It’s the middle of the fiscal year and the printing and packaging industry has survived the havoc of Covid 19. While much smaller printing and packaging companies have folded due to Covid-19 Century Printing and Packaging located in Greer, South Carolina has managed to stay afloat and even thrive. Designated as an “essential business” allowed us to keep our doors open and presses running to provide a meaningful service for our customers in regard to hand sanitizer, Emergency Response\ and beyond.
So far this year we have produced 115M labels! Yes, 115 million labels. This is somewhat down from the same production period a year ago, but we are picking up steam. Our staff is in good shape and we have been able to maintain our workforce, provide performance bonuses and avoid massive layoffs. This speaks volumes about the quality of our team.
At a time when many competitors were shutting their doors or laying off team members we were committed to our people and even managed to provide year-end bonuses for a job well done! We do not take this for granted, nor do our people.
We have 26 full-time employees who have endured Covid-19 protocols, masks, constant disinfectant cleaning, and whatever it takes to maintain a healthy environment. We are emerging from Covid with a stronger sense of purpose, urgency, and quality.
One of the biggest challenges has been the staffing (or the lack thereof) with our vendors and customers. Specifically, we have had serious issues with delays for laminate and substrate materials. This is simply because suppliers have been unable to resurrect their workforce levels to pre-Covid levels. As a result, there have been significant delays in the shipment of supplies to complete jobs for our customers. We have been allowing more lead time than normal as a result of job and logistical delays.
We are experiencing strong growth in the food, beverage, and chemical labeling industries. We are working hard to overcome the logistical challenges and lack of labor from our vendors and suppliers. The greatest challenge is that suppliers aren’t running at full capacity, or staff and they are finding trouble getting lower-end skilled workers to fulfill pre-Covid staffing numbers, which is especially true when it comes to staffing slitters.
We continue to perfect our innovative butter wrap material from Italy and we are still working to develop other cutting-edge products within the packaging and printing industry.
Our team will be attending trade shows to develop leads, customers, equipment upgrades, and industry-related technological advancements in the Fall:
The Craft Beer show in Denver, CO, 9/10-13
The Natural Products Expo in Philadelphia 9/22-25
The Pack Expo in Las Vegas, 9/27-30
We will have a booth at the Craft Beer Show in Denver, Colorado featuring our Story Beer Label. The Story-Label™ is a powerful customized brand marketing tool that allows you to provide engaging content for consumers and attract a bigger following for your product. What if you could feature your employees on different labels like your Master Brewer, the owner, and their family story, or something funny? What if your craft beer has a cool brand play with a mascot like a parrot, or bulldog? You could feature the story of the mascot with unique content about your brewery.
We will not only be targeting and visiting vendors at these trade shows, but we will be looking at the latest industry trends in regard to printing and packaging equipment, technology, and industry trends in order to stay current within the industry.
Our mid-year review indicates a strong resurrection from the Covid-19 economy and we are poised to continue innovative and creative ways to help our customers promote their brand and maximize their point of sale contact with labels and packaging that are aesthetically pleasing, high-performing in all kinds of temperature-related environments.
Ben Waldrop, President Century Printing & Packaging
Greer, SC 29651, 800.344.7509
