Crane Consumables plans expansion after years of growth
Labels & Labeling
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Explore how Ohio-based Crane Consumables is steadily building and growing its niche market of blank labels for the value-added reseller network.
How many companies have culture officers? How many of those culture officers are canines? At Crane Consumables, three: Charlie Crane, Sherman Crane and Archie Crane. With tail wags, happy barks and even tricks for treats, the pups take their job very seriously.
The Cranes, father-and-son Rod Crane and Robert Crane , who helm the business, credit the pups with brightening faces and enlivening the workspace to support their high employee retention rate amid a nationwide labor crisis: over 50 percent of the workforce has been with the converter for over fi ve years.
Rod Crane understands the importance of company culture, as well as employee and customer satisfaction. He has built his company around three key principles: loyalty, integrity and gratitude.
History
Crane Consumables , a label manufacturer based in Monroe, Ohio, specializes in barcode labels for the value-added reseller (VAR) market.
Founded in 2007, the family-owned and operated converter has seen double-digit growth every year and currently has 60 employees. Soon after its founding, the company faced the Great Recession of 2008 but was able to absorb the hit and not only survive but grow.
Now the 40,000sqft facility near Cincinnati houses 15 flexo presses. The company has digital on its radar and plans to open a second facility in Q3 this year.
“I saw an opportunity to improve, to be a little more customer-responsive”
Founder Rod Crane hails from a business marketing background and previously worked in the labels division at Intermec, since acquired by Honeywell.
‘I saw an opportunity to improve, to be a little more customer-responsive,’ he says. ‘I got tired of building for the big guy, so decided to get it right and do it ourselves. We started from nothing to where we are today.’
He quickly realized the value of narrowing in on a niche market: blank labels for VARs, selling only through its cultivated channel partners.
‘Consumables are products you buy and use, and buy again,’ Rod Crane says. ‘That’s what I like about it – it’s a residual business. And if you do a good job and take care of your customers, they keep coming back.’
The converter’s forte is barcode labels, across a wide spectrum of products from car engines to cryogenic freezers and healthcare test tubes, offering next-day shipping on all stock products for clients looking for off-the-shelf label sizes.
The company’s portfolio includes thermal transfer labels, thermal transfer ribbons, direct thermal labels, polyester labels, polypropylene labels, flood-coated labels and barcodes as well as printing up to two colors.
The industry saw a boom in e-commerce when the pandemic shifted consumers’ purchasing patterns, and that demand is still going strong, according to Robert Crane: ‘Everyone’s going online to shop, and these trends haven’t changed.’
Automation
With a customer-centered mentality that ‘if you don’t win, we don’t win,’ Crane Consumables has focused on controlling costs through efficiencies driven by technology and automation.
In that vein, Robert Crane visited Labelexpo Americas 2022 and Labelexpo Europe 2023 in search of the latest automation trends.
Crane uses the latest automated scheduling tool from Label Traxx to sequence job tickets in the most efficient order.
The converter is also using AI to write marketing copy and to code building software for repetitive tasks, as well as to aggregate data and monitor inventory.
On the shop floor, the process has been ‘all but fully automated’, with two new turrets installed at the end of May.
The company has maximized the square footage of the current facility with 15 presses and is already planning a second facility.
Its 13 and 18in presses average about 300ft to 500ft/min. Its oldest machine, a 2007 Rotoflex DLI 330, also just got its second wind, thanks to the ingenuity of the Crane engineering group. It’s this creative culture that helps to fuel new ideas in the labeling business. Crane credits much of its success to creative employees who bring innovation to the company.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a big part of how Crane Consumables gives back. To date, about 98 percent of waste from manufacturing at the facility is recycled, from water-based inks to paper and matrix waste.
Every other week, a truckload of label matrix bales is picked up to be turned into fuel pellets and transported for recycling.
‘It is a big deal for us,’ Rod Crane says. ‘We didn’t wait for the industry; we’ve been recycling since 2010 because it is the right thing to do. Crane Consumables has been on the fast track for the last 18 years and we look forward to continued success in the years to come.’
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