Label consumer becomes Europe's largest producer
On a good day, Richard Rensen went to China to produce and sell labels. Six years later,
millions of stickers—now mostly printed—are shipped daily to addresses all over Europe
and even beyond from the 4,000 square meter building on Nijverheidstraat of The Label
Collective Group. “The counter is at around 30,000 customers, from a local snake
producer to the world’s largest condom manufacturer.”
Theo Wobben, who was hired by
Rensen as production manager in May of this year, explains that the entire ordering
process is done online. “But we are always available by phone if the customer has any
questions. We don’t care what we need to print on the labels or whether the runs are
large or small. It is possible to have the labels in-house within 24 hours, regardless
of the quantity.” For our Made in Haaksbergen series, we have ended up with a
Haaksbergen-based company active in the world of labels and tags. LabelDiscounter.com is
one part of the group, EtiketXL.nl is the other. “We started by selling blank dymo labels
in combination with printers,” says founder and director Richard Rensen.
Theo Wobben (left) and Richard Rensen of The Label Collective Group in Haaksbergen
Made in Haaksbergen
Haaksbergen has many companies that provide a wide range of unique products. In the
series 'Made in Haaksbergen,' these are put in the spotlight. “At some point, it became
clear that there was a whole market for printed labels. We delved into that two years
ago, and that part of the business has taken off enormously. You can’t imagine how many
different labels are printed. Nowadays, production companies easily order large
quantities of high-quality labels for their packaging online. And that will only
increase in the future.”
The idea to sell labels with accompanying printers came
about when Rensen had to purchase those stickers himself for his previous business. “We
had a pawn shop, and the used items we received needed to be labeled with a code. We
paid a fortune for those stickers annually. We left for China for two years and set up
LabelDiscounter.com there. Six years ago, we brought everything back here, and since
then, we’ve only been growing.” Where Rensen initially processed orders together with
his wife Elsbeth, The Label Collective Group now employs about twenty people. “The rapid
growth led us to move from our old address on Metaalstraat to this building a year ago.”
In the production hall, rolls of sticker paper measuring 2,000 meters are waiting to be cut.
There is a state-of-the-art press with a laser cutter, a machine of which there are only a few
in all of Europe. The same goes for the packaging line, which makes a custom box before printing
the address on the order to be shipped. Of course, with labels from our own kitchen.
The
future of Zolemba mainly involves increasing the speed of order flows. “There will come a time
when the customer orders online in the morning and has the order in-house by the afternoon.
Everything hinges on speed. It starts with your own logistics infrastructure. And we continue to
innovate, because in this industry, you can still reinvent the wheel.”