From the garage to the cowshed – and why that was just the beginning

There’s the official version: “Founded in 2003, steady growth, now a leading supplier of labels and flexible packaging.”

And then there’s the real story.

I’ll tell you that one myself. It starts with an Amiga 500.

Nights spent at the print shop, back at school early

I’m a graphic designer, a media designer – whatever you want to call it. Even as a child, after I’d pestered him relentlessly, my dad bought me an Amiga 500 (with a 2 MB memory upgrade for 1,000 marks!). My mum then grumbled: “He’ll end up with square eyes.” She wasn’t entirely wrong – at the very least, they haven’t got any better.

In the mid-90s, I had one of the first websites in our legendary district of Wunsiedel. One night, a former Wunsiedel resident from Houston wrote to me: “Finally, someone from Wunsiedel is online”.

A summer job at the porcelain factory wasn’t for me – after the first day of nine hours of piecework, I handed in my notice! I immediately started working for a family friend in Frankfurt’s Bergen-Enkheim district, doing lithography and assembling films for various catalogues. Word quickly spread about my workflow, which involved using the imagesetter, the chemical developing machine and manual assembly all at the same time. After two weeks and a Baumann in-house exhibition in Offenbach, I’d caught the graphic design bug.

Then, through the school newspaper – which I typeset professionally in MS Word – I ended up at the Späthling print shop in Weißenstadt. Afternoons, evenings, nights in pre-press, and back to school early in the morning. I had to repeat Year 12 because of this (I didn’t have time) and can therefore say that I am one of the few who has produced two school leavers’ magazines. Back then, I was still using my beloved QuarkXPress 3.32.

And so it went on. An apprenticeship without attending school (back then there were no computers at the vocational college, so what would I have done there anyway?) – interrupted by my time in the German Armed Forces, because a school-leaving certificate counts as a completed apprenticeship – and then my apprenticeship trade no longer existed... I was still allowed to sit the final exam and am something of a rarity: the last advertising and media layout designer in Bavaria (after that, it was the media designer... with a computer).

In 2003, I went freelance. Biohealth in Münchberg needed me as a freelance graphic designer, whilst at the same time I was setting up my own business with Böhm + Partner in Lauf... Letterheads, business cards, image brochures (back in the day), folding boxes, labels, books, children’s books, museum catalogues, adult education centre programmes, labels, labels, websites, order forms, labels, labels, labels... but:

The real problem was: nobody wanted me

So: Nobody wanted my orders... I designed labels for my customers and then realised I had to order them from somewhere. Sounds simple. But it wasn’t. Because they had to be on a roll so we could label automatically. The first inkjet direct printers were rubbish. So off I went in search of a solution:

Found the first partner: ordered 500, 100 were missing – reprint. Ordered 800, 300 were missing... “Stop with the small-scale nonsense!” Then 3,000 again – that was OK. The next 500 – and there was trouble again. At some point, the suppliers simply didn’t want me anymore. Too small-scale, too much hassle – and on top of that, on time...

So in 2013 came the next step: our first in-house “printing press”. A modified Epson office printer. Output: 60 centimetres per minute – in the end, three of them were running round the clock.

The garage

Before that – back in 2007 – we made our dream of owning a house come true. At the time, I thought I’d spend my whole life working as a graphic designer on my own – so a small double garage next door would do just fine as an office. It would last forever and ever... or so I thought.

It wasn’t.

At first, it was just the garage. Then the loft was added. At some point, we sawed off the table legs so the tables would fit under the sloping roof. Then there were two printers stacked on top of each other: at a height of 2.50 metres. Four people worked up there in the summer. For nine months.

The output per cubic metre was probably higher back then than it is today.

The cowshed

Construction of the printing plant was actually supposed to start now. So: buy the plot of land. But the farmer who owned it wasn’t keen. Instead, he suggested: “I’ve got a cow shed that’s come free. The cows have moved out; I’ve switched to biogas. I’ll convert it for you.”

Long story short: in 2015, we moved into a converted cowshed in the Fichtelgebirge.

Back then, we were still called Labels24. A name that hardly anyone knows today. And to be honest: that’s just as well. In 2019, we rebranded ourselves as the Labelisten. Not because we were embarrassed by the old name, but because at some point we knew exactly who we were and how we wanted to present ourselves.

What has happened since then

We’ve grown a bit.

From 38 to 52 to 73 to 85 to 95 Labelisten. We roughly double in size every two years. Not because we planned it that way. To be honest, I’m not much of a planner. But we just keep on producing, and the orders keep coming in.

There’s no longer a combine harvester standing next to our printing presses. Instead, we’ve taken over a former metalworking business in the neighbouring village of Thiersheim, renovated it and expanded it into a second production facility covering around 2,000 square metres. That’s where the packaging is based. The labels are still in the cowshed – now with an HP Indigo V12 and its two ‘little’ sisters – the 6Ks.

The garage has turned into a small factory.

So, what are we actually doing today?

We produce labels and flexible packaging. But actually, we’re solving a completely different problem: our customers often don’t need large print runs, but rather small to medium quantities – quickly, flexibly and without any fuss.

That’s exactly where we come in. We know the problem because we’ve faced it ourselves.

That’s why we’ve set things up differently: with our own production rather than outsourcing, fast response times and the ability to produce even smaller runs cost-effectively.

We don’t do this because it sounds good. We do it because it was the only solution for us.

That is what we stand for

We didn’t come into being because someone had a perfect business plan. We came into being because something wasn’t working.

And because we reject the idea that ordering in bulk equals a lower unit price. We produce exactly the amount that’s needed – which may be a tad more expensive, but it means we don’t have to throw so much away.

We’re constantly evolving. If a process isn’t working, we make it work. Not at some point in the future, but right now.

We work without minimum order quantities because we know that many projects fail precisely because of this. We react quickly because things often need to happen fast. And we manage our own production because we want to remain independent.

We don’t grow because we want to grow, but because our customers keep coming back. And because projects turn into partnerships.

So what now?

Employee No. 1 is still on board. The garage is still there. So is the cowshed. It’s just that what goes on inside has changed a bit.

And to be perfectly honest: we’re far from finished.

Welcome to the Labelists.
We’re delighted that you’ve found us.
And if you’re delighted too, then we’ve achieved our goal.