The Latest In Printed Packaging

Vista Textures: Creative Coating Options

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:34:00 GMT

We have a new series, or better said, unlimited textured coating options that enhances the value added aspect to our client's paperboard packaging. We are calling it Vista Textures.

Vista Textures is the use of coating at its best. Although its clear, it works best in areas of omitted graphic, over solid inks, or on foil board where the textured image is most visible.

Many desirable textures, such as leatherette and linen, can easily be added during the in-line process without the expense of embossing dies, off-line processes, or long lead times for special stocks. You could have stars or flower textures to animal prints and columns with minimal effort!

Contact us for a swatch book!

Visiting Pulaski Plant

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:40:00 GMT

Visiting Pulaski, TN facility has been really enjoyable. The weather was great for our stay, not too warm and breezy and not humid. While here I got to see things I’ve only talked about, such as our pic-n-place machine, our new 40” eight color press, packaging Excellence awards from the Southern competition chapters, people I’ve only heard of and got to meet (who are super nice), and ate at a notorious fantastic rib joint in a gasoline station – which apparently is common around here.

Our Bert-Co facility here in Pulaski is actually a lot nicer than our LA plant. Its bigger and spacious, plus room for more inventory and paper stock. Plus they have the same capabilities as our LA plant, such as printing and gluing on various plastics, and also follow the same rigorous sustainable and quality plans. It’s also a clean shop, just like LA.

Just want to touch on the people again, not only were they genuinely nice, but really hard working and take pride for their work.

Thanks for a great trip BC Pulaski Team!

Sara

Upgraded Quality Status

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:44:00 GMT

Bert-Co follows international quality standards from ISO, which we get audited once a year to keep the certification for continuous improvements. Just recently, we have upgraded our status to ISO 9000:2008, which includes environmental, eco-friendly aspects to quality.

From our Quality Manager:
"The benefits of third-party certification will not happen overnight. Bert-Co knows it will happen over time, i.e. “crock-pot” process not a “micro-wave” process. This is a journey not a marathon.

When Bert-Co decided to become certified, it was simply because of its strong commitment to quality. This commitment is demonstrated day-in, day-out, where every employee seeks out to continually improve his/her process to enhance customer satisfaction."

Nicely put, thanks Arsenio!

Bert-Co Adds To Its Eco-Friendly Options by Now Being SFI Certified

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:28:00 GMT

Bert-Co has achieved chain-of-custody certification to the independent Sustainable Forestry Initiative^® (SFI^®) forest management standard on its paperboard offering, in both their Tennessee and California facilities.

“Achieving SFI chain-of-custody certification exemplifies Bert-Co’s passion for responsible forest management and its commitment to meet customer requirements in strengthening forest practices and fiber sourcing,” states Arsenio Tudtud, Director of Quality.

With more than 160 million acres certified across North America, the non-profit SFI sustainable forest certification program is one of the largest in the world, with a standard based on principles and measures that promote responsible environmental behavior and sound forest management including measures to protect water quality, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, species at risk and forests of exceptional conservation value.

As part of its certification, Bert-Co will be required to undergo annual surveillance audits as well as full certification to the SFI Standard every five years, conducted by an independent, accredited certification body. All audit reports are published on the SFI program website. Additionally, Bert-Co’s clients will be able to use the SFI logo on their packaging, which shows their contribution to eco-friendly practices.

SFI President states “At a time when just 10 per cent of the world’s forests are independently certified, Bert-Co joins a growing number of companies who have demonstrated their environmental commitment and leadership by certifying their lands to the SFI Standard.”

* * * * * * *
So why does Bert-Co have this chain-of-custody? Really and simply, to give our clients more eco-friendly paper options. SFI chain-of-custody ensures that the forests are being responsibly managed, which may be your first step to a more sustainable package, knowing where your paper source comes from. Some clients may like SFI paper because it compliments their color scheme of their packaging a bit better. When it comes to cost, SFI paperboard is comparable to regular paperboard that does not have chain-of-custody.

Whichever direction you choose for more sustainable packaging, here is our rule of thumb:
Make it smaller and make is lighter.

What being a G7 Master Printer means

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:36:00 GMT

G7 Master Printer for “Proof-to-Print” process. This means Bert-Co is now able to match up your color proof to our presses through-out our company, across different equipment and across different plants.

As you know chasing the proof on press has always been a problem. The “disconnect” between those producing proofs and those printing the final output has long been troublesome, not to mention time consuming and expensive. G7 was developed to bridge the final gap between prepress and printers so that the visual appearance of the proof can easily and reliably be reproduced on press.

Benefits to using G7 with our Presses:

G7 will help the Print Buyer because it allows you to maintain brand identity when buying printed material across different media types. This color management system ensures color consistency in your brand imaging from advertising, to sales collateral, to final packaging.

G7 benefits agencies and Pre-press service providers: It allows for the ability to match proofs on different proofing systems within the agency or Pre-press provider. Secondly it produces a proof that can be more easily matched on press, because both processes are calibrated.

G7 enables Printers to achieve a similar visual appearance across a broad range of printing types, which allows you to maintain brand identity no matter what type of print.

G7 technology uses spectrophotometric analysis of multi-gray scales to compare the natural curves of a press or proofing system to the ideal targets for that type of printing, and then corrects the curves to force the press to recreate the appearance of the image as closely as possible. With his system in place, it helps reduce pre-press time and improve efficiency. Few printers on the West Coast have this capability and we are happy to provide this improvement to you.