WOBURN, MA, MARCH 20, 2002 -- When Royal Label, a Boston-based printer specializing in pharmaceutical, industrial and consumer applications, installed an Indigo Omnius WebStream press in January 2001, expectations were that it would allow them to produce high-quality, full-color labels, on demand. According to Paul Clifford, Jr., the company's General Manager, the Omnius WebStream has not only performed as planned, but done much more. "The addition of the 6-color Indigo digital press has increased our flexibility and shortened our lead times," he says. "It's also allowed us to increase our variable data, point of purchase and short-run business." Royal Label, which was founded in 1958, occupies a 20,000-square-foot facility in the Dorchester area of Boston, about ten minutes by car from the city's downtown. With a staff of 25, the family-owned firm generates an estimated $4 million in annual business, including labels for what Clifford calls "a who's who of pharmaceutical, medical device and ISO-certified companies." The company's decision to invest in an Indigo digital color press was driven by a desire to tap into point-of-purchase tags, technical data sheets, and similar applications. At the same time, Royal Label invested in high-end digital converting equipment so they'd have the flexibility to take Indigo-printed materials and laminate, UV varnish, and re-register for die-cut on rolls or individual pieces. Like all Indigo presses, the Omnius WebStream's unique liquid ink technology delivers offset-quality color on the industry’s widest selection of substrates. It also incorporates Indigo's SNAP (Swift Native Advanced Personalization) technology, which allows variable text and images to be used for runs as short as one – an increasingly profitable advantage, according to Paul Clifford. "In terms of variable data, we've gone from four to two processes, which cuts two weeks off our lead-time," he points out. "Our medical device customers had gone into consecutive numbers and bar codes, and now we can do that right in-line. We're printing inserts for our pharmaceutical customers, something we couldn't do before, and printing pharmaceutical labels in up to ten languages." In the last year, Royal Label has also produced menus for local restaurants, variable data labels for ocean system firms, and promotional materials for everything from beer to stereo systems – the kind of short-run jobs usually performed by traditional commercial, not label, printers. "Most companies our size, and even some that are larger, look at Indigo presses as, oh, beautiful, I'll just run four-color process labels on them," Clifford explains. "But we looked at it as an opportunity to open up new markets." "Indigo's variable data technology can substantially increase revenue streams with a wide range of value-added services, including short-run color, and that's an important competitive advantage," says Ron Kukla, Vice President of Sales for Indigo America. Vince Pentella, National Sales Manager for the Indigo Omnius product line, calls Royal Label "an innovative leader in label production that uses Indigo technology to the fullest." He also notes that Royal Label's proximity to Indigo's U.S. headquarters in neighboring Woburn have made it a convenient showcase for open-house demonstrations of variable data and other capabilities. For Paul Clifford, these events are a golden opportunity. "They allow us to bring customers as well as competitors into our facility, and show them what we're doing. We've gone from labels to inserts, data sheets, flyers and other short-run commercial printing on our Indigo press, things that we couldn't do before. And it's gotten us business from customers and competitors alike."