Labels for Tomorrow, and tomorrow

WicInd Group is designing new labels. These labels (packaging) will be used on all products. We are currently working with a NY printing firm Greg Barber Company for the base printing of our containers labels and office use papers. We are also in conversation with Greg about paperboard conversions for our needs in that form (soap boxes, etc.).

What will be most noticeable about the new labels is that we are not going to be using the background image that was part of our early labels. Even though the background image was significant in that it was an original art piece from our founder Arleta, it no longer suits the new look of our "Love, Gaia" line of natural personal care products.

We will also be including much more information on our labels. Previously our labels effectively contained the minimum of information necessary to meet CPS, FTC and other Federal or governmental regulations. We did include some small amount of marketing information, but for the most part it was only what had to be there to comply with regulations. We still include the regulatory information at proper resolutions, but now we will be including helpful information about the products, the company and/or about general health, beauty and/or environment and/or social issues. This allows us to use our labels for more of an advertising vehicle, while at the same time providing the necessary information and additional information for our customers, thus increasing the value to the customer.

We are still working out better label technologies, such as more environmental adhesives. Currently we use a form of hot applied wheat germ paste for most containers and package labels, however we are investigating other options that will be more environmental and require less energy to use. We must also consider that the labels and packages need to be safe for the customer, so this is large part of our considerations. We always test our new technologies against standards of the industry for safety and for usability, plus we add our own internal test that are usually more stringent than the industry standards. Our objective here is to create a environmentally safe adhesive technology, that is also safe for the product and therefore provide higher value to the customer.

We are still using sealing technologies that are common in the industry. We still use shrink wrapping technologies to ensure safety to our customers. We will be using tamper proof shrink bands on all products to ensure that the product safety from the point of manufacture to the point of purchase. We cannot at this time find a qualified substitute for this process, although we are investigating several alternatives. One particular hopeful that we are currently testing is a polymer made from corn stocks, and one from other vegetable stocks. We have not had sufficient conclusive results from our test to provide further information, or to make a change in our current technology to facilitate any alternative products at this time. We will be sure to update our customers on this issue when new information becomes available.

That's all we have on the labels for now, please check with us later for more information as it becomes available from our Research and Development labs.

Thank you,
James E. Doud

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