From Zero to 40 Percent: How Labelnet Built a Digital Label Business on Domino Presses

Every converter that made the leap into digital has a story about the moment the economics flipped. For Labelnet, the UK manufacturer of self-adhesive labels, tickets and tags, that story has a clear arc: from zero digital production in 2020 to roughly 40 percent of total output today – and a brand-new high-performance press to push the share higher.

Flexo first, digital by demand

Labelnet spent more than 25 years as a dedicated flexographic printer. The pivot began in 2020, when the company invested in a Domino N610i digital label press after identifying growing demand for shorter-run, faster-turnaround work – demand that flexo, for all its efficiency on long runs, was structurally positioned to leave on the table. “Introducing the first Domino machine in 2020, we were able to really change our business quite drastically,” recalls Rob Lorkins, Managing Director of Labelnet. “We quickly branched out, bringing studio work in-house and a new set of skills and expertise into the business. It’s a great operational benefit for us to have that flexibility, and we’re able to adapt to customer requirements on the spot.” The numbers tell the transformation story better than any strategy deck. Turnaround times that once stretched to weeks collapsed to days – sometimes hours. The added capacity carried the company beyond its food-label heartland into chemical and beverage sectors, and broadened its production range to include embellished, foiled, variable data and multi-layer labels: categories that sit at the premium end of label work.

Recognition and reinvestment

The hybrid approach – digital print engines combined with flexographic finishing – earned industry recognition in 2025, when Labelnet’s “Noah Knows Best” peel-and-reveal beer label for Hackney Church Brewery won the Digital Labels & Packaging “Excellence with Hybrid Printing” Award. Peel-and-reveal constructions are exactly the kind of multi-layer, finishing-intensive work that rewards a converter fluent in both worlds. Going digital also reshaped the workforce. “We’ve brought in a lot of younger people who have adapted to the technology very quickly, and we feel like that trend will continue,” Lorkins notes – a reminder that digital adoption is as much a talent strategy as a technology one, drawing in operators whose instincts were formed around files, not plates.

The second press: N730i

Facing continued growth in demand for high-quality digitally printed labels, Labelnet has now installed a second Domino press: the N730i, which brings high-resolution printing at up to 1200dpi and production speeds of up to 90 metres per minute. Real-time inline raster image processing on the press’s Sunrise DFE processes artwork files – including variable data jobs – as they print, cutting pre-processing and minimising idle time between runs. The 1200dpi resolution is not a spec-sheet vanity figure. It unlocks finer text, smoother gradients and crisper barcodes – capabilities that matter disproportionately in Labelnet’s target sectors, where pharmaceutical-adjacent work, premium beverages and detailed chemical labelling all punish visible dot structure. Combined with inline RIP, the press converts short, complicated jobs from margin risk into routine business. Craig Clawson, Sales Manager at Domino Printing Sciences, framed the sale as a validation: “Labelnet’s investment in a second Domino press reflects the success it has achieved since embracing digital production. With the speed and 1200dpi print quality of the N730i, the company is well positioned to support continued growth, faster turnaround times, and new application opportunities.”

The hybrid playbook

Labelnet’s trajectory offers a template for mid-size flexo houses weighing the same decision. The sequence matters: enter digital where demand is provably short-run, build in-house studio capability so files arrive production-ready, let the digital engine absorb the work flexo handles badly, and reinvest only once the first press has demonstrated its numbers. At 40 percent digital output within five years, Labelnet’s figures suggest the model compounds rather than cannibalises. The company’s willingness to combine digital printing with flexographic finishing processes – rather than treating the technologies as rivals – has been central. Hybrid workflows let converters take digital’s speed and versioning freedom while retaining the embossing, foiling and die-cutting arsenal that premium labels demand. For Labelnet’s customers, the practical outcome is simple: shorter runs without penalty, faster proofs to shelf, and a supplier who can pivot between conventional and digital economics job by job. For the UK label sector, it is another signal that the digital share of label volume is still climbing – and that the converters capturing it are the ones who treat the first digital press as the beginning of a build-out, not an experiment.

What it means for label buyers

For brands sourcing labels in the UK, the expansion of digital capacity at converters like Labelnet changes the procurement calculus. Minimum order quantities that once forced startups and seasonal products into excess inventory are falling away, and versioned artwork – regional variants, promotional flashes, limited editions – becomes affordable at quantities that were previously uneconomic. Variable data capability adds serialization and promotional codes without slowing the line. The second press also de-risks supply: with two Domino engines on site, turnaround commitments survive a maintenance window, which is precisely the reliability question brand procurement teams ask first.

Source: Domino Printing Sciences via WhatTheyThink (whattheythink.com).