The Grass is Greener With Oki Printers in the Nursery

Greenfield Software Limited are market leading software developers and system suppliers to Garden Centres and Nurseries throughout the United Kingdom. Their products include the Horticultural Labelling System (HLS) range of labelling packages along with the Growmaster stock control and order processing system. These products are developed entirely "in-house" making Greenfield unique in the UK and enabling them to meet the needs of customers quickly and efficiently.

The Objective

Greenfield provides labelling services to a wide range of customers including Garden Centres and the Wholesale/Cash & Carry nursery trade. Their service comprises a whole IT system, including PC, printer, HLS labelling software, plant description database, labels and printer consumables, installation, and training and support depending on the specific requirement of the customer. With this system, the customer is able to print off a wide variety of plant labels, including self-ties, stick-ins, swing tags and bed cards, with names of plants, images, growing instructions etc, all provided as part of the software package.

Today's market research proves that colour labels sell plants but up until six years ago, labels were provided purely in black and white. The labels provided important information but had little visual impact.
The horticultural industry began to demand a colour solution.
Specific horticultural industry requirement for this kind of application meant that the research needed to be extensive - a number of requirements were addressed in depth.
• Firstly, the colour printer to be used would need to print on weatherproof micro-porous labels.
• Secondly it needed to be able to print on labels that are quite thick.
• Thirdly, the chosen printer wouldn't cost more than a thousand pounds (UK Sterling)."

A challenge was set!

The Solution
Early research showed that at that time there was nothing available that fitted all the specifications. However, conversations with label provider Floralabels led them into discussions with OKI Printing Solutions. Working together was key to success and after extensive research and trials, OKI and Floralabels were able to create a label that fulfilled all of Greenfield's requirements. The project was enhanced by OKI's helpful support and level of flexibility.

With the label material sorted, Greenfield then tested the OKI printer for PostScript compatibility.

The Results
Having met the required specification Greenfield now has a system that is regarded as being the best in the market. Customers are delighted with the new solution. Greenfields plant label database contains thousands of names, Latin names, instructions and pictures so users are able to simply download the images and print them off on their OKI printer.

So why did Greenfield choose OKI printers for Colour label printing?
Greenfield's sales director told us: "As well as the straight-through paper path which handles thicker media more comfortably, no other printer comes close to be able to do this in the way that the OKI can. Another success factor has been the duplex unit facility which enables customers to print on both sides of the label in a single pass through the printer: Our labels are supplied completely blank and most customers want to print on both sides. The unique combination of our software and the printer from OKI enables them to do this very easily."

Wholesale nursery customers have also found other ways to benefit from their OKI printers - as well as printing labels, they are using the OKI printer for other promotional applications, which include posters, marketing leaflets and even banners. Again, the quality of the output is outstanding.

The Greenfield solution has also provided its customers with extra revenue-earning opportunities. One customer reported that he had offered to print full colour labels for the plants he supplied to his customers - he commented that: "The revenue he generated from this label printing service paid for my labelling system within five months!"

The success enjoyed by Greenfield has enabled them to expand into other areas and they are now an OKI approved reseller, with ‘OKI Premier Partner' status into all markets, not just the horticultural market.

A strong relationship had developed between OKI Printing Solutions and both Greenfield and Floralabels. Indeed the labels are the only horticultural labels to be given full approval by OKI for use on their C5000 series of colour printers - Greenfield are very proud of this. An excellent solution has been developed for our customers.