About

At the start of the year we were awarded a Bronze Medal from EcoVadis, further recognising our company-wide commitment to sustainability and corporate social responsibility. We are currently in the top 35% of print companies when it comes to our environmental and social governance. Mid-way through the year Soabar invested in Peel and Reveal technology, allowing our customers to order multi-layered labels for their products.

Work began and was completed on the building extension at the Whetstone site, adding roughly 4,000 square feet to our factory and production space. Alongside this expansion, changes were also made to our workflow processes as company-wide, we adopted Cloud Flow. Processes were optimised and the volume of work that we could take on increased significantly, thanks to both physical and technological change. In November, Soabar achievedaFSC® (Forest Stewardship Council®) Chain of Custody Certification (C208984), emphasising our dedication to promoting sustainability and responsible sourcing practices.

Upgrades were made to our Konica Minolta and ABG Digiseries presses, as simultaneously we invested in Bobst Mouvent digital inkjet technology. This allowed us to run orders at speeds of up to 100m per minute, significantly increasing output and the quality of print we were able to offer our customers.

Soabar’s internal computer system was upgraded to Label Traxx, an all-encompassing job management system for our label printers. Order processing and production speeds increased significantly, and printing results were more precise and reliable.

Upgrades were made to the Konica Minolta machines just before the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the globe. The reliance of these presses allowed Soabar to carry on printing pharmaceutical labels throughout the pandemic, for use in medical facilities and hospitals up and down the country.

Digital label printing arrived on the scene and Soabar had to move fast to adopt this new technology. We became the second company in the country to invest in Konica Minolta’s Bizhub as part of their CF71 Digital Press, and the popular ABG Digilite 3 Series became part of the factory furniture. This allowed us to take on short run work that could be printed at high speeds and meant that we could offer our customers a fully finished printed label that could go straight onto their products.

Phil Achurch became Managing Director of the company and took it from strength to strength. Large investment was made in our Flexographic Printing Presses and allowed the Soabar to remain competitive in the industry, as technology continuously advanced.

Soabar’s printing services were drawn upon following the tragedy of the Buncefield fire which occurred on 11th December 2005. This was our first large-volume work for company Autoglym, and solidified Soabar as being able to offer more than label embellishment. We could print more information onto labels and provide customers with the ‘whole package’ for their labelling needs.

Thanks to a timely investment in the Omega Turret machines back in 1999, Soabar began to reach national markets and become a common-place name in the print industry. We won business with Republic Clothing which demanded some printing to be outsourced to Dalian in China, where a large chunk of the company’s clothing production was based at the time.

More investment was made in an 8 colour, reverse print Ko-Pack printer that expanded our market reach further. Businesses in the apparel and textile industries remained our key customers, but slowly we could take on new work in different sectors such as food and beverage, thanks to our enhanced print capabilities.

Soabar diversified business as the demand for labels from the apparel industry began to decline. Our engineers curated Soabar’s own range of desktop label printers, and equipment began being sent to customers in the city. The business invested in two the state-of-the-art Ko-Pack machines which are letter press printers that remain operational to this day. They offer quick set-up times, print crisp, high quality labels and for the first time, we could print self-adhesive labels for our customers.

The successful print company, Sessions of York, took over the business and Soabar separated from Avery. Card and satin labels were the main goods sold by Soabar, retaining the company’s strong links with the textile and garment industries.

Soabar relocated just 13 miles down the road to Whetstone, a village in South Leicestershire, where it remains today. Just 7 people worked in the new factory space, and the company’s associations with Avery Dennison remained strong.

The port city of Plymouth became the first place to welcome Soabar to the UK print market. Shortly after this in 1973, the business was relocated to Ibstock in Leicestershire, largely to serve to booming hosiery manufacturers in the city.

Soabar was taken over by the well-known global print company, Avery Dennison. Business began to grow at a considerable speed in the textile and garment industry.

Soabar was founded in Philadelphia, USA. Bars of fabric were sewn into the uniforms of serving soldiers to ensure colour consistency across clothing garments. From this innovation, the name Soabar (‘sew a bar’ of fabric) was born.