciting, but this handoff seemed like a monumental achievement to keep the free world safe. Very exciting to see the labels in the proper hands.
Later, we got notice from the trade show that the labels were a big hit. Finally, by the end of the day the trade show staff gave away the entire 200 lbs. (4 suitcases) of hand delivered labels. Success!
Sunday 10am – back in Portland
About 95 minutes after the big handoff, I was back through security and eating breakfast at the airport. Sadly, I didn’t see any of Chicago on this trip! The flight back was easy, and with the time change, I was back before lunch time. In less than 12 hours I covered 3,500 miles and made a huge impact on an important customer.
Extra Mile Service – Anything for Labels!
This is, admittedly, the craziest delivery story that I can recall in the last 24 years, but it’s really just an extension of our daily way of doing business. Customers come to us with crazy problems all the time and we go out of our way to fix them. Extra mile service – that’s what we are all about. Call us today!
