OKI Delivers Pro1040 Desktop Color LED Label Printer to Craft Brewery for Producing Bottled Beer Labels

- Supporting Hamamatsu Act Beer’s first sales of bottled beers -

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OKI Data, the OKI Group’s printer company, today announced the delivery of a Pro1040 desktop color LED label printer to Hamamatsu Act Beer Corporation, a craft brewery. Using the Pro1040 to produce labels for its beer bottles, Hamamatsu Act Beer launched its first retail sales of bottled beers in November.

Hamamatsu Act Beer operates the Mein Schloss craft beer restaurant in the city of Hamamatsu. In January 2019, Frisch Pils, a kind of craft beer on its menu, won second prize in the pilsner division of the Japan Brewers Cup craft beer exposition in Yokohama. Subsequently, the brewery took up the challenge of launching retail sales of bottled beers for the first time, based on the idea that highlighting this award-winning beer to draw more visitors to an outstanding local brewery in Hamamatsu would contribute to making the city more popular.

Hamamatsu Act Beer currently brews four kinds of craft beers besides Frisch Pils. Since the brewery wanted to produce a wide range of labels for its products based on customer demand—something it felt couldn’t be done by subcontracting—it considered purchasing a label printer to print the labels in-house. The labels produced by inkjet printers pose the issue of ink bleed due to the condensation generated when cooled bottles are subjected to room temperature, while labels produced by thermal printers tend to darken due to friction between bottles. The brewery adopted OKI Data’s Pro1040 desktop color LED label printer, which delivers a solution to both problems.

The Pro1040 applies a toner method that results in labels characterized by high weather, water, and abrasion resistance. In addition, by allowing printing on a wide range of adhesive roll labels based on the media such as synthetic paper and transparent film (PET) used for labels, the Pro1040 permits printing without the heat-sensitive paper associated with darkening. Another major advantage of adopting this printer is the ability to print specific quantities as needed, unlike the case of outsourcing to a printing company.

After adopting this label printer, Hamamatsu Act Beer will take advantage of its benefits for small-lot printing to move on to new challenges—for example, handling orders for bottled beers with original labels for specific occasions, including special Father’s Day and wedding ceremony beer labels. “Using our unique LED printer technologies,” said OKI Data President Hatano, “we’ll continue to solve various real-world issues and support companies that take on new challenges.”