While KCS Print’s main customer base is trade print, the new division which has its own website, www.rootlabels.co.uk, is targeting retailers and brands for products such as bottles, cans, and packaged products.
The division uses a Xeikon 3500 press and AB Graphic converting line and can offer full colour labels with special varnishes, sustainable foiling, embossing, laminating, and die-cutting depending on the needs of the customer.
The Launceston-based business operates a carbon neutral factory, boasts zero-labels-to-landfill, and is ISO-14001 accredited and FSC- and PESC-certified.
“We have all the certifications from a sustainability perspective but what we are setting out to do with this is to be a point of expertise for brands to come to us and ask what they could be doing better or differently,” said managing director Zoe Deadman.
“Often what happens is that people tell us what they are using, such as white polypropelene labels, and want to order more and we then have a conversation with them about the alternatives, such as 100% recycled polypropelene labels or potentially a paper product or compostable film. We make the conversation about sustainability a core part of what we offer to them,” she explained.
Deadman said the business actively signposts customers to sign up to things like the Avery Dennison Circular Scheme, which collects and recycles label liners.
“We can’t force everyone to take the most sustainable option, but we can point them in the right direction and we advocate keeping those options in stock so that our customers can make the right choices for the environment,” she said.
“Businesses need kudos for doing things right so the good brands that do this make it an active part of their marketing and branding that they make the right choices and that offsets any added cost that comes with the more sustainable products,” she added.
Root Sustainable was launched with a talk from Avery Dennison’s Mikaela Harding about sustainable packaging and recycling developments.
“I think Cornwall and the region in general is at the forefront of environmental responsibility. In some other areas of the country it seems to be a ‘nice to have’ and there is definitely some greenwashing around it but down here people are very savvy, people do care and they actually ask us some very searching questions to make sure we aren’t just selling them a line.
“They are keen on compostable glues, what’s in the adhesives, where has the paper come from and what processes has it gone through. I think the consumers are beginning to demand it,” Deadman said.
KCS Print is working towards B Corp certification to ensure its continued work on environmental, social, and legislative awareness and standards.
