Printer Profile: SinaLite – Part 1

SinaLite continues major client-driven expansion into label printing
Markham Ontario’s SinaLite (then Sina Printing) opened its doors about twenty years ago with a 2-colour press and a small storefront. Today, SinaLite has evolved into one of Canada’s leading trade printers with several digital and offset presses, a full bindery, a 100,000 sq. ft. production facility, and one of the industry’s most popular web-to-print portals – SinaLite.com. Driven by customer demand, it’s also established a solid reputation among print brokers, graphic designers, sign shops and label printers. Today, Sinalite.com is poised to be a leader in several key industry sectors – label printing being just one of them.
Labels cut into any shape – at no additional cost
Marketing research firm Smithers Pira revealed in a recent study that the 2017 label printing market worldwide is valued at about $35.7 billion and should grow by 4.4% a year, reaching $43.8 billion by 2022. Given this, it’s not surprising that SinaLite recently expanded its specialty Roll Label Division with new substrates and finishes to provide more cost-effective pricing and customization options for designers, printers and print brokers. In fact, 15 additional stocks have been introduced – including BOPP, polyester and paper labels – in addition to its finishing options of gloss and matte lamination and UV/matte varnish. Another huge customer benefit that is that SinaLite’s labels can be cut into any shape at no additional cost.

“Our goal at SinaLite is to help our customers grow their businesses and become more profitable,” said SinaLite VP of Marketing Brian Meshkati. “In the past year alone, we’ve made huge investments in the best label printing and finishing equipment. The result has been improved print quality and more economically priced products that our customers can resell at higher margins. In some cases, prices are up to 68% lower than in the past,” he added.
One of these investments includes the EFI Jetrion 4900M. This UV inkjet press has enabled SinaLite to produce short runs of a hundred labels or less – and pass the savings along to its clients. But it’s also enabled them to print jobs of 50,000-plus labels and still generate improved profit margins over traditional printing methods for its customers. Additional benefits include reduced turnaround times and the ability to print on pre-die-cut materials, thus greatly reducing the time between printing labels and shipping them out. SinaLite also utilizes the additional features of the 4900M – such as finishing, sheeting and lamination inline – on customer jobs based on their very specific demands. Another unique feature is its ability to print from 8.25” up to 13” in width, allowing SinaLite to further adapt quickly to changing customer demands.
More value for print brokers and printers

Now while all this is obviously important, at the end of the day it’s SinaLite’s overall value proposition that has made it so successful in this sector. “Labels are becoming an additional source of profits for printers and print brokers who may have been focusing solely on traditional print and signage,” said SinaLite President Mike Meshkati. “Also, our customers don’t need to make investments in label equipment, materials or maintenance. They simply go online and place their orders. The process is easy, instant quotes are generated, and printing is usually completed in one to two days. We even offer artwork guidelines,” he added. SinaLite currently has 19 stocks for a wide range of applications – including packaging, food labels, retail, beverage and more. It also offers value-added finishing options such as lamination and varnish.
“Before launching our expanded specialty label options, we spent six months on research and development, working with suppliers and vendors to make certain we’re running the right materials under the right conditions to ensure the highest quality and maximum profits,” said Meshkati. The bottom line is that SinaLite can now produce short runs that would otherwise be much more expensive using traditional flexo. This translates into significant time and cost savings and faster production times for its clients. Even its laser die-cutting means that SinaLite can cut to any label shape easily without additional plates or dies – so, as mentioned earlier, no additional costs are passed along to its customers.
In Part 2 next month, we’ll explore Sina’s expansion into signage and wide format printing.
For more information about the products, please visit here or call 1-866-899-2499. Request your free roll-label sample kit here.