Labeler helps juice marketer expand

Downeast Sunsprouts&#44 Inc.&#44 a small family-run health food business&#44 must be able to put out 10&#44000 bottles of its 100% fresh-squeezed fruit juice per day to keep up with growing demand for its product in its expanding New England market.

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The Buxton ME firm's ability to do so was enhanced considerably last June when it installed a Scout 100 front and back pressure- sensitive labeler from New Jersey Machine (Lebanon NH).

"We only label a few dozen cases of product at a time" says operations manager Michael Carter. "So I'm constantly switching labels and sizes. By now it's so easy I can almost do it with my eyes closed."

Fresh Samantha brand juice is available in high-density polyethylene bottles in sizes as large as 128 oz and as small as 8 oz. The labeler's microprocessor controls help simplify changeover among these sizes. "We hit a few buttons to set it up and then it just flies" says Carter. "We haven't begun to approach its full capacity either. We can grow to twice our current production and this labeler will still handle it."

Front labels are paper printed offset in four colors plus a varnish by MPI (Sebring OH). Paper back labels are printed in two colors by Max Pack (Auburn ME).