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2025 – What a Year!.
During the course of 2025, you might have noticed us using the phrase ‘make every moment matter.’ Why? Because we know that time is money and our customers rely on us to turn round their orders as quickly and accurately as possible.
We began 2025 with the shortest lead times in our sector, and we’re ending the year able to make exactly the same statement. We haven’t just kept the status quo, however – far from it! We have constantly looked for ways to maximize efficiency and reduce operational waste to offer a faster, more agile, and more responsive service than ever. As a result, we’re ending 2025 with average lead times of just 4.1 days, with 99.6% of orders fulfilled in full, 94.5% delivered on time (including urgent requests), and 65.3% actually delivered early.
Investing to deliver value
At the start of the year, we were already the fastest and most cost-effective label print partner in the USA. So why did we invest in going further and doing better? Because better than the rest is not the same as the best that you can be. Our customers were facing tough operational and financial challenges and we knew that we could keep improving our service to make their lives easier.
We’ve done that in several ways:
1. Investment in new machines & equipment
Over the course of 2025, we’ve added a second Ravenwood Com 500 Coater, making us the only label printer in the US to deploy two of these machines simultaneously.
We’ve also updated our plate room with next generation kit and automation, including flexo plate equipment and software from Esko, which has been designed to streamline workflows, amplify throughput, reduce costs, and drive efficiency.
And we’ve added a fully automated core cutting machine, enabling us to produce bespoke core sizes in-house – another marginal gain to help us maximize efficiency and keep pricing as low as possible.
2. Adoption of advanced technology
We have leveraged technology to drive efficiency and quality since day one, but this year we’ve supercharged that focus on embedding tech to deliver advantages for our business and our customers. We are using AI across our business to ensure the data at our fingertips works as hard as possible to deliver efficiency. For example, we’re using AI to calculate the most efficient plate layouts, saving time, avoiding waste, and reducing cost.
The Crystal system we created to give us real-time insight into every aspect of our operations, is now not only a tool that our customers can use to access data from our secure portal; it’s also an app. We launched Crystal + this year to enable our customers to scan incoming and outgoing consignments, check stock, place and modify orders, and use all the order tracking and reporting functions of their Crystal dashboard on the go from their cell phone or mobile device.
3. Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)
We’ve also introduced our VMI program over the past year, to make life easier for customers, help them free-up cash flow, and access an agile, just in-time approach to managing their inventory.
By managing stock in our warehouse and at our customers’ sites, we are enabling customers to draw down stock – and pay for it! – on an as needed basis, with daily, weekly or bi-weekly deliveries as required. Using our Crystal+ app and secure Crystal portal, which is updated four times a day, customers can scan items out on an as needed basis and access live data on stock levels, usage, and replenishment print runs.
4. The right people in the right roles
We’ve also invested in our team this year, with a number of key appointments in new roles that have ensured we have the right expertise and customer support in place to maintain service levels and add value as we grow.
Landmark additions to the team have included Suzanne Bowden, our Chief Client Officer, who is responsible for ensuring optimized customer relationships. Her remit includes understanding the cadence of each individual customer so that we can truly add value and make a difference to their business.
Darren Wardman’s appointment to the post of Technical Operations Engineer has been another key addition to the team over the past year. Darren brought with him more than 20 years’ experience at Ravenwood when he joined us, with a remit to maintain our machines and ensure we’re always running at optimum efficiency. He also provides a field engineer service for our customers across the USA to help them maximize productivity and avoid downtime too.
These are just two of the talented people we’ve hired this year, and we are continuing to build, and develop our team, nurturing a can-do culture.
5. Refreshing our brand
With so much happening within our business over the past year, we’ve also updated how we talk about what we do. We’ve matured from an ambitious start-up on a mission to disrupt the labels sector, into a mature business that is focused on supporting our customers by shaping our services around their commercial and operational needs.
‘Make every moment matter’ is more than a strapline to us – it’s our passion. In an environment where customers are struggling to manage costs and achieve predictability in their businesses, we’ve been working hard to minimize the potential of every moment to keep costs as low as possible and provide a reliable, agile, responsive service. We’ve had a really positive response to our new visual identity and the language we’re using to articulate why we are different, and our customers know that it’s much more than the right words and eye-catching images – it’s our commitment to making a difference.
Remaining focused
As 2025 draws to a close, we’re proud to be able to say that we’ve made a difference to some of our customers over the past year, by understanding what they needed and moving heaven and earth to make it happen. But there is more to come. Just as one year inevitably rolls forward to the next, challenges and commercial decisions will roll over with it.
We may have no Crystal ball for 2026, but we do have the foresight to know that our approach of pushing our business to deliver more of what matters to our customers results in the value, efficiency and flexibility that continues to set us apart.