A Description of the Gulf State Label Company

March 25th, 2015
Whitney Roper - 0876801

DIGM 3350

Gulf State Label Company

4537 Brittmoore Rd, Houston, TX 77041

Tour Guide: Bob Nicolosi/Mike Williams

I recently had to the opportunity to visit Gulf States Label located in Houston,
Texas. Shortly after arriving, I was personally welcomed by co-founder, Mike Williams.
He and his partner Bob Nicolosi, who had previously been a pressman for 9 years, started GSL in 2001 after being in the printing industry in other firms since 1977. They are leaders in the Houston area and are known for their flexotype printing. They had very small beginnings, in a trailer garage facility with only one 4-color press. After some time, they added a 6-color 16 inch press, followed by an 8-color 10 inch wide press.
They currently have 5 presses in their possession. They recently moved into the digital age last year after purchasing their first digital press, which they expressed was a great investment, with only 90 hours place on it, making it virtually a brand new press.
Their customer base consists mainly of printing brokers which expand out to 275 customers, such as Men’s Warehouse, Jet Lube, and firms in the oil and gas industry.
They currently gross an average of $4 million a year in sales despite being a part of the widespread financial hardships experienced in 2009.
When it comes to this company and their marketing, they print to the trade only so marketing is mostly word of mouth. There are no outside sales sources. One would think in their location, there would not be much foot traffic but it has been quite the opposite since locating to their new facility. They also have a website which they use to market their brand. Their new facility, much larger than that in the beginning, is 17,500 square feet including their offices. At the moment they employee 18 individuals.

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However, the purchase of the new presses resulted in hiring 2 new operators and are looking to hire another in the near future. They are a small company and they promote from within, while focusing on creating a comfortable work environment.
Their presses together are worth about $600,000. GSL prides themselves in the manufacturing of pressure sensitive labels. They have labels produced roll to roll or roll to sheet. They are able to fan fold their labels depending on the application it is for (high heat, high humidity, dry, wet, etc.). They produce a lot of drum labels for the oil and gas industry, which include corrosive, natural gas, etc. and maintain a BS5609 code, also known as the British Standard.
One of their presses, the Mark Andy Scout prints up to 8 colors and can add a
UV varnish. Their newest pressed was acquired in December of last year and is known as the Mark Andy 2200 (shown to the left). It is able to print labels 24 inches long, printing 6 colors, but can be expanded to 12 colors. It also has the impressive capability to print 225 feet per minute.
As far as file conversion,
GSL asks their client base for
Illustrator or PDF files and uses the RIP software to convert files for label printing. Prior to using Label Track, they utilized a custom program in Excel. When it comes to raw materials, there is always $140,000 worth on the warehouse floor at all times (shown on the right). GSL has utilized Alliance Print Evolved to manage their inventory as well as for managing their

March 25th, 2015 clientele. It can be described as outsource managing for their clients. Last but not least,
Gulf States Label implements a crucial step in their label printing which consists of inspecting of all labels before sending them to customers. Labels are wound and rolled according to customers’ requests then they are shrink wrapped and boxed the way the customer asks.
It was truly a pleasure being able to see the pride that goes into the work of this company and it is always exciting to see growth of companies from such humble beginnings. I never gave it thought prior to this trip that labels aren’t just labels. There is science behind how it is made for the specific item is being made for whether it is at the bottom of a ship channel or on a grocery store shelf. It was interesting to learn how much really goes into printing something we almost always take for granted.