Pictured above: Label Apeel MD Stuart Kellock

Label Apeel, the Leicester based self-adhesive label specialist, has three reasons to celebrate after reporting a rapid 20 per cent growth in sales figures, successful growth in the beers, wines and spirits (BWS) market and an expansion of its operations into Europe.

The move into the new territory comes just two years after Label Apeel acquired competitor Label Studio, and is the result of ongoing negotiations with bottling plants and wineries in the highly-competitive German BWS sector.

According to managing director, Stuart Kellock, Label Apeel's accelerated growth is due in no small part to fast delivery. He says: "Our overseas clients have come to realise that we can deliver faster to them than even similar companies in their own country.

"Our free label design service offers added value, which is vital when dealing with breweries and micro breweries. We've also found clients are impressed by our ability to provide labelling solutions that help to sell and solve client problems rather than simply providing the cheapest labels."

Once such client is BBH, which hired Label Apeel to develop labels for its new Premium Mainstream 'NV Absinthe Verte' range. This has been launched in the EU and across the USA - winning a Gold Medal at the 2010 San Francisco World Spirit Competition.

Label Apeel's team helped to develop the artwork of each product into effective labels that will achieve strong shelf presence for the brands.

Label Apeel, which counts such household names as Tilda Rice and Premier Foods amongst its customers, is also set to capitalise on a surge in demand for its services by making substantial investments in state-of-the-art machinery to meet the demands of its new clients - a move which could lead to new jobs at its Murrayfield Road headquarters.

Kellock continues: "Historically, we've been very successful at helping our clients problem solve, and we are planning to roll this expertise out in the BWS market in Europe. Our free design service has proved exceptionally successful throughout the rest of our core markets, and we're already seeing the BWS market respond enthusiastically. 

"We're well set for further growth and expect that we will account for 10 per cent of the £3,500,000 microbrewery spend on self-adhesive labels by this time next year."