Meridian Labels
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.
Our minimum used to be 2,000 labels, which is roughly where a short digital run stops being awkward to schedule. For a producer making 300 jars of chutney in a converted garage, 2,000 labels is four years of stock and a cash flow problem, so they buy sheets from an online printer and put up with the quality.
We dropped it to 250 in January. It costs us more per label — the setup is the same whether you are printing 250 or 25,000 — and we price accordingly, so nobody is being subsidised.
The reason is not charity. The producer doing 300 jars this year is doing 12,000 in four years, and by then they have a relationship with whoever printed the first run. We have three customers now turning over six figures with us who started on a 250-label order. It is the least clever business decision we have ever made and it has worked out.
Also written
Each of these describes something that cost us money or changed how we quote.
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 →
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 →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.