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Hollar labels to order

International seed packager shifts to in-house color label printing to simplify process, save money.

Full-color photo labels can now be found on Hollar Seeds pouches of seeds destined for farmers around the world.
Full-color photo labels can now be found on Hollar Seeds pouches of seeds destined for farmers around the world.

An agricultural seed packager has shifted to metallized flexible-film pouches and in-house-printed color labels to meet the needs of customers in 45 countries around the world.

Previously, Hollar Seeds of Rocky Ford, CO, had packed as much as half of its seeds into steel cans, decorated with labels printed by a label converter. Beginning with its fall 2003 pack season, Hollar began to print its labels in-house, on a VP2020 digital thermal ink-jet color label printer from VIP Color Technologies. The printer was purchased through Label House, the company that also supplies paper labels for the printer.

About a year before it added the printer, Hollar Seeds began to convert from steel cans to flexible, barrier pouches. These are provided by Obex Packaging, a converter that also functions as a packaging broker.

For many of Obex’s packets, the construction is a 48-ga polyester/48-ga metallized polyester/5-mil linear low-density polyethylene that’s supplied often as a bottom-gusseted, stand-up pouch, says Steve Patin, president of Obex. Most of the pouches and packets, he says, are produced offshore. The pouches are typically printed gravure in three colors, he adds.

“The seed business is a pretty good chunk of all my packaging sales,” Patin says. “That’s where my company is best known, both domestically and internationally.” Patin grew up in the seed business, so he understands the importance of keeping moisture away from the seeds. Other packets use aluminum foil or even a barrier plastic layer, especially for flower seed producers that require even greater barrier properties.

When asked about shelf life, Hollar hesitated. “Seed can be stored up to five years—under the right conditions,” he pointed out. “Unfortunately, the distributors and end users don’t always store these packages properly.” Still, he adds that the flexible pouches are much lighter to ship than steel cans.

Replacing preprinted labels

“With this printer, we have a lot more flexibility, and we can meet unusual requirements from our customers,” says Andy Hollar, chief financial officer. “In the past, we were applying as many as four separate labels on our containers to meet the demands, especially from our overseas customers. And each had to be custom printed by an outside vendor. Now, we’re putting all that custom information on our photo label. So it saves us not only in the cost of labels, but also with the labor it takes to apply them by hand.”

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