by admin | Oct 18, 2017 | Beer Wine Spirits, Customers/Examples
Oregon Breweries Win Big!
Oregon breweries claimed a total of 17 medals at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) held October 5-7, 2017 in Denver, Colorado.
Nearly every one of the winners is (or has been) a customer of Rose City Label!
Oregon Breweries brought home 7 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 7 bronze medals. The Portland Metro area won 8 medals, Central Oregon won 4 medals, the Willamette Valley won 3 medals and Mt. Hood/The Gorge won 2 medals.
The GABF is the world’s largest beer competition and recognizes the most outstanding beers that were entered into the competition from the United States. The top three medalists in each of the competition’s 99 beer-style categories were announced October 7th at the 31st GABF Awards Ceremony held at the Colorado Convention Center.
The 2017 GABF Competition winners were selected by an international panel of 276 beer experts from an impressive field of 8,041 competition entries, including 118 entries in the Pro-Am category (an 11 percent increase from 2016) received from 2,217 U.S. breweries.
Congratulations Winners!
Nearly every one of the winners is (or has been) a customer of Rose City Label – it is wonderful to see our customers winning on the biggest stage in beer. We have always known that the beers were good in Oregon, but it is nice to get validation from the best beer experts in the world.
Oregon Breweries Win Big – All Over The State!
As of December 31, 2016 the state had 230 brewing companies operating 261 brewing facilities in 73 cities across the state, an increase of 15 brewing facilities in 2016.
Brewery count by city and region:
26 in Bend — 36 in Central Oregon
2 in Baker City + Ontario — 12 in Eastern Oregon
5 in Hood River — 12 in Mt. Hood/The Gorge
70 in Portland — 105 in the Portland Metro Area
6 in Medford — 24 in Southern Oregon
6 in Astoria — 27 on The Coast
14 in Eugene — 45 in the Willamette Valley
Learn more by visiting the Oregon Brewers Guild Website by clicking here.
Cheers to All Our Great Customers!
If your food, beverage, or consumer products company wants to work with a label company like ours, please call us today. We can help with anything in a BAG, BOX, or BOTTLE. Let us show you the Rose City Label difference.
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 | 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.
by admin | Jul 17, 2017 | Customers/Examples
We are proud to feature a long time customer who has earned a Community Service Award in his home town, Texoma. Artie Woods is a public safety officer – he know Badges Help Kids Connect with law enforcement. These early connections keep kids out of trouble, off drugs, and moving in a positive direction.
Click here to see the Video Interview
Badges Help Kids Connect
Many of our customers make a positive community impact, but very few have this kind of direct, important connection with kids. These early connections can last a lifetime and may even motivate kids to enter fire, law enforcement, or some other type of community service career.
Please take a minute to watch this video and see this public servant in action. He does much more than hand out the badges that we make for him, but they are an important, memorable tool in his tool box – Badges Help Kids Connect! We have many other fire and police customers – click here to see another example.
Learn more about our badge offerings by visiting www.safetybadges.com
Please take a moment today to thank the wonderful first responders and public servants – police, fire, rescue and military – that put our safety ahead of their own.
Thank you for your service!
If you have another great story of community service, please let us know. We love to feature our customers and vendors doing good work in the community.
by admin | May 26, 2017 | Company News, Customers/Examples
Rose City Label will be closed Monday, May 29th in honor of Memorial Day.
Thank you to all our employees, customers, vendors and friends that have supported us throughout this past year. Please take this day off with your family to remember the sacrifices of people that have come before us to make this such a great nation. We are truly fortunate and blessed.
We will be back early Tuesday morning to work on your label order.
Please contact us if we can help with an upcoming project.
by admin | Apr 22, 2017 | Beer Wine Spirits, Customers/Examples
The Oregon Brewers Guild released their data for 2016 and the Craft Beer Industry is very strong in Oregon.
For Immediate Release:
Media Contact:
Lisa Donoughe, Watershed Communications
lisa@watershedcom.com ; 503-827-6564
Oregon Craft Beer by the Numbers
In a Changing Craft Beer Climate, Oregon Drinkers Continue to Support Their Local Brewers
PORTLAND, Ore. (April 19, 2017) — Today, the Oregon Brewers Guild released their annual numbers report for 2016. Overall, Oregon is seeing strong growth in employment and brewing company numbers, while production numbers and sales continue to hold strong and steady. Oregonians are drinking more Oregon beer. Beer consumption increased in 2016, with 23.3 percent of the 3.04 million barrels of all beer (both bottled and draft) consumed in the state were made in Oregon. 707,000 barrels of beer consumed by Oregonians in 2016 were made by an Oregon brewery, an 8.7 percent increase from 2015.
Oregon draft beer consumption stole an even larger market share, with Oregon breweries producing an estimated 64.9 percent of all draft beer consumed in the state. Barrel production in the state increased by 4.8 percent in 2016, coming in at a grand total of 1,782,000 barrels. More beer meant more people, with approximately 369,000 people visiting an Oregon brewery, pub, or tasting room on a weekly basis, or approximately 19,000,000 total visitors in 2016.
The Oregon brewing industry continues to support job growth in the state, employing roughly 31,000 Oregonians directly and indirectly, and contributing $4.49 billion to the state’s economy. Oregon’s brewing establishments employed 9,453 people in 2016 according to Damon Runberg, Economist with the Oregon Employment Department. Runberg says:
“The job growth rate of 8.3 percent over the past the year is really impressive given that statewide total nonfarm growth during the same period was only 2.5 percent. The craft beer industry added around 1,340 jobs over the past two years, a growth of nearly 22 percent, which compares to a growth of 6.3 percent for total nonfarm growth during the same period. The count of jobs is an underestimate of the total employment impact, as newer brewing establishments and small owner-operated breweries are not included in the total count. The 2016 numbers are provided by the Oregon Employment Department using payroll tax records.”
Hops also contribute largely to the Oregon economy. As the second largest hop growing state in the country, Oregon had a 2016 crop value of $34,564,000. Oregon’s 230 breweries continue to support their local economies and communities donating an estimated $3,000,000 to non-profits in 2016.
“Oregon is a consistent leader in the U.S. for craft beer whether it’s the number of breweries per capita, the percentage of dollars spent on craft beer, or the economic impact per capita by Oregon’s breweries,” says Brian Butenschoen, executive director of the Oregon Brewers Guild. “We continue to see an increase in the amount of manufacturing and service jobs added in the state and we saw Oregon breweries increase their export sales by 25.6 percent (650,000 case equivalents) in 2016. Oregon’s craft brewers sold a total of 1.075 million barrels in the U.S. and around the world last year, including barrels shipped to five Canadian provinces and 37 different countries.
As of December 31, 2016 the state had 230 brewing companies operating 261 brewing facilities in 73 cities across the state, an increase of 15 brewing facilities in 2016.
Brewery count by city and region:
26 in Bend — 36 in Central Oregon
2 in Baker City + Ontario — 12 in Eastern Oregon
5 in Hood River — 12 in Mt. Hood/The Gorge
70 in Portland — 105 in the Portland Metro Area
6 in Medford — 24 in Southern Oregon
6 in Astoria — 27 on The Coast
14 in Eugene — 45 in the Willamette Valley
About The Oregon Brewers Guild
The Oregon Brewers Guild is Oregon’s non-profit trade association for the state’s independent breweries. The Guild, which receives no state funding, comprises 160 brewing companies, 125 associate or supplier members and nearly 4,000 enthusiast members or S.N.O.B.s (Supporters of Native Oregon Beer). For more information, see http://oregoncraftbeer.org/.
