The next time you're in a department store shopping for Levi's or Dockers, look at the labels that identify the size without having to lift up each pair or check the price tags.
And the next time you're shopping for Cache Valley cheese in a supermarket, look at the label that tells the price, the address of the company and other pertinent information.Chances are these labels were produced at American Label Co., 3575 S. 300 West, a company that may be obscure to most people but has produced more than 4 billion labels in the past few years.
The label business, even though highly competitive, has been good to American Label. Because of its increased business, the company completed a 7,200-square-foot addition last December, which brings to 18,000 the number of square feet at the company, according to Glade Inglet, general manager.
Think about it. Labels are everywhere. Pressure-sensitive labels that can easily be removed from the backing are handy to mark or identify thousands of products. Without labels, all packages of cheese would be the same, and you'd have to march through piles of pants to find your size.
A history of American Label centers on Inglet's history. He was asked by a friend to start the company and has been there since.
A native of Preston, Idaho, Inglet attended Brigham Young University for a year between 1954 and 1955 and then served a two-year mission to Central America for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He graduated in 1961 from the University of Utah with a bachelor's degree in fine arts.
Inglet worked for a silk screening company and produced vehicle decals for companies like Interstate Motor Lines, Utah Power and Mountain Fuel Supply. He was on his way to accept a job offer in California in late 1966 when his neighbor, Dwaine Mendenhall, who already owned Regional Supply Co., approached him about starting a label company, explaining that it was a fledgling industry and would grow.
Neither knew much about flexographic printing, much less labels, Inglet said with a wide smile. Undaunted, they purchased a 4-inch Multiflex Webtron press in Chicago and had it shipped to Utah.
Regional Supply owned some property at 3575 S. 300 West, but the building was so small the front had to be removed to get the press inside. Once the building was ready, the business started with Inglet doing the sales, accounting, artwork, plate-making and printing.
Inglet printed his first labels in early 1967. One was for Regional Supply and the other ones said "Fragile." In his present position, he still oversees all sales and day-to-day operations for the firm.
American Label was in the small building for a year before a 2,500-square-foot addition was built. There have been several other additions over the years, culminating with the one completed in December.
Inglet said the newest addition was necessary because he landed a label account for a bottled water company headquartered in Afton, Wyo. The new space also enabled the company to expand its art production, plate-making and printing capability with installation of more machinery.
Known as the oldest label company in Utah and one of the first label companies in the United States, American Label lists among its customers Levi's, Dockers, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Cache Valley Cheese, Norbest, Albertsons, Fred Meyer, KSL-TV, Angela Marie's, Western Family, Sweets and Maxfield candy companies.
Inglet said labels provide quick identification of a product and can include the name and address of the company, nutritional information and often include a face of a company marketing representative.
Labels for political candidates are a big part of American Label's business, and for last October's Million Man March in Washington, D.C., the company printed 500,000 water bottle labels.
Over the past 29 years, the company has accumulated 4,000 different customers. With each label a die must be produced, Inglet said. The dies are produced by a St. Louis company in widths ranging from 4 to 10 inches and take a week to produce.
Inglet estimates American Label has more than $1 million in dies in storage that can be used over and over.
Paper for the labels comes from Fasson Products, Painesville, Ohio, and Mactac, Stow, Ohio., in rolls 30 inches in diameter and 5,000 feet long. The paper, which comes in a variety of colors ranging from fluorescent oranges and greens to white and gold and silver foils, is slit to a desired width.
Inglet's art department helps design the labels that can be ordered in lots of 1,000 to 10 million. A negative of the label is exposed to a photo-sensitive plastic printing plate on a $40,000 machine and the plastic is attached to the cylinders on the presses.
The roll of paper goes through the press where it is printed and excess material cut away so that a person using the label can easily tear it off and attach it to a bottle, etc. The die determines the shape of the label.
After the rolls are printed, they are taken to a separate room where workers cut the long rolls into the length of sticker rolls desired by customers and wind the end product tightly so the roll takes less space. From there, the labels are packed and sent to customers.
Inglet said competition has forced the company to make refinements in its label operation and also develop new items that will maintain the quality of work, speed and delivery and still maintain a competitive price.
Over the years, Inglet said, American Label pioneered its plastic pressure-sensitive printing plates and also introduced environmentally safe water-based inks. New presses the company has purchased allow the company to print labels in 10 colors at once.