Citizen Systems Europe, manufacturer of dot matrix, label and barcode printers, has helped Astro Labels, based just outside Johannesburg, South Africa, to develop a successful business that produces personalised labels for childrens belongings.
Originally supplying Citizen label printers to the business market, the niche market for Astro Labels personalised labels has grown rapidly in recent years.
Driven by the need for parents to label childrens belongings and clothing, Astro Labels initially set up an in-house bureau printing service for the specialist labels required for these items in a range of label sizes and formats. The most common applications range from small-sized adhesive labels for items like pens and rulers, larger labels for books and files, and specialist circular labels for shoes, which also double as bag tags by laminating in a key ring.
In addition, washing machine and tumble dryer safe sew-on labels and iron-on tags for clothing are produced using a flexible polysatin material providing durability and softness. As the popularity of the tags grew and word spread of how effective they were at avoiding costly losses for parents, Astro labels realised the best way to expand operations was to appoint agents supporting local companies to produce personalised labels.
This business concept allows parents to set up cost-effective home industries, while at the same time supporting their local schools. Astro Labels now has a network of some 20 local agents throughout South Africa, who all use Citizen CLP 621 label printers to quickly and efficiently produce labels in various sizes.
Joanne Waage, Managing Director of Astro Labels explained, Although we had been using and supplying the Citizen label printers for many years, the printers extremely easy-to-load media feature is a key element in this project, as media types must be changed over regularly.
Other printer types do not feature the easy-open Hi-Lift mechanism of the Citizen printers which makes media changing so simple. Waage continued, It means I get very few phone calls about media problems from my agents, which is great for me and even better for their productivity.
The labelling system has now also been extended to produce a customised sticker reward scheme ranging from the more common gold stars to good behaviour, highest score and other such positive encouragement stickers. It has been shown that children respond very well to such schemes and work actively towards accumulating simple but effective reward sticker collections.
Additionally, many of the agents take the opportunity to offer customised satin and florists ribbons printed using the same technologies. These ribbons are ideal for weddings, birthdays, corporate events and personalised gift wrapping. The design of the Citizen CLP 621 label printer lends itself especially well to printing on narrow-width media.
Citizen Systems Europe
Citizen Systems Europe operates from locations throughout Europe covering the EMEA region. It offers a wide range of printers for industrial, retail, healthcare and mobile applications specialising in label, barcode, portable and point-of-sale printers.
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