Business Spotlight: A Sticky Business

Label Solutions Inc. in Marshfield has turned nationally recognized diamond-shaped warning images into a green light for business.

The label company collects clients nationwide by printing millions of the brightly colored diamonds that identify gasses such as argon and oxygen, which are required by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Labor.

The 20-year-old company has built 60 percent of its multimillion-dollar annual label business on the compressed gas industry, largely in just the last six years, says Label Solutions majority owner and President J. Rick Jones. The trick to gaining that business, though, rests in the sticky substances behind those red, green or yellow images on the industrial gas cylinders.

Label Solutions' special adhesive opened the door for the company to become a major supplier for labels in the industrial gas sector, Jones says.

"Our proprietary adhesive for that market allows the labels to go on in very cold temperatures and very hot temperatures," says Jones, who once worked in the industrial gas sector as a treasurer for Empire Gas in Lebanon.

The adhesive also will stick on dirty surfaces, such as welding equipment, Jones says, and the company guarantees its labels will stay affixed for at least five years.

"(Label Solutions) came up with an adhesive for our specs that allows labels to adhere to food products we store at up to 30 degrees below zero," says Dan Patterson, director of purchasing for Atlanta-based AmeriCold Logistics.

Label Solutions prints millions of labels a year for AmeriCold Logistics, a global supply chain operator that manages more than 4 billion pounds of freight annually, according to its Web site.

Label Solutions' many industrial gas clients include Airgas Inc. and Matheson Tri-Gas Inc.

Its remaining sales are mostly in the manufacturing and food industries, Jones says.

Jones has been involved with the company since its founding in 1989 as president and a minority owner, and he brought on vice president Murray Jensen as partner in 2000. That same year, Jones took over as majority owner, and changed the name from Techstar Label. Jones says the move was intended to better reflect a new direction of not just settling on label printing, but to solve all of a customer's label needs including printing, affixing and even the legal and regulatory issues surrounding labeling.

Label Solutions has a team of legal consultants on retainer to help keep them abreast of all of the regulatory and legal labeling requirements enforced by such agencies as DOT, Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the FDA.

The company has been slowed by the recession.

Jones says projected growth of 20 percent to 30 percent between 2007 and 2009 has settled in with flat revenues of about $4.5 million in 2008. Revenues are expected to remain unchanged again this year.

"I would say the downturn in the economy has cost us at least 20 percent," Jones says. "We haven't lost clients, but the order sizes are smaller than they were two years ago."

As a result, Jones says his company has had to lay off three workers.

"So far, that's all," Jones says. "It's hard for the employees and their families, but it is also a very difficult decision."

The company remains among Webster County's largest employers with 33 on staff.

Jones says the company is always listening to its clients, trying to create ways to solve problems that arise from their label issues. Staff members are working with Lebanon-based Cambarloc Engineering & Manufacturing Inc. to manufacture a new label application device. Cambarloc, a longtime client, manufactures bowmaking machines, and Label Solutions creates the sticky chips that go on the backs of bows.

Jones says the company is projecting 10 percent to 15 percent growth in 2010 by expanding its' existing client base into decals and creating signs for trucks, an area that was added more than a year ago.

"Our approach will be more of the same in that area," Jones says. "A lot of people can make signs, but our challenge is to find out what kinds of sign problems we can solve."