Meridian Labels
Labels that stay on
Printed self-adhesive labels for food, drink, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and chemical drums — from 250 to four million, on six digital, flexographic and hybrid presses in one building on the Bayton Road.
We will tell you which process your job wants, and which adhesive it needs, before you commit to either.
- 1978
- Founded
- Six
- Presses on site
- 250
- Minimum order, labels
- 98.4%
- On-time delivery
What are you labelling?
Six sectors, and each one is a different adhesive problem before it is a printing one. The stock named under each is what that job normally runs on.
Food & beverage
Chilled, frozen and ambient. Wash-off adhesives for returnable glass and freezer grades down to −40°C.
Coated paper · freezer grade
Health & pharmaceutical
Booklet and peel-and-reveal for multi-language regulatory copy, with full batch traceability.
Booklet · peel-and-reveal
Cosmetic & personal care
Clear-on-clear, soft-touch and foiled finishes on containers that get handled wet.
Clear-on-clear · soft-touch
Industrial & chemical
GHS-compliant, BS5609 marine-approved, and solvent-resistant synthetics.
BS5609 polyester · solvent-resistant
Drinks & spirits
Textured papers, embossing inline, and adhesives that survive an ice bucket.
Textured paper · embossed inline
Logistics & retail
Thermal transfer, variable data, sequential barcoding and blockout labels.
Thermal transfer · blockoutRun length decides it, and almost nobody tells you that
Every label printer in the country will steer you toward whichever press is quiet. Here is the actual answer, and it is arithmetic rather than opinion.
Shortest run: 250Longest to date: 4.1m
Below about 8,000 labels a digital press wins on cost every time — there are no plates to make and no make-ready waste. Above about 40,000 with four or fewer colours, flexo wins, and the gap widens with every thousand.
Between those two figures it genuinely depends on your artwork: the number of colours, whether you need a spot white, and how much of the web is ink. That is a five-minute conversation, not a form.
We run both, plus two hybrid presses that put inline flexo units for varnish, foil and white behind a digital engine. So a job can move between processes if your volumes change, without re-originating the artwork.
Three things, and the middle one causes every reprint
Almost every label failure we are asked to diagnose is an adhesive problem, not a print problem — and it is avoidable at the quoting stage.
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Printing Solutions
Digital, flexographic and hybrid printing from 250 labels to four million. We will tell you which process suits your run length rather than the one our machines are idle on.
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Printing Materials
Paper and synthetic face stocks, permanent, removable, freezer and high-tack adhesives, and the finishes that decide whether a label survives a dishwasher or a chiller.
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Artwork & Origination
Pre-flight, colour matching to a physical target, and a printed proof on your actual material. We do not print from a PDF nobody has checked.
A screen is not a proof
Colour is matched to a physical target with a spectrophotometer, to a Delta E of 2 or better. Send us a printed sample of the last run and we match that; send a Pantone reference and we match that; send a screenshot and we will ask for one of the other two.
Every new job gets a printed proof on the actual face stock and finish, posted to you. A PDF proof shows you the layout and tells you nothing about how a soft-touch laminate will shift the colour, which on a dark label is a visible change.
You cannot judge an adhesive on a screen
The pack is an A4 wallet of every face stock we hold, printed with the same test image, plus the four laminates and a foil block. Freezer grades come stuck to a piece of glass so you can try pulling them off cold.
Free anywhere in the UK, sent second class the same day if you ask before three. If you already know the container, tell us what it is and we will put the two or three stocks that suit it on top.
What we have been writing about
Including the reason we lowered the minimum order to 250 labels, and the part of that decision that was not altruistic.
Meridian achieves BS5609 approval for marine-grade labelling
Three-section certification on two synthetic face stocks, opening up chemical and offshore work that previously had to be sent abroad.
Read the piece →
Why we lowered our minimum order to 250 labels
It costs us more per label and it is the best decision we made last year. Here is the reasoning, including the part that is not altruistic.
Read the piece →
FSC Chain of Custody certification confirmed for a fourth year
Plus the numbers behind it: liner recycling, matrix waste and where our paper actually comes from.
Read the piece →Certificates held
Numbers and audit dates are on the about page, and copies go out with every tender response.
- Meridian is certified to
- ISO 9001
- Environmental management
- ISO 14001
- Chain of custody
- FSC Mixed
- Marine-grade labelling
- BS5609
- Member
- The Print Federation
Printing for Halewell & Co, Brayford Foods, Ashcombe Drinks, Northway Chemicals and Verity Skincare.
Send the artwork and tell us the substrate
We pre-flight before we quote, not after we schedule. About one file in six comes back with something to fix, and week one is the cheap time to find it.