October 20, 2020
In the world today as it relates to current events, big box stores and ecommerce have become more important for retail brands. A capability such as shrink sleeves is more important than ever when it comes to brands showing up in a big way on the shelf in a big box or ecommerce retail environment.
WHY SHRINK SLEEVES?
- Marketing and branding real estate. Shrink sleeves offer 360 degree complete graphic coverage of your container allowing total decoration and use of every square inch for marketing and branding.
- Change on the fly. Your container can remain the same across versions and over seasons by printing different shrink sleeves for each flavor, scent or application, a feat that’s difficult to accomplish with pre-printed containers. Also a great benefit for short runs of different products.
- Sustainability. Shrink sleeves are not applied using an adhesive and can be peeled from containers allowing for curbside recycling.
- Built in security. Shrink sleeves can be designed to wrap around both the container and closure in a one-pass application eliminating the need for a second pass to apply a tamper evident seal.
- Great curves. Shrink sleeves that are designed properly and shrunk in a steam tunnel can follow the curves of nearly any container in a way that pressure-sensitive labels cannot.
- Better together. Shrink sleeves, or shrink bands as they might be called in this application, can provided an excellent graphic way to hold multiple containers together for promotions or club store packs.
- They’re on a roll. While shrink sleeves can be cut and stacked for manual application, they are most often printed and wound on rolls for easy storage and low-emission transportation.
- Perforation. Pre-perforation as part of the printing process can allow easy removal of shrink sleeves by the customer. Perforations can be vertical or horizontal, single or double.
- Maximum protection. Graphics are reverse printed on the inside of the sleeve to prevent scuffing or scratching of graphics during transportation or in the retail environment
IN-HOUSE/E2E SHRINK SLEEVE PRINT AND PACKAGING SIMPLIFIED SOLUTION
Outlook Group’s in-house full service shrink sleeve capabilities maximize all of the branding and benefits, without the risk or investment. Here’s how it works:
- Pre-press. Leverage the pre-press/art department at Outlook Group and their expertise to prepare your graphics to accurately conform to the curvature of your container—improved quality!
- Testing and R&D. Send your sample to Outlook Group for testing on their equipment for proper materials selection—improved quality and less risk!
- Printing. Shrink sleeves are printed in-house at Outlook Group with spectacular color and quality supported by a G7 Master Printer Qualified Facility—improved quality, less risk and speed to market!
- Warehousing. Sleeves are stored in temperature-controlled warehouse space and never put on a truck in heat-intensive conditions causing pre-shrinkage—improved quality, less risk and cost savings!
- Application (decorating). Containers or products are shipped to Outlook Group where shrink sleeves are applied and shrunk in steam tunnels for optimal look and quality—improved quality and control!
- Pack. Decorated products can then be bulked packed or packed to an additional printed container such as a folding carton, that can be date coded and retail ready to ship to your customer or distribution center—zero distance supply chain creating cost savings by less freight!
Outlook Group puts your whole shrink sleeve supply chain under one roof starting with pre-press through the point that your product goes out the door. You get the complete simplified supply chain solution and value added in less risk, improved quality, cost savings related to less freight, and speed-to-market through a controlled process.
Please contact us so we can learn more about your business and introduce Outlook Group to you and your team.