Company News
2012 Portland Rose Festival
Mark your calendar for May 20th to June 17th, it’s time again for the Portland Rose Festival. And again
ROSE CITY LABEL is proud to be printing the Oak Knoll Winery Label. Oak Knoll is the Official Wine of
the Portland Rose Festival.
The Portland Rose Festival and Oak Knoll are in mutual agreement, understanding, and commitment to
serving Portland. In 1987, Ron and Marjorie Vuylsteke initiated an art scholarship program that would be
given to an Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) student through a label art contest. In order to encourage
and foster art within the Portland community, this recognition brings awareness to young artists at the
Oregon College of Art and Craft, and also greatly benefits the winning student. Once the rendering’s been
chosen, the student then goes through the entire wine label production process from working with the
designers, through all press checks, to seeing his or her final work on the wine bottles.
This year’s student recipient is Elizabeth Zimmerman. These are her labels shown above that won her
the contest! Pretty cool, huh? I would buy the wine just for the label alone but Oak Knoll is even a
great wine too.
Posted in 
Government Dollars at Work
New, Improved Holy Water
This is the craziest example of Government Label Approval that we have seen in the past 20 years!
Certainly we know that labels have to be screened to ensure they don’t claim false health benefits (grow hair, stop aging, etc), and they have to be truthful about their contents, but this is over the top.
This is the new, improved version of the label below.
The inspectors required the “Holy Water” to be put in quotes, and the line CONTAINS NO HOLY WATER added below.
Did anyone really think this was a Spiritual Drink? Maybe so!
We understand the importance of government review of all labels for wine, beer, and spirits, but is this really what they should be doing?
If you have challenging label problems, call us today.
(800) 547-9920
- Original Label – submitted to Government
Things are GOOD – Celebrate Success
We are very fortunate here at Rose City Label that our business seems to be back on track. We still have challenges, as we always will, but if our business could continue to prosper like it has the past 24 months, we would be very happy.
This improved business climate caused me to reflect and remember when, not too long ago, things weren’t very good.
Like many businesses, ours was caught flat footed when the bottom fell out in 2008. We were not prepared for the dramatic slowdown, and we had to take some serious measures to correct things quickly. We said goodbye to an employee that wasn’t performing, and we cut back hours in our production facility. These were difficult, nerve racking times for all of us. One of the things I remember most is that I never appreciated when things were good! I just assumed things would always be good. Now I know this isn’t always the case.
So, with these past 4 years behind us, what have we learned:
- 1. Celebrate Success! We aren’t setting records or hitting a home run on every single order, but we have much to be thankful for. I am trying to remind all the people in our company, and trying to remind myself, that things are good. We all need to take time to recognize this and give ourselves a small pat on the back for hanging in there.
- 2. Don’t Take the Future for Granted. Now I know that things can turn sour – in a hurry. I know that we can’t afford to get lazy, complacent, or arrogant. We always need to push forward and keep getting better every day. Tomorrow is promised to no one. Continuous improvement and staying hungry are the only things that will help us stay strong.
- 3. Protect the Downside. If, God forbid, we do have another major dip in the economy or world events, or if we have a serious problem in our own company, we need to protect the downside. As a leader I waited too long to make the hard decisions last time. I assumed all would be good – I didn’t know how long the downturn would last, or how deep it would be. Thankfully, we are a conservative, financially secure company, so we could withstand the storm, but I don’t want to get that close to the edge again. More proactive management would have helped ease the pain, and I am going to keep that in mind for the future.
Hopefully these three ideas can help our customers as we move forward. They are all important, but especially now, I am focusing on #1 – Celebrate Success!
Thanks to all of you for being a part of that success for Rose City Label.
Family Photo!
Here we are!
This is an updated photo of the Rose City Label team in the warehouse after a company meeting. We all work very hard to please our customers every day. Sales/production/shipping/office – we all work together to get the job done.
Thanks for trusting our family of professionals to take care of your labels.
Kind words from a Great Customer
This was the wonderful feedback I got from our recent quarterly newsletter
I loved your 2012 News letter!
Loved to hear the kudos RCL so rightly deserves.
When I see wonderful packaging and labeling, I often wonder if they are an RCL client
Congratulations and keep up the great work. Sherilyn – local business owner
Check out her amazing candles by clicking here – thanks for the kind words!
New Invoices, Quotes, Packing Slips!
We are pleased to announce that we have made a company wide upgrade to LabelTraxx – the leading label shop automation software world wide.
What does this mean for you?
- Faster response times – more accurate quotes
- Better order tracking within our shop
- More accurate order details to ensure best quality production
- Better access to tracking and shipping information
What does it mean for Rose City Label?
- Streamlined operations – from quotation to invoice – all in one program
- Easier access to repeat order details – faster order entry
- Ability to grow and collect data on the shop floor in the future
- Better job costing for efficient manufacturing
- Flexible shipping options for split ships, multiple addresses and more
- Ability to extend customer data portal to the web in the future
- The ability to run current and future technology platforms
- Cross Platform solution for data access by Mac and PC workstations
Beginning this month, your quotes, invoices, acknowledgments and packing slips will all be coming from one, company-wide system that is constantly updated in real time. As we fully implement the system, you will be able to get faster quotes, automated package tracking information, and many other enhanced features.
Thank you for working with us as we grow and invest in our systems to move the company forward. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Another GREAT year for Rose City Label
2011 ended on a high note with a very strong performance in December. The entire year was strong – here are some highlights:
- Sales up slightly over 2010, after a 19% increase over 2009!
- Digital orders grew to more than 5% of total orders
- 710 customers trusted Rose City Label in 2011
- 167 NEW customers bought from Rose City Label for the first time
- New upgrades in our plant compressed air delivery
- New office automation – more to follow on this!
Thanks to all of you for making this another successful year! Please call us today to find out more about how we can help with your custom label printing.
Digital On the Rise!
Digital is growing! The addition of our fully automated digital printing and cutting press, the Primera CX/FX has really helped our digital department grow. Digital orders tend to be smaller than our average order, but nearly 10% of the orders placed in 2011 ran on this new equipment. We expect to see digital continue to grow – here is why:
- Low minimum order quantity – as few as 50-100 labels can be professionally printed
- No setup fees or die charges
- Any size – any shape
- Wide variety of materials available
Call is today to see if digital is right for your project.
Clothing tags by the Experts!
Often over the years we have been asked if we do clothing labels – hang tags, sewn in size labels, and other related labels.
The answer is no, BUT – we have found an outstanding partner to refer this work to. Northwest Tag and Label is another locally owned company that provides the products that we don’t. If you need any of these services, please contact them directly. It has been a pleasure to learn more about their business so we can refer them with confidence.
Northwest Tag and Label, Inc
2435 SE 11th
Portland, OR 97214
www.nwtag.com
SCRAP to save the planet!
Rose City Label is one of many Portland companies that send excess material, waste, and over run labels to this great local non-profit.
This group takes all types of excess material and allows artists of all ages and abilities to create amazing things — all while keeping tons of waste out of landfills each year. The group has a service to collect from local business, or business can deliver to their retail store, as shown in the photo above.
To learn more, or to support his great group, visit www.scrapaction.org
For the record, we never donate customer labels without the permission of the company – we donate setup stock, blank labels, and other print waste so that our customers’ valuable labels will never show up in a kindergarten art project.