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Clear Linerless Label for Fish Pack is One of Many Firsts

A new VSP package for fresh fish entrée brand Rebel Fish is decorated with a vibrantly printed linerless label from a new flexo converter committed to redefining the U.S. print market.

Rebel Fish salmon entree
New packaging for Rebel Fish fresh salmon entrées comprises a vacuum skin pack with a clear plastic tray and a linerless film label.

The world’s largest sustainable seafood farmer, Mowi ASA (formerly Marine Harvest ASA) of Norway, is known as somewhat of a trailblazer. In April 2014, it introduced the first branded refrigerated fresh salmon product in the U.S., its Rebel Fish line, comprising six microwavable salmon entrées.

According to the company, its mission with the Miami-based Rebel Fish brand is to change how consumers think about seafood by “Rebelutionizing the world of fish.” The products pair culinary-inspired seasoning rubs with fresh, never frozen, salmon that is quick and easy to prepare. “We pack it and you do the rest—no mess, no stress,” says the Rebel Fish website.

In 2018, the company decided to update its packaging from a vacuum skin pack with an opaque tray and a paperboard sleeve to a VSP with a clear tray and a transparent film label—a format quite popular in Europe, but one that would be a first for the U.S. seafood market. “We were collaborating with local designers to bring to life a very European packaging concept that had generated a lot of excitement here at Mowi, so the pressure was on,” says Rachael Aguirre, Marketing Manager for Mowi USA.

To bring the new package format, replete with vibrant labels awash with bold color, to market at a cost that fit their budget and would meet a tight deadline from Walmart, Mowi turned to a company that shared its desire for industry disruption: flexo label converter Catapult Print of Orlando, FL, whose tagline is “Print Redefined.”

As like attracts like, seafood pioneer Mowi became print industry disrupter Catapult Print’s first customer, with the new packaging for Rebel Fish hitting store shelves in July 2018.

‘Print redefined’

Catapult Print was founded in April 2018 by U.K. expat and CEO Mark Cook, who was formerly Sales Director and Partner at U.K. print company Paragon Printing and Packaging, and more recently, Group Sales Director for Equator Design. At his side in the development of the company are sons Lewis (also formerly of Equator in the U.S.) and Ashley, who hold the positions of Catapult VP of Sales & Client Service and Director of Technical Sales, respectively.

The Cooks founded Catapult—completely from scratch—to address what they saw as a huge gap in the U.S. printing industry, particularly coming from a design firm perspective. “We felt there was a real wall up against sharing information and just doing the right thing for the customer,” says Mark Cook. “It was all smoke and mirrors, it was all very emotional, everyone made it more complicated than it needed to be.

“And then we were always disappointed by the length of time it took to get things done by printers, in terms of the speed it took to turn things around, and the quality. We would put so much effort and energy into design, but then the printing would come back very poor.”

According to Lewis Cook, U.K. printers are almost “neurotically nervous” about keeping their customers happy, because if they lose one, “there aren’t a million more to go after.” He adds, “Because the U.K. is much smaller [than the U.S.], the print runs are smaller. So you have to be efficient as a business. Even the big printers don’t have the luxury of running jobs for four or five days at a time, because even the big runs aren’t that big. So from a cost and efficiency standpoint, you have to learn how to become quicker, how to become better, so that you can get the next job on the press. It’s the only way you can make money.”

He speculates that the abundance of print business in the U.S. has led to mediocrity and a status quo of unnecessarily long turnaround times and inconsistent quality. In the U.K., the average makeready is 45 minutes; in contrast, in the U.S., it’s two and a half hours.

“When we did the research in setting up the business, we decided that to forge ahead we’d invest in new technology in order to offer something completely unique and to carve out a distinctive USP [unique selling proposition],” says Mark Cook. “We wanted to redefine print and do something completely different.

“Starting the business from scratch allowed us to invest in the latest equipment, the latest technology, and the latest processes and systems. The biggest thing it allowed us to do also was create a culture from day one that is customer focused.”

Five pillars

Catapult operates from a 56,000-sq-ft building in Orlando, providing flexo-printed self-adhesive, narrow-web film and linerless labels to Consumer Packaged Goods companies, particularly in food and beverage applications. According to Mark Cook, Catapult focuses on five key pillars, or drivers, to become customers’ preferred provider: quality, price, service, lead times, and innovation. Each one, to some degree, is enabled by the company’s investments in technology.

One of the main elements contributing to print quality is Catapult’s use of Bellissima Digitally Modulated Screening technology from Hamillroad Software. Catapult is the only flexo label converter in the U.S. using it. Bellissima DMS modulates every pixel it produces, precisely controlling the dots in each separation, while its stochastic rosette interposes the dots between the separations. This process ensures that noise and moiré are eliminated. In addition, the stochastic rosette maximizes the ink-on-paper area and minimizes the amount of ink-on-ink to expand the available color gamut, while eliminating color shifts due to registration. The result is photo-quality print that in some cases rivals the appearance of offset or gravure.

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