Shrink sleeves printed digitally by Century Label featured on energy drink cans.
What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay there especially if it's Xbrand Fluids energy drink with custom process color full-wrap sleeves. With a claim to fame as the "smallest minimum order" in the energy drink field a single case of 24 cans and very fast delivery, X Brand Fluids of Las Vegas, NV, USA has staked out a niche in the highly competitive energy drink field and has customers all across the country.
Other private label manufacturers have minimums starting at a pallet (2,880 cans) all the way to full containers from overseas (300,000 cans). Even a trial order can be 3,000 cases of 24 cans. "We basically have no minimum order policy," says Jason Vigil, general sales manager for Xbrand. "We'll ship out one case of 24 cans!" As far as pricing goes, he says, "We have the best prices in the industry and we offer full shrink sleeves on every order, while most others use a small sticker on smaller orders."
The company offers a regular energy drink as well as a sugar free or diet version, Vigil says, adding that it will produce a custom formula if so desired by the client.
Xbrand comes out ahead on delivery as well by getting its product to the end user in three weeks or so, including the time to design and produce the full color sleeve. The company's web site includes a host of features, including a do-it-yourself design portal, three sizes of portable coolers, testimonials, samples row after row of drink cans done for customers, closing in on 200 already.
According to Vigil, the two year old company has surpassed each month's sales right from the start. Asked about the customer base, he says, "We would much rather have 2,000 people doing a case a week than 10 large companies, because if you lose two of those 10, you can be in a world of hurt!" In one day late February, three online orders came in for one case each, and another order was for a couple of pallets: 320 cases each.
The Xbrand testimonials show everything from a major marketing firm to a Las Vegas wine lounge, from an online traffic metrics company to an environment and transportation planning company. The company does business with four Tropical Isle New Orleans bars as well as Dr. Horsepower, a high performance racing parts web supplier and a home mortgage web site, Low VA Rates. There are customers who sell performance fight gear as well as independent gyms. Others include mom-and-pop bars and lounges, gyms, and independent and small chain restaurants.
Locating in Las Vegas was a simple decision, says Vigil. "A large percentage of our sales are to companies looking for an edge with their trade show booth or a modern giveaway at their convention meeting," he says, "and Las Vegas attracts over 24,000 conventions a year with some six million-plus attendees."
The secret to such small quantities of labels is digital printing, of course. For its sleeves, Xbrand Fluids turns to Century Label of Bowling Green, OH, USA, which uses an HP Indigo digital press for its short run work. "Century Label has been nothing short of unbelievable!" says Jason Vigil, general sales manager for Xbrand. "They bend over backwards to provide us with the quality and delivery we need. We went to them with an idea and a business model, and after reviewing our plans with Mark Dally of Century Label, they took it from there."
Bob Petrie, Century Label's VP of wholesale markets, says, "What we really do is help our shrink film and shrink sleeve customers by making what can be a complicated product into an easy one-stop experience." Century Label assists its customers with all aspects of production: from design to film selection to determining how the package will be filled. The company can provide product individually cut or in rolls.
"Customers require extremely high quality graphics and printing, which we provide," Petrie adds, "and our HP Indigo ws4500 gives us virtually unlimited flexibility without the high dollar costs for gravure, offset or flexo plates." Century prides itself on short turnaround times and will do very short runs for prototypes, initial rollouts for shows, and so forth. "Our motto is 'We are easy to deal with'," says Petrie, and this is borne out by customers' comments on the Century website.
Article by Larry Arway originally published in the April 8, 2008 Issue of Label & Narrow Web.
