by admin | Dec 7, 2017 | Company News, Customers/Examples
Thanks to all our amazing customers that have helped us grow and prosper all these years. This retrospective will give some history, some context in our current environment, and some wonderful hopes for the future. None of this would have been possible without you – thank you so very much.
Past
We have the experience to navigate the changing world of label production. Self adhesive roll labels, 
which are 90% of our work now, weren’t even invented for the first 30 years of our business. Technology has changed over time, but the timeless values of hard work and fairness don’t ever change. You can be rest easy knowing your work is being handled by the most experienced label printing crew.
Present
High quality food, wine, and beer labels dominate our production now.
We work very hard to keep our top customers happy and growing. As their production grows, they can’t be limited by a label supplier that can’t keep up.
Because of the trust you continue to put in our 
team, we continue to grow and prosper. 2017 has been a great year!
- Sales up 12.5% over last year
- 676 customers have trusted RCL this year
- Over 3,500 label jobs printed in 2017
- New water wash plate system
Future
The future is bright at Rose City Label. With continued investment and training, we are constantly upping our game to serve you better. This year we are upgrading again:
- Precision Video Plate Mounter – more accurate, faster job setup
- Second servo driven rewind/inspection station – reliable and fast
- Workflow Automation – faster delivery of Digital Print Jobs
Workflow Automation – this is the biggest change for 2018. This integrated system ties our office business system directly into production. As more and more digital jobs demand faster lead times, this automation will make every job faster and more accurate. Visibility for the office staff will help plan production and make accurate delivery time estimates. This is big! Stay tuned for more information as we fully implement this cutting edge technology.
Label Designs for 2018 – Nobody is facing LESS competition in the new year. Your labels have to stand out in a crowded market. Shelf space is limited and you need to grab and keep the consumers’ attention. This post based on a Forbes magazine article gives great insight. Here are the main takeaways –
- Less is more – clean, classic designs are winning
- Texture matters – color is important, but a nice ‘touch’ helps
- Be true to Your Brand – tell a consistent, authentic story
Summary
Thanks to you, we are well positioned to continue our growth into 2018. Our investment and our very strong team have us poised for the future.
- Right equipment for best results
- Excellent, well trained crew
- Committed to Eco-green business practices
- Backed by local, family business values
With your trust, we look forward to 2018 with great anticipation. If there is anything we can do for you – related to label printing or not – please call us today. We are happy to give back to the community that has been so good to us.
Cheers!
by admin | Oct 29, 2017 | Business Tips, Company News
We are very fortunate here at Rose City Label that our business seems to be back on track. We still have challenges, as we always will, but if our business could continue to prosper like it has the past 24 months, we would be very happy.
This improved business climate caused me to reflect and remember when, not too long ago, things weren’t very good.
Like many businesses, ours was caught flat footed when the bottom fell out in 2008. We were not prepared for the dramatic slowdown, and we had to take some serious measures to correct things quickly. We said goodbye to an employee that wasn’t performing, and we cut back hours in our production facility. These were difficult, nerve racking times for all of us. One of the things I remember most is that I never appreciated when things were good! I just assumed things would always be good. Now I know this isn’t always the case.
So, with these past 4 years behind us, what have we learned:
- 1. Celebrate Success! We aren’t setting records or hitting a home run on every single order, but we have much to be thankful for. I am trying to remind all the people in our company, and trying to remind myself, that things are good. We all need to take time to recognize this and give ourselves a small pat on the back for hanging in there.
- 2. Don’t Take the Future for Granted. Now I know that things can turn sour – in a hurry. I know that we can’t afford to get lazy, complacent, or arrogant. We always need to push forward and keep getting better every day. Tomorrow is promised to no one. Continuous improvement and staying hungry are the only things that will help us stay strong.
- 3. Protect the Downside. If, God forbid, we do have another major dip in the economy or world events, or if we have a serious problem in our own company, we need to protect the downside. As a leader I waited too long to make the hard decisions last time. I assumed all would be good – I didn’t know how long the downturn would last, or how deep it would be. Thankfully, we are a conservative, financially secure company, so we could withstand the storm, but I don’t want to get that close to the edge again. More proactive management would have helped ease the pain, and I am going to keep that in mind for the future.
Hopefully these three ideas can help our customers as we move forward. They are all important, but especially now, I am focusing on #1 – Celebrate Success!
Thanks to all of you for being a part of that success for Rose City Label.
by admin | Sep 21, 2017 | Business Tips, Company News, Customers/Examples
We always try to be a Customer Focused Business, but today I had an experience that made me pause to evaluate HOW we serve our customers. Are we really serving them the way THEY want to be served? What do our policies, hours, and communication methods tell them? Are we a customer focused business – from their perspective?
Today I visited stopped at a coffee shop on the way to work, but it didn’t open until 8am. What? If I am a coffee shop, serving busy professionals, I need to cater to their hours, right? Most people, like me, what coffee early in the morning on the way to work. Yes, some come in later and have meetings or chat with friends – but MANY coffee consumers need their caffeine early…
Open For Business
Do our policies and business practices say, ‘We Are Open For Business’? Are we meeting our customers where they want to be met? And what could you – our loyal customers and readers – learn and apply to your own business? There are many, many ways to be a customer focused business, but often we get caught up in our own internal operations to the point that we don’t see things from their perspective. We need to do a periodic audit to see if we are living up to this goal.
Hours
Our hours of operation need to match the schedules of our customers. We print for other businesses, so being open during business 
hours is fine for us. But what if you serve single parents? What if you are a dentist working on kids? You probably need times that allow them to get services without missing school. If people are always racing to your office right before you close, you may need to
stay open a bit longer.
Communication
Do people want to meet in person? Fill out a form online? Or meet in person? We try to accommodate all of these options. Email is fast and efficient, but many want to talk about their project on the phone. When we can, we always prefer to have people in for a tour to see our shop and meet our people – or, we go to them to discuss their labels. Whatever they want – however they need to be served – that is what we try to deliver.
Product Design and Delivery
What features and benefits to you offer? And do your CUSTOMERS care? Being a customer focused business means listening before you speak. Finding out where it hurts before you begin to solve the painful problem. Sometimes durability is a huge issue for labels, but sometimes it isn’t (for a temporary, or disposable label). We need to ask the right questions to provide the right product with the features that are important to YOU, not just the things we think are important.
Balance
We can’t be all things to all people. We can’t cater to every whim. Maybe the coffee shop today only serves neighborhood regulars that come in later and stay all day? Maybe I am not their target customer? If this is the case and they have determined this and chose their hours on purpose then BRAVO to them. It certainly wasn’t a fit for me, but it did give me pause to think about our own business to make sure we are asking the right questions. We have to always be mindful of what is important to our customers – we need to keep a constant pulse on what they want so we can continue to grow and prosper.
Want to work with a customer focused label company? Call us today!
by admin | Aug 24, 2017 | Company News
Proud Family Printing Business
Rose City Label is a thriving, Proud Family Printing Business in Portland, OR. We are growing and investing as we continue to help more and more customers. We have many things to be proud of and many reasons for our success, but being a family owned and operated business is at the top of the list.
Family Business From the Beginning
My sister and co-owner, Whitney,
and I were fortunate to grow up in the business. This is all we knew growing up and that gave us a great foundation to build on. We weren’t forced into the business in any way, but the idea of owning and operating a business just seemed natural from a young age. Having our Dad as a role model always gave us a great standard to strive for. When tough decisions have to be made in the business today, we often ponder what he would have done, even though he passed away almost 20 years ago. He taught us to be part of a Proud Family Printing Business before we even had an inkling about our career direction.
What Does it Mean Today?
Even though none of our children are actively involved in the business, we still try to build a family atmosphere with our crew. The family aspect extends just beyond our (Pillsbury) family into other families. We have multiple husband and wife teams, a father and son, and some close friends that have worked here over the years. Together we have seen kids grow up, marriages begin and end, and every other form of joy and tragedy that you typically find in a family. We have seen it all here within our Rose City Label family.
Why is this important?
Having this foundation gives us a deeper connection than a typical co-working relationship. Yes, we get upset with each other and don’t always treat people with perfect courtesy, but we have a bond and a connection that goes beyond the norm. With many 20 year employees, we keep a long term perspective in mind. Business is booming right now, but we know that won’t last forever. We keep an eye to the down side and always protect the long term health of the business. This is always our primary focus – keeping the proud family printing business solid for the future.
How Do Customers Benefit?
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Family Business Does Better than Average
This post back in 2015 shows research data that family business outperforms the non-family business by 4x over the period of 2005-2015. Click here to read the full article. The article details several reasons for this success, including deep leadership experience (for generations) and smart capital investment.
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Resources are Available to Help – OSU Austin Family Business School
The OSU Austin Family Business program has been very good to us. They offer seminars and professional connections to help people just like us. They have great respect among the Oregon family business community. It is refreshing to meet and network with people that have a common experience. Check out their site by clicking here. We recently presented to the senior class studying family business – see that post by clicking here.
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We are Good At Being a Family Business
Back in 2015 we were honored by the OSU program as the Austin Family Business of the Year! We were humbled and thankful for this great recognition. Mostly, it is a nice reinforcement that we are doing many things right and carrying on our father’s legacy with honor. Click here to see the post about this award. Click here to view the YouTube video
Thank you- You are Part of Our Family Too!
We couldn’t do any of this without you, our loyal customers. Each day we ask what is best for YOU, the customer, and what our Dad would do in the same situation. Please keep us in mind for any custom label printing projects. If you aren’t in the family yet, we would love to welcome you into the group.
by admin | Aug 18, 2017 | Company News, Technical
We continue to invest in new tools to help our customers get the highest quality labels. This state of the art light booth provides a digital verification of our internal color management. The SpotOn! Software solution uses precise digital technology to ensure accuracy of spot color printing in the press room. Digital Color Management will raise the bar again on our quality system. Our dedicated press operators (each with over 20 years experience) are great, but this system gives them a scientific backup to make sure they are always hitting the target on color.
Measuring Using Delta E – world standard
The world wide recognized standard in Digital Color Management is Delta E. It provides an objective way to visually show deviations from the ideal target value. The system, Spot On Flexo, uses a digital library of colors and then measures press color using a color spectrophotometer. We compare the measured value to the standard and plot the difference (or Delta) on a graph. Hopefully the color is right in the center of the target range and no adjustments are needed. If the color is off, the system provides suggestions to get the color back into the target range.
Precise Match to PMS Colors (Pantone Matching System)
The Pantone Matching System (PMS color library) is the universal standard used by all printers and designers. This Digital Color Management system has the full licensed PMS color library included in the software. This means we can match any PMS color specified by a label designer. Guess work is gone and judgement is backed up by science.
Create and Reproduce Custom Colors with Ease
Despite the vast Pantone library, some labels require a truly special, custom color. We have deep expertise in creating these colors based on customer input, but documenting and reproducing these colors can be difficult. Since they are custom, there is no formula to recreate them (which is one reason to avoid them if possible). Using this Digital Color Management system, we can capture a digital image of these colors and then save them for future runs. 3, 6, 24 months later, we can easily recall this color on the next press run.
Track and Report During and Between Runs
Matching the color once is great, but keeping it consistent over long press runs can be difficult. By periodically using the color spectrophotometer to sample the color during the run, we can graph and track the color over time. There is always some variation within a print run, but with this system we can set standards and track the variation during the run. And, with this saved data over time, we can measure all runs against each other. Within the run and between runs, we have the Digital Color Management system to back up our exceptional operators.
Staying Cutting Edge for You
We continuously evaluate and invest in new technology to make even better labels. Our customers demand very high quality. We are always looking for tools and techniques to deliver that quality with more consistency and efficiency. Thank you for your partnership. If you want a progressive, technology focused label printer to help on your next project, please call us today.
by admin | Jul 29, 2017 | Company News, Customers/Examples
Rose City Label is not your typical company to attend #WDS2017 – we are a traditional, brick and mortar specialty print shop. We have been in continuous operation since 1928 – we don’t fit the profile for new media, location independent entrepreneurship at WDS. Still, we love the vibe and enjoy the amazing speaker. And, even though we are more of a ‘traditional’ business, we have been blogging for over 8 years and have small followings on Facebook and YouTube. We are trying to apply the lessons of WDS to our traditional business and these new tools are helping us grow and win. June 0f 2017 was the best month in our 89 year history!
Community – Adventure – Service
These are the core values of WDS. This conference is in its 7th year and literally brings people from around the world to our hometown of Portland, Oregon. People are very supportive and friendly – many are very successful in their online businesses, some are just getting started, and others are still dreaming of leaving their day jobs behind. Regardless of their station in life business, this is a very supportive community. Many – if not most – have some charitable component to their business. Some of the attendees are providing support to overworked doctors and nurses, some are using music therapy to help disabled people, and still others are maintaining a database of the human rights violations in Iran. They take on tough problems with passion and zeal. This is an inspirational, friendly group. Here are a few of the highlights of the 9 (yes, nine!) outstanding main stage speakers during the weekend.
Scott Harrison – Charity Water
Scott told a very personal, raw story of his journey through youth into the very fast paced, unhealthy world of the New York night club scene. He was on top of the world with money, girls, cars, and A-list access. But inside, he was a shell of a human. He realized this and made a radical change, volunteering on a medical ship in Africa. Through this experience, he came to see the horror of 663 MILLION people on the planet that don’t have access to clean drinking water. What started as a one year ‘cleanse’ or personal penance for his previous bad behavior became his life’s mission and calling. Because he was an outsider, he didn’t know the rules of running a charitable foundation. He broke most of the rules and made everything better in the process:
Give 100% to Charity
Because he saw that his potential donors were mistrustful of charitable organizations, he set up a separate organization to fund his administrative expenses. All staff, overhead, and promotional expenses are covered separately so 100% of donations help build wells!
https://www.charitywater.org/about/
Rich Roll – Vegan Extreme Athlete
http://www.richroll.com/
Rich did a great job of inspiring the crowd with his boundary pushing examples. Just because people tell you something can’t be done – don’t believe it! Go out and test your assumptions and self imposed limitations! Try it for yourself and see how good you can really be. Test the waters and push the limits – you may be surprised what you can achieve.
Want Great Labels? Call us Today!
What does all this have to do with Rose City Label? Yes, we are an established brick and mortar business. Yes, we have machines and people and a factory in SE Portland. We are not a location-independent internet based business – we are a ‘real’ business. But, we can learn from the lessons of modern business. We can meet our customers where the are and delight them with exceptional, 21st century service! We can apply the lessons of love, charity, and giving to our daily operations. We are old enough to be established and reliable, but also nimble enough to grow and adapt. Want to work with a great company that lives in both the traditional and modern worlds? Call us today.
