On Press Again

I was at a paperboard company last week, on press to approve a box re-run for a client. It was especially critical because the first run had been rejected due to gross color variation. Why was it rejected? Because someone at the printing company miss-handled the WIP and shipped set-up material to the client. (This printer uses "set-up" material to get their die-cutter in registration.) When the item went into production, the packaging looked terrible and the entire job was returned to the printer for credit. 

While the job itself was not especially challenging, there were some things working against us from the start. There was a warm red and two special blacks used on these three items. The warm red on the proof was a build using 100% process M & Y.

1. The tone of the warm red was off giving the proof a blue cast.

2. The special blacks were not well-defined by the client. The way they were separated was not the way I would have done it, but it was already on-press.

3. Two of the items were running on different presses at the same time. 

4. The paperboard stock on press was not from the same mill as the proof. In this case the surface texture was way different. 

I decided that as a strategy we would get one up and running first on the older press and then match the second item to it on the newer, better press. I had to determine that we were not going to run a "special" magenta. Running special colors in the process stations can create as many problems as it solves. This practice is not that uncommon such as swapping out cyan for pro-blue, but when playing in the reds this can throw off the whole balance of the job. Plus; there were some process elements on this job that would be affected.

It took seven pulls to get it acceptable once we determined that the red wasn't going to get any better and the mottling wasn't going away on the black due to stock. On the other press, we got the color into the OK zone on the second pull. The third item was a quick changeover with a reset of the ink densities. 

If you are a printer, make sure you have a system set up that prevents shipping sub-quality material to your customer. When I was at CCL Label many years ago, one of our new CS agents sent labels they literally took out of a dumpster to the buyer at Clairol. The next day we almost lost that account. If you can't avoid setting up on the actual job, then quarantine it or have a quality agent approve the material. This stuff might seem like 101 to you, but the folks on the line may not have their head in the game.

On the artwork side, I am not 100% clear that the design firm, the client and the printer were in alignment as to how these jobs were going to print. Having this alignment would be beneficial to everyone in order to manage expectations. 

Fortunately, our client was happy with the job and hopefully the printer will remember this experence on future runs. . .    Have you ever had similar issues?

InnoBev US Beverage Entrepreneur Forum

On Thursday June 19th I spent the day in NYC attending the most important beverage conference of the 2008 in my opinion. The forum, held at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel, attracted ~200 serious business executives from around the world. The conference was put on by Zenith International and BevNet in association with Beverage Spectrum and Beverage Innovation Magazines. The Forum was also sponsored by Wild Flavors, Inc.

Download the full schedule for the day here.

Highlights for me included Peter van Stolk, former CEO and founder of Jones Soda Company talking about effective on-line strategies and how to target your audience. Peter is now the CEO of the Tree Fort Group, a marketing consulting firm.

Greg Steltenpohl, founder of Odwalla Inc. talked about his struggles of marketing a fresh squeezed product (with a three-day shelf life!) during the formative years and showed us many pictures of "Hippies"(his words) bottling and distributing his products on the west coast. He now runs Adena World Beat Beverages.

After lunch there was an innovator panel made up of beverage industry entreprenuers;

Bill Sipper - Senior Partner of Cascadia Consulting Group LLC

Mike Weinstein - CEO of Inov8 LLC

Tom First - CEO of O Water

James S Tonkin of Tonkin Consulting (link please)

Dr. Erik DonHowe, VP of Wild Flavors, Inc.

Each member of the panel spent 5-10 minutes talking about their unique experience and then took questions from the audience.

One of the most interesting parts of the day was the "Dragons Den" where three beverage executives got to pitch their young brands to a panel made up of major industry distributors. The distributors then had a moment to comment on each pitch and give advice.

The beverage executives were: 

Dr. Dan Ratner of Cell-Nique

TJ McIntyre, Founder and President of Pixie Maté

Brad Winter, CEO of SoNu Beverages

The beverage panelists were: 

Lewis Hershkowitz - COO of Big Geyser Inc.

Ken Davis, CFO of the Davis Beverage Group (link requested) 

Gerry Martin, VP of Marketing for Polar Beverages

Tim Sperry, President of The Sperry Group (link requested)

The process was very insightful. I applaud the three passionate officers & founders who stood in front of 200 or so people and told their story. It took fortitude and I am sure we will all be hearing more from these brands.

Finally there were some marketing briefs given about emerging growth opportunities, consumer trends and steps for securing finance. There was also plenty of new and unusual beverages to sample. If you are at all involved with the beverage industry, it would be wise to attend the InnoBev US forum next year. Make sure you log into BevNet to find out when the next one is. 

The best part of the evening for me was right at the end during cocktail hour where I had a chance to meet and talk with some of the beverage inventors and creative people. I also had the unique opportunity to watch Dr. Tzohar make "Diamond Water" or carbonated water from diamonds. This patented process involves placing a small diamond that has been heated to 2000° with a small torch into a vial of liquid oxygen.

The diamond then glows like a bright light for a minute or two and then vaporizes into carbon dioxide. The resulting gas is vented into a container of water. The Dr. claims that the resulting beverage is safe to drink. Video. The evening ended with a toast and a glass of diamond water which is the appropriate way to end a beverage entrepreneur forum. . . 

OI Glass University

Last week I attended the three day Glass University given by OI in Perrysburg, Ohio. This class is given four times a year. If you are at all involved with the purchasing of or creation of glass packaging, I highly recommend this class. 

 The first two days are all classroom, and the third day are spent visiting their glass plant in Charlotte, MI.

I learned that glass in this country, is grossly under-recycled and according to OI, for every 10% of recycled glass that makes it back into the furnace, energy use drops 2-3%. This is important because the furnaces run at about 2800° 24 hours a day, seven days a week!

During the glass they reviewed new Product development, Sustainability issues, Raw Materials & Furnace Operations, the Forming Process, Surface treatments, strength, inspection and Handling requirements. Alot of materials for three days. 

Glass does certainly have weight, breakage and other issues, but the purity of glass and its unique ability to protect the product and not impart any flavors into the product can not be ignored. Also - Glass is still #1 in premium perception with consumers. I see glass coming back in a big way and the folks in Charlotte are very proud of their newly designed glass baby bottle in that will be hitting the market soon.

The only thing I would have liked is more time at the factory. They took us to the furnaces, allowed us to look inside (through a welding mask), then the glass forming machines and right down the line right to the end where they ship product. Here is a video from the Discovery Channel showing a quick overview of the glass making process. (Not sure if it is an OI location)

If you have any interest in attending the OI Glass school contact Karen.Harwood@us.o-i.com