IPMA Report: Stuck on Sticker Success

The 2025 In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference in early June was a wealth of knowledge and networking opportunities for in-plants — plus a chance to celebrate and learn from each other’s successes.

Manager John D.L. Johnson (in front of a slide showing his appearance on IPI's cover) told IPMA attendees about his in-plant's journey into sticker printing.

Palm Beach County’s Graphics Division was one in-plant with many successes to share and celebrate; the shop won this year’s Larry Clements Video Award for a video highlighting the impact its sticker-printing business has had on its Florida county.

But first, some backstory. Because the Palm Beach County in-plant couldn’t do its sticker work on its offset press or digital toner devices, it had been outsourcing sticker printing. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the shop invested in a wide-format printer with built-in contour cutting to bring that work in-house. However, the team discovered that it still needed a table to cut and finish the labels.

Carlos Duenas and John D.L. Johnson related how Palm Beach County’s in-plant got into the sticker business.

“We realized that even though this could print labels, it just was not going to work for some of our larger production runs,” Manager John D.L. Johnson said during his IPMA session.

So, about a year and a half ago, the in-plant bought a Mark Andy Digital Pro 3, a flexo hybrid label printer. Carlos Duenas, assistant manager, said the in-plant has been able to “basically use any substrate” by using a flood of primer, as well as print reverse and double-sided stickers, on the machine.

Carlos Duenas and John D.L. Johnson

Duenas even noted that one person can easily run the printer on their own — and achieve high productivity at the same time. For instance, he said it now takes less than 12 minutes to print 10,000 IV-bag medication labels for the Fire Rescue department — the project featured in the award-winning video.

The Fire Rescue department is one of the shop’s frequent fliers, as are the Parks & Recreation department and the library, which hand out stickers to kids.

Johnson’s message for other in-plants?

“Build it and they will come,” he urged. “We had departments come to us that never ordered labels, ever — and now they're doing it all the time.”